TO EDINBURGH and one of those arboreal neighbourhoods where everyone seems to be rehearsing for Crufts.

I’m meeting Lisa Mackenzie, Lucy Hunter Blackburn and Kate Murray who together comprise MBM, the formidable feminist think tank. 
Laden with degrees, doctorates and policymaking experience they are an unlikely rebel alliance. 

Yet their forensic research and implacably rational approach in matters concerning women’s sex-based rights has demolished the Scottish Government’s chaotic performance in this area. 

In the course of their five-year existence, they’ve had to deal with bad actors and political frauds who have opted to become champions of self-ID.

Those they believe to be in danger from the effects of self-ID are vulnerable women in prisons and in those refuges which once offered them security when having to flee domestic abuse. 

Among the gender imposters are those large corporations which want to appear progressive, but only for brand marketing purposes.

This is most evident in Pride Month when all the large companies display their rainbow flags and all the other paraphernalia provided by Stonewall. 

None of this is ever allowed to sully their social media brand presence in places such as Saudi Arabia. But they’ll remorselessly milk their affluent audiences in London, New York and Sydney.

It’s a lesson in knowing their audience, I suppose Ms Hunter Blackburn points out one of the many anomalies associated with the gender cultists and their corporate backers.

“The sexual minorities in places like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran are the ones who most need the support of politicians and their corporate supporters,” she says. 

It seems, however, that the need to bend the knee to these gangster states will always trump any desire to advocate for LGB rights. And that’s why the rainbow flag will never see the light of day in those countries where Islamic fundamentalists and their favoured death cults lurk.  

The Herald:

Making their Marx 
A FEW days later, there are remarkable scenes at the Scottish Parliament, which with each fresh legal calamity has more and more come to resemble the administration of the kingdom of Freedonia in the Marx Brothers classic, Duck Soup. 

A group of women wearing Venus badges, the universally accepted symbol of womanhood, are intercepted by Holyrood security personnel.

It seems that the Scottish Parliament has deemed such overt symbols of real womanhood to be dangerous. The women were thus asked to remove their offensive pins. 

Within hours, some of the more infantile of our MSPs (a list that seems to grow with each new term) decide to troll these feminists by showing off their rainbow laces.

Among them is Kaukab Stewart, who films herself performing a jig. Ms Stewart, a minister, has occasionally been known not to engage her brain when performing her stunts.

Earlier this year, she participated in the SNP’s infantile attempt to stitch up the BBC Scotland Debate Night panel by having her place taken by a male colleague. 

In doing so – and not for the first time – the party can have people whom they don’t like “removed” knowing the BBC must conform (rightly) to gender balance. 

It was claimed that Ms Stewart had suddenly “taken ill” and couldn’t appear. 

The following day however, she was pictured fully recovered granting an audience to a cat preservation charity.

Nightmare for Nats 
IT’S not been a good week for the SNP. On Friday, the Court of Session in Edinburgh ruled that the UK Government acted lawfully when it blocked Holyrood’s cack-handed attempt at gender reform.

Earlier in the week, the Scottish Government had failed in its bid to prevent disclosure of information relating to the unlawful investigation of allegations against Alex Salmond.

The three law lords threw out their case after just 21 seconds of deliberation.  This was as close as any judges will ever get to saying “behave yourself and stop taking us all for a ride”.

It’s a sentiment shared by many.

Kate’s calling
IT’S at this point the words of Kate Forbes during the SNP leadership contest come to mind.

The Herald:

During the first live candidates’ debate in March, Ms Forbes turned to Humza Yousaf and said what most of the country was thinking: “Humza, you’ve had a number of jobs in government. 

“You were transport minister and the trains were never on time, when you were justice secretary the police were stretched to breaking point, and now as health minister we’ve got record high waiting times. 

“What makes you think you can do a better job as First Minister?”

Ms Forbes could probably now add: “In what planet did the idea first germinate that you could ever have been a good First Minister? You are an embarrassment to your country.”

Ms Forbes, though, is a good, Christian woman and so probably wouldn’t utter such a sentiment. 

But I wonder if she fancies having another crack at the leadership? 

If so, she should probably start assembling her team about now.