In Nicola Sturgeon’s Memoirs, for e.g.
In the past few days radio waves in Scotland have given some air time to discussing the matter of sexuality in the Memoirs of the recent leader of the SNP. The Memoirs are written because Nicola Sturgeon was the leader of Scottish politics, in the utterly chaotic political situation of the ‘UK’ after Tony Blair, it could be argued, did not give quite enough thought to the implications of devolution as being neither here nor there.
Apart from the politics, and apart from police action on SNP finances, the real question being discussed by the airwaves this human heard were really focusing on that question of heterosexual sex between a man and a woman, and homosexual sex, between two women which has been around during Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership. It is quite ironic really that in Scotland, the land of the progressive, individualistic, free thinking, be whatever you want to be, endless opportunities and the funding to find from somewhere – without having to be too specific before the policies are rolled out – and with the existing legal matters going on about what exactly is a woman, why on earth has such a minor question become so publicly important as heterosexual or bisexual? You would think that in these times of intentional blurring of all boundaries that the matter of what is actually quite natural – because it is found in the natural world amongst some animals, and in the recent decades for now both males and females, that such a basic and accepted identity would not raise more than a slight eyebrow.
Of course it would in some hard line religious adherents, and Scotland still has a lot of the kirky folks who are never slow to show the opinion, by look or word, anything other than heterosexual and preferably in a stable marriage is acceptable. And many immigrants of Islamic or the black Christian churches now in the UK are absolutely no go on any variations of the man and woman marriage. But in the modern era Scotland of today, with Glasgow and Edinburgh as the new party places and with the serious legal confusions over bio-logical (logical biology written backwards), why is this matter of the sexuality of Nicola Sturgeon something which required her to address in her Memoir? This writer has not and will not be reading it, but just on the periphery, it is a valid question to ask why this focus on something which was quite a few years ago absorbed into daily life for many.
The fact that the lover was a French female diplomat is only mentioned as an add on, but is this not an illogical way around? The role of a leader is to protect its people, land, resources, ensure a solid perimeter, or it used to be, and although this is not the situation now in the ‘UK’, either internally or externally, a leader still stands in the realm of other leaders, not with us plebians. If the question of the relationship that has been floating around for a while was of a man and woman, would that be seen any differently? The different relationship of Scotland with France in times of olde, with both against England, has been lost in nowadays apart from historical re-enactments and cultural links, while the jurisdictions place Scotland and England in the UK, even with Roman law in Scotland and Common law in England and Wales, and the different education structures of the two, the ‘UK’ umbrella is not in the EU, while France, for the meanwhile, remains EU.
So, if a leader of the governing Scottish party was bisexual, and had a relationship with a French diplomat, what is the relevance, if any? Is France friend or foe? That’s an ambivalent question for British politics, and if friend, then a liaison could not do too much damage. If foe, then all sorts of suspicions arise. With all the comment focused on whether the possible relationship was two women, never has this writer heard any discussion on the wider question of liaisons where both hold a great deal of state knowledge. Is someone padding around opening drawers, or nowadays flicking through a phone or laptop? Are French-UK relations that suspicious? Probably not. The suspicion of the UK is turned further eastwards nowadays. If there was a relationship – hypothetically let’s say – would that be a problem in the realms of state security?
Unfortunately with the loss of jurisprudence and reasoning in the UK political, legal, social, economic, just about every area now, the realm of governance and leadership as been reduced to as personal, as emotional, as unrelated as possible to a leader. The French, even with the horrendous case of recent times involving sexual practice, still the French have a way more practical attitude to the pyramid of life. The baseline is the physical things in life, and to be maintained, and the philosophy and reasoning and public offices able to perform their function without being put through the personal mill. Maybe it is because the baccalaureate curriculum ensures that school children are studying a variety of subjects right up to leaving school, and to have a 16 or 18 year old able to study philosophy, or some structure of thinking and discussing, it creates a different society to this morass of the personal in 2025 ‘UK’.