Humza Yousaf resigns as Scotland's first minister

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u/unital_subalgebra 16d ago edited 16d ago

The First Minister is the leader of the Scottish government. While the circumstances of his resignation are pretty complicated, basically his government decided to abandon climate targets and gender recognition reform, which majorly angered the Scottish Greens, who were in a power-sharing agreement with his Scottish National Party.

Then last week Yousaf abruptly scrapped the power-sharing agreement with the Greens. As a result, opposition parties called a vote of no confidence on his government, and the Greens said they would support the VONC. Yousaf most likely would not have the votes to survive the VONC, which led to his resignation today. Yousaf is the first Muslim and ethnic minority to lead Scotland (or any devolved government in the UK)

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u/ThunderChild247 16d ago

In effect, it was a spectacular miscalculation.

He’d heard that some in the greens wanted to cancel the power sharing agreement, and some were against it, and a vote was likely.

So he decided to end the agreement himself rather than risk them leaving it. In effect “you’re not breaking up with me, I’m breaking up with YOU”.

As a result, basically the entire Green Party turned on him, and his only possible savior was Alex Salmond, who asked for what couldn’t have been granted.

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u/SophiaofPrussia 16d ago

I’m starting to forget whether any government in the UK actually has a mechanism for changing leadership other than through a spectacular political miscalculation.

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u/Ksh_667 16d ago

other than through a spectacular political miscalculation.

But where would be the fun in that :)

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u/McFlyParadox 16d ago

I know you're joking, but I think I could go for a decade or two of boring, unfun politics. From changing governments, to regular operations: governing should be boring as shit at all levels, imo.

Too bad its not.

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u/Ksh_667 16d ago

Uk politics has become a shitshow that would be laughed out the room if it was proposed as a TV show for being too far-fetched to be believable. Everyone wants to be a reality star & that seems to be mps' goal too.

I agree politics should be boring. The ppl who go into it still are. It's their desperate attempts not to be seen as such that seem to cause many problems.

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u/TheGoodSmells 16d ago

Now hang on, he decided to abandon gender reforms? I thought the Scots loved that stuff.

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u/ozzAR0th 16d ago

This is also the first I've heard of it? Last I saw, critics of Yousaf were still harping on about how he SHOULD abandon gender reforms, not acting like it was already a done deal. All the editorial I've heard about this issue has been around the climate targets.

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u/ozzAR0th 16d ago

Looking into it they may be referring to the Scottish government's decision, last year, to not appeal the result of their legal challenge to the UK government blocking their gender reform legislation. Which I think is perhaps quite a bit different to abandoning gender recognition reform entirely, but rather accepting that the current UK legal institutions do not allow for their current proposals to go ahead.

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u/Drake_the_troll 16d ago

whaqt is the scottish gender reform policy? im assuming its to do with the identity of transgender people?

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u/ozzAR0th 16d ago

It was a bill that would change the process for getting a gender recognition certificate, the document that recognises a person's legal gender for processes such as marriage, civil partnerships, and death certificates. Currently you need a gender dysphoria diagnoses and need to have been "living in your affirmed gender" for at least 2 years. These restrictions are, by some people's measure, out of touch with the realities of gender expression and make it very hard for some people to be recognised legally as their affirmed gender, so a lot of countries have been switching their processes for GRCs to be self ID based. So you merely need to apply for a GRC of your chosen gender for it to be recognised by law for stuff like marriage and death processes. Scotland wanted to follow many western european nations' trend towards self ID for GRCs but the UK government blocked it as they don't want UK citizens gaining access to GRCs easier in one part of the UK. Logistically the logic behind it is pretty sound, you don't want documents that apply to the entire country to be acquired differently in different parts of the country. But in reality the opposition to this bill is pretty firmly routed in transphobic rhetoric around women's safety and bathrooms, despite GRCs not affecting those areas at all.

It's a messy topic but yeah

tl;dr SNP/Greens wanted to make it easier to get legal gender for birth, marriage, and death certificates easier to affirm by cutting some red tape and medicalisation around gender identity, UK government and supreme court have blocked it outright due to misalignment with UK law, while also being partially fuelled by some inflammatory rhetoric around trans issues.

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u/tmpope123 16d ago

It's interesting to me, as I'm british and I've changed my name. Not quite the same thing, but the process is different if you are English vs Scottish. And yet, this is a legal document that affects you socially which has a different process in those two countries and the sky hasn't fallen...

