Women's rights will once again be a central focus of my campaign

Today marks four weeks until the 19th October 2023, the date of the “no ifs, no buts” independence referendum Nicola Sturgeon promised in June 2022.

Whether you support independence or not, it’s a moot point; it ain’t gonna happen.

While opinion polls now put support for independence at 52%, the SNP leadership are taking a proposal to their members at conference to go it alone on independence thus placing a limit on the votes they can win. Many independence supporters now refuse to lend the SNP their votes following a near-decade of false starts, empty promises and a raft of unpopular policies. And before they’ve even debated said motion, the UK Government and Labour opposition have already said they will ignore them once again.

This is not a road map to independence, it is another wrong turn into a constitutional cul-de-sac.

So if the SNP have already decided this election is not about winning the independence vote, what does that leave voters to consider?

The constitution will obviously remain be a key factor for many, but it’s not the only issue raising temperatures with the electorate.

As things stand, it looks like I will once again be the only candidate in the redrawn and renamed Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy constituency standing unequivocally on a platform for the protection of women, children and same sex-attracted people, and opposing Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) plans that remove safeguards allowing trans-identifying male rapists to enter women’s prisons and single sex spaces.

Of the unionist parties, the Lib Dem’s are equally a lost cause on women’s rights and protections, and despite their recent alleged epiphany Labour’s track record on women’s rights simply can’t be trusted.

And, for independence supporters like me, none of them, especially the Tories, respect the UK Governments international obligation to respect Scotland’s fundamental human right to self-determination.

So women's rights will once again be a central focus of my campaign. How can it not be when in Humza Yousaf’s Scotland’s women are being prevented from exercising their fundamental human rights?

Today as I write, a ‘Women Won’t Wheesht’ hustings event planned for tonight in Rutherglen was cancelled by gender adherents.

With every passing day women are being systematically stripped of their dignity, liberty, and equality. If you believe in freedom of thought, opinion and conscience, freedom of expression, assembly and peaceful association then it’s time to take a stand with me.