Why is Humza Yousaf still fighting for this doomed gender bill?

With the arrest of the SNP chief executive, Peter Murrell, and police cars surrounding Nicola Sturgeon’s home still vivid in the public mind, you might have thought that the new First Minister, Humza Yousaf, would want to lower the temperature of Scottish politics just a bit. To look, for example, for some positive agenda to unite his party and the country, to avoid controversial legislation that is opposed by Scottish voters and divides the independence movement. Apparently not. We’re told that he is about to commit to a doomed legal battle against the UK government’s veto on the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill. What does he know that we don’t?

The bill to allow 16-year-olds to change their sex by declaration without any medical intervention (self-ID) is opposed by two-thirds of Scottish voters. According to Panelbase, only 20 per cent of Scots think the new First Minister should proceed with his legal challenge to the section 35 order under which the GRR Bill was blocked.