Gender Recognition Reform Bill: Nicola Sturgeon insults Scotland's intelligence by denying relevance of rape case to her legislation – Brian Wilson

It is quite an achievement to have 95 per cent of the Scottish population nodding in agreement with Douglas Ross.

However, the Scottish Conservative leader surely spoke for the nation, however transiently, when he told the First Minister: “We think it is wrong that a rapist is sent to a women’s prison.” Amidst the fall-out from Adam Graham’s conviction, one aspect speaks to a wider truth – the moral cowardice of those, led by the First Minister, who denied a connection between this case and their treasured legislation.

While it is self-evident such cases can arise without the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, it is equally self-evident – statistically and behaviourally – that if enacted it would increase the level of probability. The Bill’s promoters might claim, however implausibly, that this undesirable consequence is outweighed by other benefits. But simply to deny the Bill’s relevance to the Graham case, as Ms Sturgeon did, is insulting to Scotland’s collective intelligence.

So too was the initial attempt to pass the buck to the Scottish Prison Service. The idea that this control-freak, micro-managing government stood aside in order to leave such sensitive decision-making to SPS officials was a joke in poor taste.

Nicola Sturgeon sensed the danger created by the presence of a rapist in a women's prison (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Sturgeon’s doormats, like Keith Brown, were obliged to mouth this mantra before being left floating in limbo when the great leader sniffed danger and advised the SPS “with crystal clarity”, according to her spin-doctors, to get Graham out of Cornton Vale, pronto. There is no principle our First Minister values more highly than self-preservation.