The Rape Clause
So I want to iron out the facts behind this. Because it’s a really serious issue and everyone from all over the world need to understand what sort of government is leading the UK and what we in Scotland are being forced on us.
1. The Conservative (commonly known as Tories) government at Westminster (British parliament) passed a bill commonly known as ‘the rape clause.’ They passed this without a parliamentary vote and made it become law.
2. The rape clause is part of welfare cuts. The Conservatives have essentially forced a 2 child policy because families will not receive any tax credit for their 3rd child. Please bear in mind that this is £13 a week in social security.
3. What the rape clause does is excludes mothers from the tax cuts if the child was conceived non-consensually. However, the woman must *prove* that she was raped. A mother must fill out an 8-page document in order to apply for this.
4. The questions within the form ask the mother to relive her trauma. They also ask for the child’s name on the form. That child will have officially documentation assigned to their name that they were conceived from rape.
5. The rape clause does nothing to address marital rape. The form asks mothers to confirm they are not living with the other parent of the child.
6. The rape clause creates serious problems in Northern Ireland. The law being that not reporting a serious crime is a crime in itself. If there is no police report to back this documentation up then mother’s will be called out as liars or will be arrested for failing to report the crime.
That’s the break down of what the rape clause is. Here is the link to the form of anyone would want to look at it. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/606978/nnc1.pdf
I will now talk about what’s happening in Scotland. Many of you will know that Scotland went for independence in 2014 and one of the main pro-independence arguments were policies that Scotland didn’t vote for being implemented in Scotland. In the UK General Election 2015, Scotland only returned 1 Conservative MP. The current Scottish government is run by the Scottish National Party and our First Minister is Nicola Sturgeon. The Scottish Government help to mitigate the welfare cuts implemented by the Tories. The SNP are pro-independence.
In the 2016 Scottish elections, when it looked like the SNP would win again pro-union supporters voted the conservatives in the second largest party with 31 Members of Scottish Parliament (MSPs). They pushed the traditional opposition, the Labour Party, into 3rd place. I’ll now talk about the Conservatives in Scotland and how they are defending it. (Please note UK conservatives and Scottish conservatives are the same party. Think of the Scottish conservatives as a branch office)
1. Scottish Conservative leader, Ruth Davidson, had defended the rape clause. She has only done so via a spokesperson. I believe this is pathetic and cowardly as she refuses to denounce the clause in front of a TV camera. I believe she is doing this because she wants to move to London to secure a job with the heads of the UK conservatives. All other parties represented at the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood in Edinburgh have fought against this clause.
2. Her defence of this is that the form is 'the most sensitive way’ this could be done. I’m sure many of you will agree, the form is anything but sensitive.
3. Ruth Davidson and the Scottish Tories released statements yesterday. All of which said that while they fully support the rape clause, it’s the Scottish government that should have to mitigate it.
And that’s the way the Scottish Tories do things. The UK Tory Party implements welfare cuts, the Scottish Tories then blame the Scottish government for not mitigating it, the Scottish government mitigate it and then have less of a budget so they can’t have that budget invested elsewhere…Which then allows the Scottish Tories to attack poor funded services.
That’s how they operate. The rape clause and those who defend it are completely disgusting.
I’m calling it as it is, this is a direct assault on women. This was brought in by a female Prime Minister and Scotland cannot continue to mitigate horrific Conservative policies. We can only work with the budget we are given.
I’ll leave you with a quote from my First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon.
“It’s not enough to be a woman in politics. You have to do what’s right with the power you have as well.”
Thank you for reading this.
