Is Nicola Sturgeon a misandrist?

Is Nicola Sturgeon a misandrist? Does she dislike men? Does she hate men? Does she have it in for men? There is some evidence that this is the case. Where is her husband Peter Murrell? Does she keep him locked up? When cafes opened again she was photographed sitting alone. No husband. (A poor reminiscence of Diana sitting alone at the Taj Mahal?). It is all about her. It is not a visible partnership. She does not let him share the limelight. Is he perhaps a secretive 'eminence grise'? When Nicola Sturgeon visited Braemar after the flooding episode there she wore a Barbour jacket and got questioned about it. ‘Peter Murrell gave it to me’ was her excuse for wearing a middle class style. Not ‘my husband gave it to me’. Not ‘Peter gave it to me’. It was cold blame meted out in public.

Nicola Sturgeon's treatment of Jackson Carlaw and Richard Leonard amounts to verbal abuse. Her hostility directed towards these men would never be accepted if it was a man speaking to women in the same way. In the domestic context her contemptuous attitude would be interpreted as spouse abuse. There are television advertisements on behalf of suffering women which show this type of psychological diminishing which is held to amount to coercive control. Nicola Sturgeon gets away with it. Why? Because men don’t want to be thought of as wimps. But they cannot stand up to her abuse because they are men with a sense of restraint towards a woman. She goaded Richard Leonard about possibly not being the leader of the Labour Party come the new year. It was a very personalised attack as are her many such comments on Boris Johnson. She treats these men as if they are sub-human.

Media commentators on the breach of Coronavirus regulations by eight young male Aberdeen footballers said that they had incurred ‘the wrath of Nicola Sturgeon’. She showed them the yellow card and threatened the red card for any future breaches. She did not give the red card to herself or to John Swinney for the school examinations debacle. This was a matter of much greater importance than the footballers' behaviour. It was not sufficient for her to say that that she and the SNP will be held accountable at the 2021 election. That would be like saying that the footballers would be accountable at the end of their contracts. What would have been said if a male politician had taken that attitude towards and used that language against a bunch of females out partying (which of course, many have been doing throughout the lock down). Does Nicola Sturgeon have it in for football? The Scottish Premier league was not allowed to complete the season in the way that England and Germany allowed. Rangers and Celtic's stadiums hold more than 50,000. With safe distancing they could admit 10,000 to the new season's games. Other teams could have a fifth of capacity present, say 2000 in 10,000 seat stadiums. These are men's games, though women and children also support football teams. It is not happening. There is no empathy, just another cold shoulder.

Nicola Sturgeon’s early support for senior medical officer Catherine Calderwood after her breach of Coronavirus regulations gave way to regretful parting of the ways. This needs to be placed in context. She did not ask Leslie Evans to resign after Alex Salmond won his case against the Scottish Government and received £500,000 damages funded by the taxpayer. Leslie Evans described that result thus ‘We lost the battle but we will win the war’. War against men? Not a balanced judicious response to a court defeat where she was held culpable. There was no apology. Who sets the tone for such utterances? Nicola Sturgeon.

Over the years Nicola Sturgeon has promoted her friends to cabinet posts including Shona Robison. Gender numbers are more important to her than ability and competence. Does anyone remember the hapless former Education Minister Angela Constance? Why was Jeanne Freeman made Health Minister? Nicola Sturgeon seeks security in the sisterhood. Before Coronavirus her vicious verbal offensiveness enabled her to deflect opposition criticism and avoid answering questions. In this national crisis she has continued in that mode only with much repetition and even more self-promotion. Employers are not allowed to speak to employees the way Nicola Sturgeon addresses men. Men are not allowed to treat their wives the way Nicola Sturgeon treats men.

A termagant is a harshly spoken or over bearing woman. A harridan is a strict, bossy or belligerent woman. Nicola Sturgeon is certainly and evidentially both. A misandrist is a woman who dislikes, despises, or is strongly prejudiced against men. There is enough evidence to make the case that this is so. Her so-called feminism has for too long given a cloak of respectability to her conduct. No man could carry on a political campaign against women the way Nicola Sturgeon has practised her politics against men. She never acknowledges the contributions men have made over the centuries and continue to make to all Scotland and far beyond. It is as if men never existed and do not do so now. She treats poor John Swinney like a serf. Worse even than Margaret Thatcher treated Geoffrey Howe. She is afraid of Alex Salmond though.

No doubt Nicola Sturgeon would deny disliking men. She is a skilled political liar. She exercises the Russian principle of ‘Vranyo’ which means ‘I am lying to you. You know I am lying to you. I know you know, but I don’t care. And there’s nothing you can do about it’. She is never challenged on the issue of her hostility to men. They and women are afraid of her, of her ‘wrath’. The media dare not broach the subject and anyway don’t even want to mention it. Why is she allowed to treat men with such contempt? It could be politically self-destructive. How many men does Nicola Sturgeon expect to vote for her at the next referendum? How many has she alienated? How many businessmen such as Jim McColl want nothing to do with her and her SNP administration? How many men are utterly fed up with her nagging and stairheid verbal brawling? How intimidated are Scotland’s men? Hen pecked? Abused? If misogyny is to be treated as a hate crime in Scotland will Nicola Sturgeon's misandry be treated the same?

Post Script

On Sunday 11th October interviewed about Alex Salmond on the Sky News Sophie Ridge on Sunday programme Nicola Sturgeon said 'much of the criticism she has taken over the issue was the "age-old" situation where "a man is accused of misconduct against women and often it's a woman that ends up sitting answering for them". No acknowledgement here of the wrong practice of the Scottish Government nor the acquittal of Alex Salmond on all counts. This is evidence of an extreme attitude towards men in general and Alex Salmond in particular.