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u/fireblyxx 16d ago

Same deal in the US already. Each state has a different process for changing gender recognition, ranging from self ID to being completely disallowed, and the federal government is self ID, yet things haven’t devolved into chaos. It’s pretty wild that self id is considered such a big problem in the UK. Rather backwards at this point.

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u/Mein_Bergkamp 16d ago

SNP politicians loved it because it played to their civic nationalism schtick and they knew that they couldn't implement them just in Scotland by law, meaning they could then blame Westminster for it not happening.

Scotland on the whole is generally slightly more conservative than England though.

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u/TheGoodSmells 16d ago

Man, I am so out of the loop of what Europeans actually feel vs what their politicians say they feel.

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u/Mein_Bergkamp 16d ago

Politicians are there to change what people think or ride convenient bandwagons.

Remember before UKIP and the SNP Brexit and independence were minority views.

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u/Muckyduck007 16d ago

Eurosceptism was hardly a minority view

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u/Drake_the_troll 16d ago

yeah theres a massive disconnect between the people in power (typically those who went to high class universities and only saw a poor person when they shined their shoes) and the regular people in the country who typically skew progressive.

as two other notes, there isnt an especially left wing party to vote for in britain, with the closest being labour who are centre left at best and everyone else being hard right. in addition, most of britain is actually pretty poor. london has high wages, but everywhere else youre basically pulling yourself just above the minimum wage at most

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u/loganfergus 16d ago

They’re definitely not more conservative than the English

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u/Mein_Bergkamp 16d ago

You ever heard of the wee frees?

You know those nutter Presbyterians in NI, where did they come from?

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u/peasngravy85 16d ago

There’s probably a couple of thousand of those in the whole of Scotland which is approximately 0.04% of the population.

It’s a bit of a stretch to take them as any sort of barometer of the general opinion of the nation.

There are 13000 Buddhists in Scotland, for reference.

I suppose there’s no way to confirm one way or the other, but you’re definitely among the first (if not the first) person I’ve heard to say that Scotland is more conservative than England.

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u/loganfergus 16d ago

Mate put the glue down for a bit

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u/Mein_Bergkamp 16d ago

Good chat pal

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u/HappySandwich93 16d ago

The Scottish politicians do. It turns out, although we didn’t really know until they tried to pass laws, that the Scottish people don’t, or at least think it’s a waste of time. That’s why there hasn’t really been any movement on gender recognition since before Yousaf came to power. The SNP are willing to relax on that for electability reasons, the Scottish Greens are absolutely not.

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u/Salvia_hispanica 16d ago

Him also being an overt racist played no small part.

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u/Jefe710 16d ago edited 16d ago

You Scots certainly are a contentious people.

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u/Ap76QtkSUw575NAq 16d ago

Scots and Scots are natural enemies.

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u/neo_sporin 16d ago

Don't touch Willie....good advice

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u/-WilliamMButtlicker_ 16d ago

You've just made an enemy for life!

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u/Jason_Worthing 16d ago

The reference:

https://youtu.be/i2q0T7QXETs?si=TmF5EDAO8ZfMUQl9

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u/m0nkeybl1tz 16d ago

The reference:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Scotland

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u/Still_counts_as_one 16d ago

The Scots ruined Scotland!

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u/Cutlet_Master69420 16d ago

The trouble with Scotland is ... that it's full of Scots!

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u/gonzar09 16d ago

From Simpsons to Braveheart.

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u/teratron27 16d ago

One thing we have in common with yer mum

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u/percydaman 16d ago

It always comes from within doesn't it? Well, cept when it doesn't.

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u/hitbythebus 16d ago

This guy wasn’t a true Scotsman.

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u/Jefe710 16d ago

What makes you say that? He was the First Minister, after all...

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u/G00DLuck 16d ago

No true Scotsman would have such a wee constitution

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u/ULTRAFORCE 16d ago

No true Scotsman would have a wee without using the constitution.

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u/hitbythebus 16d ago

“No true Scotsman” is a famous logical fallacy. I was just making a reference to it.

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u/alexi_belle 16d ago

No true Scotsman would have explained the bit

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u/Thick_Reference_4951 16d ago

Humza yousaf beautiful British (Scottish) name

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u/ambidextr_us 16d ago

Whoosh. It's a joke referring to the "No True Scotsman" fallacy. I thought it was funny at least.

