Post AU3aLdbXz12IWSiO36 by Tattie@mastodon.scot
 (DIR) More posts by Tattie@mastodon.scot
 (DIR) Post #AU3aLcMyZhmogytEhM by Tattie@mastodon.scot
       2023-03-27T15:21:59Z
       
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       So what the heck just happened in Scotland? A summary for the befuddled:The main political party, the SNP, just elected their new leader and the person who will no doubt become the next First Minister. It was... a weird election. We had basically a decently leftish liberal candidate, a fundamentalist Christian, and a TERF. Yes, I repeat, this is all from the same party.
       
 (DIR) Post #AU3aLd2o4BFMmiSdto by Tattie@mastodon.scot
       2023-03-27T15:22:28Z
       
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       Trans rights were much debated, because Scotland just passed a bill allowing trans people to change their birth certificates without a lengthy bureaucratic process, which the UK government promptly blocked. The liberal candidate promised to fight them on this, the others, fairly predictably, did not.
       
 (DIR) Post #AU3aLdbXz12IWSiO36 by Tattie@mastodon.scot
       2023-03-27T15:23:05Z
       
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       Another big topic was reproductive rights, as the government had recently promised "buffer zones" keeping protestors away from clinics providing abortion services. The fundie used suspiciously vague language whenever this came up. Also, she let slip that she would have voted against gay marriage, had she been in a position to vote at the time.
       
 (DIR) Post #AU3aLe7o34qA8Vo9Ka by Tattie@mastodon.scot
       2023-03-27T15:23:25Z
       
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       The outcome of the vote was far too close to comfort. The TERF proved herself generally unpopular, getting only 11% of first preference votes. The fundie did well enough, shamefully for Scotland, to push it to second preferences.So how many of those TERF first-preference voters do you reckon put as their second preference the pro-choice, pro-LGBT candidate? And how many voted for the pro-life anti-LGBT one?
       
 (DIR) Post #AU3aLej1ogc9zxDsLg by Tattie@mastodon.scot
       2023-03-27T15:25:03Z
       
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       Yeeeeeeah. Twice as many went with the Christian fundamentalist, rather than being able to put someone pro-trans on their ballot.
       
 (DIR) Post #AU3aLgaat13XmNIATo by Tattie@mastodon.scot
       2023-03-27T15:25:34Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       Anyway, the liberal still won, which I'm incredibly relieved by. He seems pretty decent-- not afraid to make a stand for people in his constituency in the past-- but time will tell whether he's a worthy successor to the outgoing First Minister.This concludes "what the heck just happened in Scotland?". Now back to your regularly scheduled tooting. :flag_scotlandparrot: