Thread by @ForWomenScot

🧵FRANKLY, yesterday’s woman, the former FM who left office in a miasma of her own (and her hubby’s) making is getting far too much attention. But there is some revisionism that is just too egregious to ignore. Especially as she has a platform denied to us.

If Sturgeon really thinks Oct 22 was the point the debate became “toxic” & hope of “common ground” disappeared, we wonder if she was drunk or in a coma for half a decade? Otherwise how to account for such wilful blindness?
thetimes.com/article/291601…

Clearly, the shirt hit a nerve, “it seems blindingly obvious that a stunt like that was never going to elevate the debate or illuminate the issues at the heart of it.” But Sturgeon wasn’t interested in debate. Her zealotry made Thatcher’s commitment to the Poll Tax look measured.

She has disappeared into a hubristic fantasy of her own inviolability and righteousness which is as ridiculous as it is insulting. Worry not, we have the receipts!

Late 22 saw last ditch attempts by campaigners, after years of vilification, to have concerns taken seriously before the Bill came to Parl. Our huge event was supported by many former & current MSPs with a typically passionate speech by @JohannLamont
forwomen.scot/08/10/2022/wom…

It didn’t come out of nowhere. In Sep 19, Sturgeon said at the UN that women’s concerns were “misplaced”. We wrote, asking her for a meeting. Naturally, she wouldn't give us the time of day.

When she refused, we asked Shirley Ann Somerville - several times - she also refused. We also asked if they would consider attempting to ensure a respectful discussion and avoid the issues that marred previous meetings.
forwomen.scot/17/09/2019/con…

Sturgeon now claims that she didn’t think @jk_rowling would be up for debating her. We were, but perhaps we weren't high profile enough. Were campaigners like FWS, members of her own NEC & her own parliamentarians (like @AshReganMSP), below her touch?

https://x.com/heraldscotland/status/1955171589567205470

@CallieMac009 wrote an account of Sturgeon's stewardship of the SNP in WWWW. She recalls a letter written in 2020 which she “naively” thought the leader would not ignore. Later, she realised that “naked intimidation” was not just tolerated but encouraged.

https://x.com/LucyHunterB/status/1954690183368208872

The previous meeting we referred to in our letter was in Jan 2019. We wrote about it here:
Protesters outside the venue included “Cathy” who said that we should be “made afraid & silenced by force”. For us, it seemed quite toxic then!

https://x.com/ForWomenScot/status/1277707915600826369

Yet, this was small beer compared to the event at Edinburgh University later that year. Speakers said they had never encountered such security which was more akin to that in place for visiting heads of state. Claire Heuchan recalls (in WWWW) the anxiety made her physically sick.

Of course, the lovely “Cathy” popped up & assaulted @bindelj. Another large man who had threatened to “throat punch” FWS was outside protesting. Sturgeon is upset she was called “destroyer of women’s rights” in 2022. We were worried about being killed.

https://x.com/ForWomenScot/status/1277710896161263617

In Sep 2021 we had a protest at Parliament. Our chants were so loud that they were heard in the chamber during FMQs. It was covered extensively in the press, but perhaps Ms Sturgeon didn’t read the papers.
forwomen.scot/04/09/2021/wom…

She was certainly made aware of it by @murdo_fraser who said that he had gone out to the protest and met women concerned about GRR. Sturgeon started shouting either “shame on you” or “shame on them” (it’s contested) at him.

https://x.com/murdo_fraser/status/1435673691967340545

Some of her closest allies then began to spread malicious smears about the demo. Mhairi Hunter, her former campaign manager, took to Twitter to claim that a fascist group had announced their intention to attend our protest in support. Of course, it was wholly without foundation.

Even after she was shown evidence to disprove it, she refused to retract. And other, large follower accounts joined in.

What does Sturgeon think this did to our fears for our safety or to our mental health?

https://x.com/ForWomenScot/status/1433793704037437490

Karen Adam, later to sit on the committee examining GRR, jumped on the bandwagon to make the protest all about her and paint the women as feral monsters.

https://x.com/ForWomenScot/status/1433707692166631430

Some of the nastiest accounts on the internet gleefully seized on the opportunity to be abusive.

https://x.com/ForWomenScot/status/1434255093499576320

Let's not forget that Sturgeon happily jumped into bed with Patrick Harvie despite the toxic & intemperate language he used about fellow MSPs - not least, @JoanMcAlpine & @JohannLamont

So much for supporting women over abusive men!

https://x.com/ForWomenScot/status/1694318112835805277

Harvie’s language during the Hate Crime debate was especially nasty. We complained several times about the Greens.

Sturgeon, of course, was begging her own SNP bullies not to leave the party in her famous broom-cupboard address.

https://x.com/ForWomenScot/status/1502966381268156416

We don't discount the possibility that Sturgeon got threats - it would, sadly, be unusual if she didn’t. But we would have more sympathy had she ever attempted to deal with the situation in the SNP and the appalling targeting of @joannaccherry
news.sky.com/story/snp-accu…

It was happening under her nose. So either she was lumpenly unintelligent and unaware (so much for the famed emotional intelligence!), she didn’t care, or she saw and approved.

She makes large claims about her commitment to women’s rights. But Sturgeon has never done much for women - especially those she worked with. Her "feminism" is largely centered on herself.

https://x.com/cyrilmitchell23/status/1955158284970741833

Sturgeon repeats her risible claim that we are “standing alongside” Trump, Putin & Orbán. This is the juvenile argument we call "vegetarians are all Hitler”. I imagine she stands with them on gravity. Unless she thinks we are bobbing along hitting our heads off the rainbow.

Naturally, she can’t resist more underhanded attempts to attack women’s rights activists:
“The tactics deployed by some, however sincere their views might have been, suggested there was another agenda at work.”
What tactics? What agenda? Spell it out!

Sturgeon is touring the radio stations, she has a book, publicity, and a huge advance. She is not the David in this fight. If anyone would like the full FWS version, we are more than open to bashing out a book for a lot less. It will also be far more entertaining!