Unworthy politician of the year
LAST Thursday, Kez won Donald Dewar Debater of the Year at the Scottish Politician of the Year awards.
I was extremely proud. I was equally proud of my friend and colleague Alison Thewliss MP, who won best Scot at Westminster for her tireless campaigning against the rape clause.
And then came the Tories. Step forward Ruth Davidson, the rape clause apologist. Ruth Davidson, whose MSPs were instructed not to take a single intervention during the rape clause debate earlier this year. Ruth Davidson, leader of the opposition, who has never used her position to challenge the rape clause; tacitly accepting its disgusting objectives. Shame on her. And shame on the judges for naming her Politician of the Year. This was not her year.
As a backbencher in the SNP, the familiar thud of desks on a Thursday beats the arrival of Davidson in the Holyrood amphitheatre. Those thuds have grown quieter in recent weeks.
She has disgracefully failed, on numerous occasions now, to raise sexual harassment at First Minister’s questions. Are we honestly expected to believe that the Scottish Tories are immune from the scandal’s grip?
That’s one of the reasons I’m so proud of Kez. She consistently uses her position to champion women’s causes: The rape clause speech; co-founding women 50:50 in 2014, and orchestrating a cross-party group of MSPs to grill the formerly all-male Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Board on sexual harassment.
While others carped from the sidelines, Kez rolled her sleeves up and dug in.