At the time of writing, Kate Forbes was still in the race for the SNP leadership. By the time you read this, she may not be.
Nicola Sturgeon wanted to step away from the “brutality” of politics. Kate Forbes has stepped right into it.
Forbes is completely committed to Scottish independence. In 2018, in a debate on securing Unesco status for Scottish Gaelic, she became only the second woman to deliver a full speech in Scottish Gaelic in the Scottish parliament. She was the only member of the Scottish parliament (MSP) in power at that time to do so.
She was also the first woman to deliver a Scottish budget, even if it was with only a few hours’ notice because Derek Mackay had to resign after bombarding a 16-year-old boy with hundreds of social media messages.
Instead of talking about assisted dying, we should prioritise palliative care
Forget Bluesky and pre-Musk Twitter. Friendship is the only true antidote to polarisation
Opposition to abortion is seen as a position of the right, but it’s not that simple
The principal can’t sleep for worrying. If she paid all the bills on her desk, she couldn’t open the school
Aged only 29, Forbes was then appointed as finance secretary by Sturgeon, who apparently had no problem working with her.
Before entering politics, Forbes worked for Oxfam, where she focused on social justice, eliminating poverty and mitigating the effects of climate change.
She is acknowledged as hardworking, talented and an excellent communicator. The cliche “rising star” appears in most of the political profiles of her career that are more than a week old.
A week is indeed a long time in politics, particularly if you happen to be a Christian. No one could possibly have been surprised that Forbes is pro-life and personally opposed to gay marriage, and does not accept that Isla Bryson, the convicted double rapist formerly known as Adam Graham, is a woman.
Forbes is a member of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, not to be confused with the Free Presbyterian Church founded by Ian Paisley. Her church, sometimes known as the “Wee Frees”, still adheres to the 17th-century Westminster Confession of Faith which, among other articles, declares the pope to be “that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition”.
It is not clear whether Forbes adheres to the Westminster Confession, having said in the past that she makes her “own decisions on the basis of what decision is right and wrong, according to my faith, not according to the diktat of any church”.
What is clear is that she has worked with Roman Catholics and atheists alike in the SNP. However, Forbes is not under fire for belonging to a sectarian Church but for being a modern-day heretic who does not subscribe to all the dogmas of current orthodoxy.
Women are under-represented in politics in both Ireland and Scotland. Just this week, Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl met women members of the Oireachtas and announced a taskforce to look at the physical, verbal and online threats that women politicians in particular receive.
We are constantly talking about increasing women’s participation in parliamentary politics. Forbes would be entitled to ask, as in Frances Gage’s version of Sojourner Truth’s speech, “Ain’t I a woman?”
[ SNP leadership contest: Kate Forbes defiant despite backlash over equal marriage views ]
Her chief rival in the leadership contest, Humza Yousaf, is a practising Muslim, who has voted in a way that contradicts fundamental moral teachings of Islam, by supporting gender self-identification and gay marriage.
His faith commitment does not in any way contradict modern orthodoxies, which is brave in its own way given what has happened to other Muslims perceived to be apostates by radical Islamists.
Forbes says in a BBC interview that she thinks “we get into very dangerous territory when we say that certain public offices are barred to certain minority groups”. She is right.
Saying that she has never kept her faith a secret, she also asked whether anyone could point to a single instance in her six years in the parliament where she had “ever imposed that [faith] on other people”.
That is not enough for some. Simply by holding views different from the current consensus, Forbes is apparently guilty of thoughtcrime. The SNP prizes ideological purity over commitment to Scottish independence.
How is it progressive to exclude and demonise those who differ from you? The UK’s equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, was right when she said that people want “to use the Equality Act as a sword to fight their own personal battles, rather than as a shield to prevent others from discrimination”.
If SNP electors want to vote against Forbes, that is their right, but the fact that there is no natural political home for anyone who holds her combination of views is also a dangerous thing.
If there is no room in politics for women like Forbes, who will represent the many women (and men) who agree with her views?
People worry obsessively about the rise of the far right but by pushing out women like Forbes, many moderate people will get nudged towards the right, not away from it.
It is even worse in Ireland. Aside from a few stalwart politicians who put integrity before political gain, the Irish political consensus on a growing list of issues has become smothering. If Dorothy Parker once said of an unfortunate actor that her range of ability ran from A to B, the range of acceptable political opinions in Ireland now probably runs from A to A.