The Snippet: 25th April 2025 🗞️
Anti-far right summit, Supreme Court fallout and by-election in full swing...
Hello! After a couple of weeks of recess, we’re back and busier than ever. Let’s get straight into it…
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Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great weekend.
👀 Anti-far right summit
On Wednesday, John Swinney chaired a summit to counter the rise of far-right politics in Glasgow. More than 50 people attended, from representatives of civic society, faith communities, the trade union movement and Holyrood’s political leaders. The only Holyrood leader not to attend was Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay, who described the summit as a “talking shop”.
But what did they actually do? Well, attendees signed a “mission statement” aimed at “strengthening and protecting democracy in Scotland”. The statement highlighted their concerns that much of the political debate has “become polarised and soured”. But that’s about it…
There was a (very) small protest outside the summit, which included members from Reform. Demonstrators wore T-shirts saying “not far right”, although there were also signs which read “ASYLUM FRAUDS OUT” and “MASS DEPORTATION NOW!”
The First Minister described the summit as just “the start” - let’s see if anything comes from it.
📚 Supreme Court ruling
While the Snippet was in its own recess, there was the big news that the Supreme Court ruled on the definition of a “woman” under the Equality Act 2010 (brought by For Women Scotland against the Scottish Government). The ruling essentially concluded that “women” referred to biological sex, and that trans women with a gender recognition certificate can be excluded from single-sex spaces if “proportionate”.
John Swinney said the Scottish Government accepted the judgment, saying that “protecting the rights of all will underpin our actions”.
Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar got caught in a rather embarrassing situation when he claimed on Twitter/X that he had “always called for the protection of single sex spaces on the basis of biological sex”, despite previously voting for the GRR bill in Holyrood. He did, of course, get community noted…
UK Government ministers are set to meet with their counterparts in the devolved nations to discuss the implication of the ruling, although no date has been set for this just yet.
Greens MSP Maggie Chapman faces a vote to oust her from her role as deputy convener of Holyrood’s Equalities Committee, after she condemned what she called the “bigotry, prejudice and hatred that we see coming from the Supreme Court” during a rally in Aberdeen. Speaking to the media in Holyrood, Chapman said she was “not going to stop representing the views of my trans constituents or standing up for their rights”. The committee - made up of 3 SNP, 2 Scottish Tory, 1 Scottish Labour and 1 Scottish Green (Chapman) - will meet on Tuesday.
There’s been a lot of misinformation online about the ruling - here’s the full judgment from the Supreme Court if you want to take a look.
🗳️ By-election in full swing
The by-election to replace the late Christina McKelvie as MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall, and Stonehouse will take place on June 5.
The candidates announced so far are:
SNP: Katy Loudon, who previously contested the Rutherglen seat at a by-election and the General Election, losing both times to Scottish Labour’s Michael Shanks
Scottish Labour: Davy Russell, who worked as Glasgow City Council’s head of operational services and is a former business associate of Rangers boss Barry Ferguson and Anas Sarwar’s brother
Scottish Conservative: Richard Nelson (an Orange Order member and a “hypnotist” - yes, you heard that right) which was revealed by the Daily Record’s Paul Hutcheon…
Reform: Ross Lambie, a Tory councillor who defected to Reform in a bizarre press conference outside a chippy - you might remember that Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice couldn’t remember his name at the time
The by-election is largely considered a two-party race between the SNP and Scottish Labour and could paint the picture for next year’s Holyrood election. Both John Swinney and Anas Sarwar have been out campaigning in the area. Let’s see how it turns out in June…
🗣️ FMQs
Thursday saw the first FMQs after recess. Here’s a quick debrief:
John Swinney tells Holyrood the Scottish Government will develop “timely guidance” on the issue of single-sex spaces following the Supreme Court ruling
Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay urged the FM to “apologise to the women of Scotland” in light of the judgment - Swinney said he accepted it but he doesn’t say sorry, pointing out that the Equality Act expressly prohibits discrimination and harassment against trans people (this was also brought up by former Tory leader Douglas Ross)
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar hits out at the anti-far right summit (which took place in Glasgow a day earlier), saying that it lacked any reflection on the failure of SNP policies - Swinney says his government “delivers for the people of Scotland, day in and day out”
Scottish LibDems leader Alex Cole-Hamilton raised concerns about the lack of recruitment of maths and science teachers, with the FM saying his government will work with local authority partners to address the issue
Scottish Greens MSP Ariane Burgess raised concerns about salmon farm proposals for Loch Long, but Swinney said he couldn’t currently go into detail because it was a live planning appeal
Alba’s Holyrood leader Ash Regan called on the Scottish Government to cut public funding to LGBT+ groups in light of the Supreme Court ruling
📊 New poll who dis?
