SNP grassroots launch conference bid to end rows on Twitter

A motion is to be debated at the event, taking place virtually from Friday to Monday, which underlines that the party’s code of conduct and disciplinary procedures are to “encourage respect for fellow members” and that this principle applies to online discourse.

Under the heading, Online Conduct: Procedures for Good Guidance and Support, the resolution also calls on the party to create procedures for managing and supporting those who are victims of abuse.

It calls for good online behaviour towards other party members and “beyond”.

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It says: “Conference believes there is often a lack of recognition of the significant impact of online abuse.

“Conference resolves to promote good behaviour from all SNP members across all social media platforms – on our behaviour with other members and beyond.”

The resolution goes on to ask the party’s ruling body, the National Executive Committee, for a working group to be established to provide advice and guidance on what constitutes online abuse and for help for victims.

The resolution has been put down by branches in Dundee West, East Neuk and Landward and Thurso and District.

It comes amid prolonged and intense online rows often but not exclusively over gender recognition reform.

Last week, MP Joanna Cherry was criticised on Twitter by several SNP groups who called for the whip to be removed over a post she made.

She wrote: “And re conversion therapy which any right thinking person should oppose we must not make it a criminal offence for therapists to try to help patients with gender dysphoria to feel comfortable in their birth sex. As we used to say #Somepeoplearegay. #GetoverIt.”

Critics said the tweet showed Cherry was backing conversion therapy, which the UK and Scottish governments are both moving to ban.

But writing in The National on Friday, Cherry said that while she opposes conversion therapy “as conventionally understood”, she was concerned about the inclusion of “gender identity” in a UK Government bill to ban the practice, as it “risks threatening professionals working with children and vulnerable people who are having issues with their gender, if they seek to explore the reasons for their distress”.

She said that in recent years “there has been a very worrying rise in the number of children, particularly girls, becoming convinced they were “born in the wrong body” and seeking to take puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones. “

She added: “I am concerned that young women, particularly those who may be lesbians, should be offered alternatives to such drastic medical pathways, and that their teachers, parents and therapists should not be threatened with prison and fines for discussing these options with them.

“In the years leading up to puberty I wanted to be a boy. This happens to a lot of young girls. Some, like me, grow up to be lesbians or bisexual. Some are just tomboys and grow up to date men and some are trans and choose to live as the opposite sex.

“I want these girls to be able to discuss, with professional support if necessary, what it is that is making them wish they had been born a boy and to decide whether they might be gay, straight or trans before they embark on life-changing treatment with puberty blockers which may leave them permanently infertile and undergoing surgery to remove their breasts.”

Cherry’s original tweet was criticised by the SNP’s Aberdeen North MP Kirsty Blackman.

Responding to Cherry’s post, she tweeted: “‘Kirsty, why do you keep publicly criticising Joanna Cherry’s views on trans issues?’ Because complaining through the proper channels, repeatedly, for years, has resulted in nothing happening and these views still being expressed – and still causing harm to so many people.”

Amid the row, SNP MP Alyn Smith tweeted a letter signed by him and a group of SNP MPs – but not Cherry – to the UK’s women and equalities minister Liz Truss condemning conversion therapy.

The development came a month after Blackman retweeted a message calling for Cherry to be expelled from the party amid an ongoing row over trans rights.

Blackman appeared to endorse the post before later deleting her retweet.

Blackman retweeted a post from another user which read: “If my party truly stands for trans rights and equality, if our stance is truly ‘zero tolerance’, then it has to start from within. Joanna C must be expelled from the SNP.

“Show the people of Scotland and the rest of the UK that ‘zero tolerance’ means exactly that.”

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Appearing on Good Morning Scotland, Deputy First Minister John Swinney was asked if he would have retweeted the message. He said he would not have done so.

Last night one SNP insider told The National online debate needed to be “toned down”.

The source said: “We need to remember that lots of politicians have been receiving abuse online. We should try and separate the personal from the political and remember behind the politician is a person with a real life and real emotions.

“This guidance will be helpful and will send a strong message about how we conduct ourselves online. But sometimes MPs don’t help themselves when they deliberately put out provocative content.”