[bitontheslide]

Nicola Sturgeon has offered a formal apology to people accused of witchcraft between the 16th and 18th centuries, many of whom were executed.

The Scottish first minister said she was choosing to acknowledge an "egregious historic injustice".

It is thought 4,000 Scots, most of them women, were accused of breaking the Witchcraft Act between 1563 and 1736.

Ms Sturgeon also told MSPs that parliament could choose to legislate to pardon those convicted under the law.

The Witches of Scotland campaign had urged the government to offer a public apology, saying it would send a "powerful signal".

Witch hunts took place in many countries during that period, but academics say Scotland's execution rate was five times the European average.

Confessions were regularly secured under torture, with those condemned strangled and burned at the stake.

In a statement at Holyrood, the first minister said those accused under the act "were not witches, they were people and they were overwhelmingly women".

She said: "At a time when women were not even allowed to speak as witnesses in a courtroom, they were accused and killed because they were poor, different, vulnerable or in many cases just because they were women.

"It was injustice on a colossal scale, driven at least in part by misogyny in its most literal sense, hatred of women.

"Today on International Women's Day, as first minister on behalf of the Scottish government, I am choosing to acknowledge that egregious historic injustice and extend a formal posthumous apology to all of those accused, convicted, vilified or executed under the Witchcraft Act of 1563."

The Witches of Scotland group has been petitioning Holyrood to pardon those convicted under the act, with QC Claire Mitchell saying it would correct as far as possible a "terrible miscarriage of justice".

SNP MSP Natalie Don was already planning a member's bill extending a formal pardon, and Ms Sturgeon noted that parliament may choose to legislate in due course.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla...itics-60667533

[Oliver_W]

Maybe she should apologise to some living women? Like the ones whose rights she's attacking?

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/s...ling-xf2wjnpdh

[LeatherTrumpet]

What a joke

[Kizzy]

About time!

[Cherie]

Did they say thanks?

[bitontheslide]

Originally Posted by Cherie

Did they say thanks?

there was a chill in the air and the windows rattled

[LeatherTrumpet]

Wont somebody think of the cauldron?

[parmnion]

Just in case the laws come back, eh nicola!!!!

[arista]

Nicola ratings were above 50


Today she is -4

[LeatherTrumpet]

she needs to go

hag

[hijaxers]

Originally Posted by arista

Nicola ratings were above 50


Today she is -4

Hardly surprising is it , self inflicted and no one else to blame here.

[Oliver_W]

[Soldier Boy]

Unfortunately for Nicola she's massively ****ed up no matter which perspective you're coming from. She overestimated the support for forging ahead with legislative changes without proper research and consultation, underestimated the concern for safeguarding measures, and then (I think crucially) visibly tied herself in knots trying to figure out how to navigate both sides of the coin and ended up mumbling "OK trans women are women, except those trans women, who aren't men, they're still trans women, but they'll be in male prisons, and no a woman would never be in a male prison, but yes trans women are women".

The result is that after years of seeming unshakable confident and like a solid leader, she ended up bumbling out nonsense like Boris Johnson. Completely out of her depth. There's no way for her to ever fully recover from that... She's lost the public's confidence.

[arista]

[hijaxers]

She's toast hooray

[Alf]

Would you buy this on ITunes?

Youtube video

[Livia]

So... Sorry to women accused of witchcraft 400 years ago. But women raped in jail by perverts posing as women...? **** them, it seems.

[Soldier Boy]

It is quite ironic given that a lot of the online rhetoric aimed at "TERFy people" has a distinctly "burn the witch" flavour about it. Right down to cries of "old crone"/"ugly hag".

[Cherie]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

I need this as my sig

[Cherie]

what a great shop

https://wildwomynworkshop.com/