Rejoice! A new poll has dropped - this time by YouGov - which shows Reform winning the next General Election and Nigel Farage becoming the next prime minister.
In terms of seats, this works out as: Reform 254, Labour 183, Tories 75, LibDems 71, Greens 4 and SNP 35.
While 25% of people said they would back Reform across the UK, in Scotland this sat at 23% (lower than England and Wales). The SNP picked up 3% of the overall vote, with 32% of people in Scotland saying they would vote for them. Here’s a handy breakdown of Scotland-specific results:
SNP: 32%
Reform: 23%
Scottish Labour: 14%
Scottish LibDem: 11%
Scottish Conservative: 9%
Scottish Green: 8%
Other: 4%
Looking at this, it would mean Reform would be the second largest party in Scotland at the next General Election.
🎓 More university drama
In the latest development in the funding crisis across higher education, around 350 staff at Edinburgh University have taken voluntary redundancy, with more jobs potentially on the line. The university is looking to cut £140 million from its budget.
UCU Edinburgh has called on the university to rule out compulsory job cuts - saying it wouldn’t be necessary because people had taken voluntary redundancy.
Elsewhere, hundreds of professional services staff at Dundee University have voted to go on strike after the university announced there could be up to 700 redundancies.
The Scottish Government has so far provided £22 milllion in liquidity support for the university - which said it is battling a £35 million deficit.
⛪️ Pope Francis funeral
The funeral of Pope Francis is taking place on Saturday in Rome. John Swinney will be going, alongside a delegation of Scottish bishops. The First Minister said he is “honoured” to be attending, stressing the importance of Scotland being represented in Rome.
He will fly out to Rome on Friday and will be returning after the service on Saturday.
Paying tribute to the pope, Swinney said he was “always on the side of the poor” and made important contributions on international conflicts - such as on Gaza and Ukraine
🇺🇸 Donald Trump coming to Scotland
Yippee - Trump has told The Times he hopes to visit Scotland as part of his trip to the UK later this year. The US president previously said he expects the visit will be taking place in September, after receiving an invitation from the King during his meeting with Keir Starmer in the Oval Office.
There’s been a bit of confusion about whether he would actually be visiting Scotland - the official state visit is looking likely to be at Windsor Castle, although Balmoral was also floated around.
When asked whether he would visit his Aberdeenshire golf course during his visit (just an hour’s drive from Balmoral), Trump said: “I will be there - I hope to be there.
“We’re opening a fantastic project there and I hope I’m going to get to see it. It’s going to be great.”
Let’s see how that one turns out, then.
Other bits you might have missed:
Scottish Government failing to make urgent progress on cutting emissions, environmental watchdog warns - The Scotsman
Prince and Princess of Wales spend wedding anniversary visiting Mull - STV News
Unions accuse Scottish Government of ‘stealth campaign’ on peak rail fare pilot - The Times
John Swinney announces extra £300k in aid for Middle East conflicts - Scottish Government
Scottish Greens lodge bill to ban greyhound racing in Scotland - Daily Record
Scottish Government drops target to cut car use 20% by 2030 - BBC
Record number of foreign nationals registered to vote in Scotland - The National
This week I’m trying something new to wrap up the Snippet - a quick glance at some of the things you can expect next week. Here we go…
For the diary:
STUC congress, Dundee (taking place over Monday and Tuesday)
Holyrood dog of the year competition (Monday)
Equalities Committee vote on Maggie Chapman (Tuesday, 9.30am)
Dundee University rally outside STUC congress (Tuesday, 12.30pm)
Scottish Government debate: Supporting Scottish Industry During Turbulent Economic Times (Tuesday)
First Minister’s Questions (Thursday, 12pm)
Scottish Government Debate: Scotland’s Hydrogen Future (Thursday)
That’s all from me this week - thanks for taking the time to read! Don’t forget to share and subscribe, if you haven’t already. We’ll be back next week.
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