There are few prisoners in Scotland who have had so many words spoken and articles written about their crimes.
Isla Bryson, or Adam Graham, has drawn the focus of politicians and campaigners from across the country. Now Bryson’s mother has added her weight to the doubt around his gender identity after he claimed he believed since the age of four that he was transgender.
Janet Bryson said her son had never expressed any wish to change gender at any age and – as a victim of rape herself – believes Bryson should not have been allowed in a women’s prison in any circumstances. This increasingly fraught issue is just one in a long list of items giving Nicola Sturgeon a major headache.
Is it any wonder the SNP is seeing thousands of members leave the party with claims of as many as 30,000 people abandoning them? Not only are the party’s faithful angry about the gender reforms put forward by the Scottish Government but also by their stalled plans for another referendum and questions over funding.
When the First Minister said she could not recall when she first learned that her own husband had given £108,000 of his personal finances to the SNP it revealed a chink in the armour which could lead to further crumbling. This is compounded by the blundering on the Bryson case and the Government’s refusal to publish the full report into the scandal.
Public confidence will be further shaken by our revelation that an organisation given £1million to help children in care out of poverty has achieved very little. Instead, Promise Scotland appears to have set up a website, and spent £100,000 on lobbyists linked to the SNP.
People across Scotland want politicians to be decent, trustworthy and deliver on their promises if they are elected. Sturgeon is falling far short of that.
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