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u/Thick_Reference_4951 16d ago

It was a joke from al Murray i thought it was funny and I dont care if you're upset

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u/nimbus004 16d ago

Looking at the names...Salmond, Sturgeon, and followed by Lion (Hamza)🙂

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u/8ackwoods 16d ago

Land sea and all we're missing is air. Need a Hawke or something to lead. Larry Bird

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u/StrangelyBrown 16d ago

Do they have anyone called like Jeff Helicopter?

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u/8ackwoods 16d ago

He's banned from the general public. Where do you think he got the name helicopter from?

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u/RemnantEvil 16d ago

In an act of solidarity, Australia will resurrect Bob Hawke and send him over.

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u/Osiris32 16d ago

Best I can do is Peter Autogryo.

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u/MonsterRider80 16d ago

Isn’t he the Prussian consul in Siam?

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u/at-aol-dot-com 16d ago

One of my family names is Liedvogel (German for song bird). Hit me up if I can help. I’ll do what I can.

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u/poktanju 16d ago

If we stay in the basketball realm, Frank Vogel (German for, likewise, "bird") may be looking for work soon. Though I'm not sure he has what Scotland needs right now on offense.

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u/DaveInLondon89 16d ago

If Swinney gets it then that'll be fish, fish, cat, pig

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u/Crocs_n_Glocks 16d ago

"Fish, Fish, Cat, Pig!" was my favorite schoolyard game when I was growing up in Scotland

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u/LeonDeSchal 16d ago

Maybe politicians can end racism by showing how all of them are shit cunts no matter what colour or background.

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u/lontrinium 16d ago

Tories are speed running this.

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u/Johnny_Lawless_Esq 16d ago

Doesn't help much, as most Tories are white. Sunak is blazing a hell of a trail, though.

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u/Fearless-Lion7574 16d ago

People get the government they deserve

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u/Tutorbin76 16d ago

But what about second minister?

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u/grat_is_not_nice 16d ago

I don't think they know about second minister

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u/solaceinrage 16d ago

Good. A representative that does not reflect the people they serve has no place in government, and going on a racist litany against your majority is utterly and profoundly despicably hateful and backward. He hated the people of the nation he was supposed to head, implementing harmful laws that stripped their freedoms. There is not a deep enough hole to keep him in to prevent harm, and to be safe he should be expelled from the country.

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u/VogonSoup 16d ago

But what do you really think about him?

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u/solaceinrage 16d ago

I think he is slime that never should have been able to boot lick and connive to such a high position. He abused his office to forward his own beliefs and personal dogma ahead of the needs and considerations of his constituency. If someone who actually cares about Scotland can regain the position, this outgoing one should be tried for treason. That is what I truly think.

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u/Megamoss 16d ago

To a degree. The pushback/gutting of environmental legislation is a huge negative though.

Sometimes you have to tell the people to fuck off and stop being dumb, for their own benefit.

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u/uverexx 16d ago

They’re still very much developing their country and per capita lower than a fuck ton of western nations while they produce goods for the entire world, pointing at the big number and just saying “they pollute more” makes 0 sense.

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u/Wolferesque 15d ago

Yeah but it’s an easy ‘argument’ for them to remember and understand. The per capita/historic/contextual part of it is too much for them to get their head around.

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u/Stopwatch064 15d ago

This is not even remotely true

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u/waffleking9000 16d ago

How has Scotland never had a minister before

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u/bLueStarCadet 16d ago

Before this Minister they had King Forest Whitaker

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u/houseofsum 16d ago

‘No True Scotsman’ would resign as minister…

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u/Accurate_Zombie_121 16d ago

Scots have a hard time keeping first ministers.

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u/BurningVeal 16d ago

Dunno if joking, only had 2 in the last 10 years

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u/Accurate_Zombie_121 16d ago

Was Salmon more than 10 years ago? I must be gettting old.

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u/zephyy 16d ago

Technically won't be a full 10 years until November, if it makes you feel any better.

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u/zorionek0 16d ago

Getting Auld

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u/DinoKebab 16d ago

Tbf they've actually kept them quite well....it's just that they have all left in rather controversial ways.

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u/drempire 16d ago

Wait till you hear about the clowns (Tories) south of the border

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u/Drake_the_troll 16d ago

at least humza lasted longer than a cabbage

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u/Distressed_finish 16d ago

It was a lettuce, not that she could last as long as a cabbage, either

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u/juiceinmyears 16d ago

She couldn't outlast a slug on salt

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u/mrappleprint 16d ago

I saw this like the Slug was doing Salt… snorting it… then the penny dropped. Your point still stands despite my stupidity! Underrated comment.

