Joan McAlpine

In 2019, the Scottish Parliament was debating the Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill following a proposal from National Records of Scotland to include a non-binary sex option on the 2021 UK census in Scotland. As convenor of the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Relations Committee, and after a four-month public consultation, McAlpine authored a "highly critical" report, decrying the lack of consultation with women's groups and recommending that the census should ask questions based on biological sex. In February 2019, McAlpine tweeted explaining why she believes that the census should record "biological sex" and expressing her concern "as more men self ID as women while retaining male bodies and male genitals", leading to online abuse and the threat of deselection. Her claims about the funding and role of several leading women's organisations lead to the publication of an open-letter rebuking her claims, signed by organisations including Engender Scotland, Equate Scotland and Close the Gap. In May 2019, McAlpine's invitation for radical feminist Meghan Murphy to speak at Holyrood caused further controversy as a result of Murphy's perceived trans-exclusionary views. Writing in The Spectator, Stephen Daisley described McAlpine as "gender critical" and described the negative reaction she had received for her stance.

In November 2019, it was announced that McAlpine and Labour MSP Jenny Marra would be hosting an event on behalf of the "Women's Human Rights Campaign", an international campaign that launched in New York in March 2019. The Campaign's self-declared focus is on "the importance of keeping the current sex based definition of woman". The announcement was met with criticism from some feminist and LGBT groups, including Engender, The Equality Network and the Scottish Trans Alliance, who expressed their concerns that the Campaign's aims would breach Human Rights law, and in particular the rights of transgender people. However, a spokeswoman for the Campaign claimed that their aim was to "re-affirm women’s sex-based rights, as set out in international human rights documents".

In February 2014, it was reported that McAlpine had claimed £1,750 in expenses relating to photography. The photographer only completed six of the ten assignments paid for and refused to complete the work when their relationship broke down. McAlpine then repaid the expense claim. After the incident was made public, McAlpine referred her case to the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, but it was found that there was no case to answer.

In January 2012, McAlpine stated that individuals who criticised the policies of the SNP were 'anti-Scottish', provoking widespread condemnation from other political parties. In March 2012, McAlpine compared Scotlands' position in the UK with a woman in an abusive marriage with a domineering man and stated that rival political parties were behaving in a sexist and misogynistic manner.

In May 2012, McAlpine was reprimanded by the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament for failure to appear for Ministerial Questions to be asked a question which she had tabled in the Scottish Parliament, she was eating dinner in a restaurant. McAlpine is convenor of the Scottish Parliamentary Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Relations Committee.

McAlpine was elected as a list MSP for the South of Scotland region in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election. She has been a media adviser for the SNP. McAlpine wrote speeches for the then First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, and served as his Parliamentary Liaison Officer.

In November 2011 a member of McAlpine's staff, Gail Lythgoe, was found to have emailed a women's equality group, alleging that the Labour politician Ian Davidson has a history of bullying women and called on them to demonstrate against him whilst asking them not to reveal SNP involvement in the demonstration's instigation. The email was later leaked and Lythgoe publicly apologised for making unsubstantiated allegations, with the Labour Party stating that this was a result of an SNP "dirty tricks campaign" against Davidson and calling for an investigation.

In 1994 McAlpine co-authored a book on the history of the anti-poll tax campaign, A Time to Rage, with the political activist Tommy Sheridan. In 1999 a programme Border Television written and presented by McAlpine, Crossing the Border, received a commendation but no award at the New York Television Festival.

McAlpine began her career at the Greenock Telegraph in 1987. She went on to work for The Scotsman and The Sunday Times, where she won the Scottish Journalist of the Year award in 1999. In 2000 she was appointed editor of The Sunday Times Scotland and the following year became deputy editor of The Herald; the first woman to hold the Herald post, although not the first Scottish female newspaper editor. She also wrote a weekly column for The Scotsman. Her blog, Go Lassie Go, was voted Scotland's top media blog in 2010.

Joan McAlpine MSP (born 28 January 1962) is a Scottish journalist and Scottish National Party politician who has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the South Scotland region since 2011. She has a newspaper column in The Daily Record and is author of the blog Go Lassie Go, which won a Scottish media blog award.