I’d seriously had enough of this MSP’s behaviour

I’M fed up with the bullshit. On Tuesday during parliamentary business at Holyrood, I couldn’t sit silently any more. I used a Point of Order to call out the behaviour of a Tory MSP as I was sick of his constant barracking and heckling.

It happened during a question-and-answer session when Jenni Minto was answering in her role as Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health.

Stephen Kerr had just asked something. While Jenni was trying to answer it, he repeatedly interrupted and heckled while seated in his chair, or as you may have heard the Presiding Officer say, “from a sedentary position”. He did it so much that the official report even picked up on one of his outbursts.

Sitting on the other side of the chamber, it was simply not possible to hear what Jenni was trying to say over his shouting.

It wasn’t the first time his behaviour has made it difficult or impossible to hear others’ contributions in the chamber, nor was it the first time he had been called out by the Presiding Officer.

It is clearly a tactic. He is far from the only loud man to use his voice as a tool to purposefully disrupt, interrupt and distract fellow MSPs – usually women – who have the floor and are entitled to be heard, even if he does not like what they are saying.

One day later, on Wednesday, in a debate on the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill – while talking about animal welfare standards – it was another Tory MSP, Edward Mountain, who took us on a journey back to the Victorian era.

He said: “Those animal welfare standards do not cut across when housewives and people are buying meat in the shops.” When challenged for his use of “housewives” he did at least concede that “anyone can do the shopping”.

These may seem like isolated, even amusing, incidents. But they form part of a pattern. They were not physically violent, and no-one was in physical danger, but they are symptomatic of the monotonous everyday sexism women face even in the most powerful institutions.

When I think about the two-and-a-half years since I entered Parliament, I have had, both in person and online, comments made about my appearance, my clothing choices, my shoes and my weight.

I’ve been told that I am not wearing enough make-up, that my hair is too short and that I should dye it to hide the grey. I’ve been told I’m not a real woman, or that I must be a man. I’ve even had death threats and rape threats.

It’s been relentless. And, as a white woman, I know I don’t get it as bad or as much as others. Frank Hester’s alleged remarks about Diane Abbott were a brutal reminder of how racism and misogyny in our politics go together.

Studies have shown that Diane gets more abuse than anyone else in UK politics, by some distance and these last few weeks will have made that even worse.

This kind of toxic atmosphere has a chilling effect. It removes a lot of women from the debate.

Politics is for all of us, but we can probably all name women in our own lives who have been put off saying things in public or getting involved in political activities because of the sexism and misogynistic abuse that they have seen other women face.

The Scottish Parliament’s Gender Sensitive Audit was published a year ago – it was a big undertaking, with representation from all parties. Unfortunately, its findings came as little surprise.

It found that women tend to make fewer contributions during FMQs, are less likely to intervene in debates than men and that we still encounter sexism both in terms of what is said to us and how we are perceived.

It made clear that our politics must change, and our culture must change. Our Parliament should be setting an example, not embodying the attitudes that we need to consign to the rubbish bin.

Misogynistic behaviours and harassment happen to most women, if not all of us. It costs us money. It wastes our time and energy.

It makes us fearful. It changes how we use public spaces. It makes us spend far too much time considering everything we say and do. It exhausts us. And in the most extreme cases, it kills us. All of us must confront our biases. This requires active thought and reflection to challenge and break down prejudices. And we must recognise how one bias can be compounded by another.

Racism, sexism, ageism, ableism and transphobia go together. We women know the consequences of these biases. We women live with the consequences of these biases every day. We women die because of the consequences of these biases.

It’s not just politicians. All men have a responsibility in this. A responsibility to act. A responsibility to check their own behaviour in work, social, private and intimate settings. A responsibility to call out sexist behaviour and language whenever they encounter it – including in their own heads.

The things that happened this week were not unique. It was just another week. All the women in politics and beyond will have had numerous similar experiences. It is not good enough, and it’s not women who need to change.

Men must do better.

The next day another Tory MSP took us back to the Victorian era