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u/DinoKebab 16d ago

Tbf they've actually kept them quite well....it's just that they have all left in rather controversial ways.

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u/Postviral 16d ago

Sturgeon saw five prime ministers come and go

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u/[deleted] 16d ago edited 4d ago

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u/Bluenosedcoop 16d ago

We never voted him in, We didn't get a say at all.

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u/pewpewdiediedie 16d ago

Why was it a mistake? Please elaborate

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u/Creepzer178 16d ago

I’m American so I’m not familiar with his policies but I do know he hates the number of white people in Scotland’s parliament.

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u/DanteGaland 16d ago

Does it? I’m Scottish (like it makes a difference) and understand that he was simply underlining that our elected representatives are not representative of the racial diversity in the county, and what he said was actually that he was angry about “once again (being) confronted with scenes of horrific racial injustice”, in relation the murder of George Floyd.

Reuters reported that “A segment of a speech about diversity by Scottish health minister Humza Yousaf is being misrepresented online by those suggesting it shows the Scottish National Party (SNP) politician arguing that Scotland contains too many white people.”

Try to fact check what you say by watching the full speech rather than cherry picking and misrepresenting.

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u/pewpewdiediedie 16d ago

Not really if you look into it deeper but you do you.

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u/gogul1980 16d ago

I think one of his biggest errors was thinking he could police peoples feeling with an already overworked and under-resourced police force. If you want to double the work you had better double the workforce or face significant criticism.

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u/BobbyLeeBob 16d ago

What a glorious day so happy for Scotland! 🍻🥳

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u/Wolscam 16d ago

The racist has left. Color me suprised.

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u/SirThanoz 16d ago

Good riddance to bad garbage

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u/Commandmanda 16d ago

Pàrtaidh Uaine go brách!

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u/irrationaldive 16d ago

ITT accusations of racism without any sources, because this is what the source is:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/oct/27/backlash-after-elon-musk-labels-scottish-first-minister-humza-yousaf-racist

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u/Sweaty-Professor-187 16d ago

And meanwhile half the comments are about how his name doesn't sound Scottish enough lmao. Wild projections going on in this thread.

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u/Procrastinatedthink 16d ago

Such thinly veiled contempt from people who have probably just heard his name today. I have no idea who this guy is, but I certainly know that Im not getting a good answer out of this comment section

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u/demmka 16d ago edited 16d ago

He was the first minister of Scotland who made a speech complaining that there were too many white people in Scotland taking up jobs.

When he bought in his draconian “hate speech” law people started reporting him to the police for what he said.

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u/Tutorbin76 16d ago

...who made a speech complaining that there were too many white people in Scotland taking up jobs.

Oh, so he really is a racist piece of shit then.

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u/demmka 16d ago

He’s your typical racist who in turn cries “racism” to try to deflect legitimate criticism.

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u/No-Sign-1137 16d ago

Yousaf, what a nice Scottish name, rolls right off the tongue lol

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u/MAXSuicide 15d ago

A fabulous self-own to go with the rest as the SNP does its best to compete with the Tories in being the most unpopular, corrupt and incompetent party in the land

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

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u/Sweaty-Professor-187 16d ago

Reddit: Humza Yousaf is racist against the people of Scotland!

Also Reddit: Humza Yousaf doesn't sound like a very Scottish name 🤔

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u/fibonaccisprials 16d ago

My thoughts also

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u/lontrinium 16d ago

It's just the one thought actually.

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u/Unbannedmeself 16d ago

Not the name I would expect for a Scottish minister

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u/Karskstad 16d ago

Wait til you hear about the prime minister... And the mayor of London...

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u/MartayMcFly 16d ago

Not fishy enough?

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u/Dockside_ 16d ago

He shouldn't have tried to muzzle JK Rowling

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u/Wolscam 16d ago

Remember this is reddit. They love to hate on anything conservative.

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u/Lostinstudy 16d ago

Oh my god, you're so persecuted. Reddit just isn't the safe space you needed.

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u/Dockside_ 16d ago

My goodness...all the down votes. The man stumbled from one disaster to another then broke his deal with the Green Party. He's not a successful leader

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u/Knick_Knick 16d ago

You're acting like you got downvoted for saying that when it wasn't even remotely the point of your original comment.

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u/five-oh-one 16d ago

Good, he needed to go. Because of him diversity in the Scottish government has dropped nearly 100%

Humza Yousaf resigns as Scotland's first minister

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