Scotland, 2025

Where Arts Funding looks more like a Lidl shopping bag in a campervan than a functioning democracy.

Let’s talk about cronyism, corruption, and the shiny new Book Festival Nicola bought for herself.

Part II

The term 'Nicola' by the way, refers to

1/ her good self and her glove puppet, John Swinney.

Let’s start with this:

Pitlochry Festival Theatre is doing just fine.

Why? Because it’s fronted by Nicola Sturgeon’s bestie, Alan Cumming, the court jester of woke Scotland.

2/

The Edinburgh International Book Festival: From Cronyism to State-Sponsored Propaganda

When the state owns the stage, the soul of art walks away.

Welcome to the 2025 Edinburgh Book Festival where cronyism has turned into taxpayer-funded propaganda.

1/10 🧵 This year, the festival lost its main sponsor @BaillieGifford and most of it's other business sponsors

Why?

Activist pressure and the a haughty contempt for business from the arts establishment elite

The government jumped in with £300,000 of public money to “save” it.

2/10

I've been advised to revise my previous account of what's happening in female prisons around Scotland because I accidentally mis-gendered and mis-quoted James Morton.

So here it is, once again, and this time, I've added some extra shocking elements

1/🧵 for the re-readers ;)

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Shall we talk about the one woman in prison in Scotland who shares a cell with a man?

She identifies as trans. That is why she is there.

She has long blond hair and is a mother.

They say she decided to 'identify as a man' so that she

2/

Let's go, people! It's time to TERF it up again!

These fkrs think they can throw ONLY violent men out of women's prisons.

But we won't stop until ALL MEN are out!

When the overwhelming majority of rapes and sexual offences go under-reported and unprosecuted, we

1/ 🧵

https://twitter.com/ForWomenScot/status/1620114078265143298

SHALL NOT BE MOVED!

If a guy who pretends he's a woman goes into a female jail for unpaid fines and he previously assaulted WOMEN via domestic violence or child molestation, that WONT be taken into consideration.

They think we're zipped up the back!

2/

Here's the Scottish Prison Service's "360 degree robust risk assessment" that allows violent and dangerous men into female prisons.

Many thanks to @AlessandraAster @mbmpolicy & @NoXYinXXprisons for YEARS OF WORK to uncover this edifice of INSTITUTIONAL misogyny

1/ 🧵 There has been ZERO mention of "sex" which is in breach of the Equality Act 2010. All impact assessments must take into consideration the impact on "sex."

2/

His Excellency, Keith Brown says

"The GRR bill was passed by democratically by the Scottish Parliament. It is not Nicola Sturgeon's bill, it's not my bill, it is not the SNP's bill. It was a bill passed by parties in the Scottish Parliament," he said.

1/🧵 But we now know it was based on false representations to the Scottish Parliament! That the Scottish Prison Service had a Trans Policy and Risk Assessment that took into consideration the impact on women.

Produce that Impact Assessment and each one since 2007 or resign!

2/

When the Scottish Prison Service do their "thorough risk assessment" on male trans people to decide if they should be housed in the female estate, they DO NOT take into consideration any of the following:

1/ 🧵 - Male genitalia
- Previous sex crimes
- Registered sex offender
- Convicted pedophile
- Criminal Justice Onset Gender Dysphoria (suddenly identify as a woman when arrested to engender a more positive experience)
- History of domestic violence
- Any hormones, surgery

2/

The number of trans people in Scottish prisons varies between 10 and 30. The latest stats from Q2 2022 suggest 15 but it changes daily. It could be a lot more.

- "7092 people identified themselves as men"
- "280 people identified themselves as women"

1/ 🧵 - "Tran’s men comprised 0.05%"
- "Trans women comprised 0.15%"
- "Non-binary and gender-fluid comprised together 0.04%"

The language is very revealing.

"People who identify as men or women" v "Trans women" - how very peculiar.

Plus they can't spell trans men correctly.

2/

Scottish Prison Service Risk Assessment Panel (scenario):

- This one is a rapist and says he's a woman. Shall we let him in the female prison? Yes
- This one is a child molester and says he's a woman. Shall we let him in the female prison? Yes
- This one is such

1/ 🧵 a dangerous murderer we cannot possibly let him out of prison even though he's finished his sentence and he says he's a woman. Shall we let him in the female prison? Yes
- This one has threatened to punch women in the throat in other prisons and he says he's a woman. Shall

2/

Let's chat about the type of men who are in women's prisons in Scotland, shall we? Let's call it Dregs Story Hour!

Take Sophie Eastwood. He has already finished a life sentence in prison for murder but the Scottish Prison Service won't release him cos he's too dangerous.

1/ 🧵 Way back in 2018, Sophie formed a relationship with another male trans murderer in the women's wing of Greenock prison which involved "so much public intimacy" that the prisoners and guards were disgusted, complained and they were then split up.

Time to put him into

2/

The Scottish Prison Service and the Scottish government are operating illegally.

The UN Standard Minimum for the Treatment of Prisoners (Mandela Rules) state

“Men and women shall be detained in separate institutions; in an institution which receives both men

1/ 🧵 and women, the whole of the premises allocated to women shall be entirely separate”.

The Mandela rules do not make mention of trans people.

The UN Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules)

2/