Aberdeen South under LGBTQ+ control

With a new Sturgeon compliant executive in place, Aberdeen South wavering has been stabilised providing further evidence that the inexorable campaigning force of the LGBTQ+ movement continues to crush any opposition daring to challenge its beliefs in its insidious cult war of attrition on the membership and officials of the SNP at Branch level.

Serena Arif, the convenor of the 1000 strong SNP Aberdeen South Branch has been removed from office and her membership of the party suspended by the SNP National Secretary, Lorna Finn, citing unnamed sources who allegedly notified SNP Headquarters that Serena had openly expressed criticism of the SNP governments proposals to reform the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) which was a breach of the party code of conduct.

Senior members of the Branch resigned in support of Serena expressing their dismay and disapproval of the unconstitutional, unrestrained and autocratic abuse of authority by SNP Headquarters.

Their concerns were strengthened by the fact that the SNP government at the time it placed the draft GRA proposals in the public domain in 2020 had also called for an open, wide-ranging public discussion and consultation on them, the results of which would be published.

A commitment the government has not honoured. One wonders why!!

Any guilt to be attributed to Serena by her unknown accusers could only be to her support of the SNP government public consultation initiative evidenced by her attempt to organise a briefing and discussion meeting with members of her Branch to which she invited two guest speakers who would address the meeting. When one speaker decided not to attend Serena cancelled it in interests of fair play.

In support of Serena, Edinburgh South West MP Joanna Cherry took up her case and wrote to Finn seeking an explanation of the suspension. A reply has not been forthcoming well over a month later.

In her letter, Joanna also linked the injustice served on Serena to similar incidences on other female members of the party suggesting that the SNP: “is ignoring complaints made by gender critical women about breaches of the party’s code of conduct whilst pursuing complaints against gender critical women.

Expanding on her statement Joanna added: “As you must now be aware, there are a significant number of outstanding complaints from women across our party, including me, against members including senior parliamentarians, councillors, party employees and NEC members for clear breaches of the code of conduct, yet no action has been taken against any of these people. Certainly, none of the people I have complained about has been suspended pending investigation of my complaints. Indeed at least two of them recently passed vetting to stand as councillors and others continue to play senior roles in the party. I cannot understand why Serena should be held to a different standard than other party members and why complaints against her should be progressed with such vigour whilst those of many other women including me are ignored.”

Concluding Joanna briefed Finn that it had been recently established in law that “gender-critical” beliefs fell under the Equalities Act and applying a disciplinary process against one member, while not subjecting other activists to the process “looks very much like discrimination”.