On a more positive note

It says on the right of this page that Calton is not affiliated to any political party and, just to prove it, here are a few of his current 'likes':
Ed Miliband setting his sights on employers who exploit loopholes to pay workers less and firms who only advertise job vacancies abroad.
Nigel Farage on the Syrian refugee issue.
David Cameron on pensions - given that pensioners' savings are not earning any interest, it's the least he could do.
Danny Alexander on raising the personal tax allowance, which has been a boon to low earners.
The SNP's policy of free prescriptions.
Since we are still in the season of goodwill, and the year is not that old, Calton will leave his list of 'dislikes' for another day. He is trying to strike a positive note. Happy New Year!

It's not worth the paper it isn't written on

Calton is just not convinced that registrars (and other marriage celebrants) will not be forced to conduct gay marriages against their religion or principles if it becomes legal in Scotland, no matter what Alex Neil says, because some militant homosexuals will not be happy until they have forced everyone to agree with their viewpoint. The ink will hardly be dry on the legislation before a legal challenge is mounted, especially since the Scottish Government have made it clear that there will be no discriminatory opt-outs for public servants, including registrars, written into the legislation. The lack of such opt-outs also means that teachers who do not want to teach about same-sex marriage will not be protected. It seems that David Cameron has now realised that it was a mistake to force through gay marriage legislation in England, not least because of the slump in membership of local Conservative Associations. If only Alex Salmond would learn from others' mistakes. Deputy Presiding Officer Elaine Smith's suggestion that Scotland put same-sex marriage legislation on hold, until the impact of the change south of the border can be assessed, is eminently sensible in that context. Her fears that redefining marriage on the basis of 'love' will lead in future to the legalisation of polygamous relationships are entirely reasonable - after all, why not? - and it is to her credit that she is willing to speak out, given the vilification she has been subjected to. How many other MSPs have effectively been silenced by the virulence of pro-gay marriage campaigners?

Head in the sand

Calton is just not convinced that our Prime Minister is right to say that the Woolwich murder was a betrayal of Islam and the Muslim community. Tony Blair is much nearer the truth when he talks of a "strain within Islam" which is "not the province of a few extremists" and is "not compatible with pluralistic, liberal, open-minded societies". Blair is urging politicians to be honest about the problem - something which Cameron seems to be reluctant to do. Of course it's easy for the former PM to talk - he no longer has to worry about votes - but that doesn't mean that what he says is not true. We will never deal with radical Muslims as long as we pretend that their actions have nothing to do with the teachings of Islam. In fact, we insult the radicals by saying that we know their motivation better than they do. Instead, if we want to get to grips with the problem of radicalised British Muslims, we need to start by understanding them, and that means taking our heads out of the sand and facing some difficult truths. Unfortunately, although our PM is here in body, his head still seems buried in an Ibiza beach.

So predictable - unlike the Donside by-election

Is it any surprise that there is growing support for the idea that we should leave the EU when the European Council, backed by the European Parliament, has just agreed the European Commission's request for an extra £6.2bn to be added to the budget, in spite of Cameron talking tough a few weeks ago. Calton doesn't like to say "I told you so" but ... it was entirely predictable that this would happen, and it completely knocks the legs out from under the Prime Minister's idea that he can renegotiate our position within the EU. We just don't have that much clout. However, it is good to see that one of the three main parties (four in Scotland) is now willing to give the British people a say regarding our continued membership of the EU. Labour and the Libdems are going to look increasingly out of touch with the electorate if they continue to refuse to back an in-out referendum on the EU, especially if, as seems likely, UKIP continue to make gains in elections. The Aberdeen Donside by-election will be an interesting indicator of UKIP's support in Scotland, with the announcement of Otto Inglis as their candidate. (Inglis previously contested Dunfermline and West Fife in the last Westminster election.) Calton awaits the outcome, which is anything but predictable, with interest. (And perhaps, given UKIP's recent share of the vote down south, he should be talking of four main parties, five in Scotland?)

Heading for the cliff

Enough already. Just when we thought that EU leaders had agreed a budget, the EU Parliament wants to  renegotiate it. What are the chances of it being agreed by the end of the year, in order to stop a funding shortfall? Slim to none, in Calton's book. Looks like the MEPs are suffering from fiscal cliff envy - anything the US can do, Europe can do better. We should never have signed the Lisbon Treaty, which is what gave the EU Parliament the power to throw a spanner in the works. Bad idea. It is not inconceivable that all David Cameron's efforts to impose some sort of restraint on EU spending will be overturned by free-spending, anti-austerity MEPs as they rush, lemming-like, towards the cliff. Bring on the EU referendum Dave!

Man up and call off the cybernats

We're all going to be filthy rich (dances on table top) ... well maybe. Calton thinks that he will just wait a while before buying a boat and calling it the Silver Dollar, because oil prices can go down as well as up. It all depends on who you listen to. Undeterred by David Cameron's bruising encounter with the OBR this week, John Swinney has decided to go head-to-head with them over oil revenue forecasts. Nothing like not learning from other peoples' mistakes. Of course Swinney has to pull something from the bag after the embarrassing leak of last week. The trouble is, he's now leaving the SNP open to the charge of just manufacturing their own figures whenever those of other people don't suit them. (The same goes for the Scotland in or out of the EU post-independence argument.) At some point, the SNP are going to have to accept that not every statistic or report is going to back independence and their response should be to give a reasoned answer and get on with it, not counter with their own set of figures or pet expert. And slagging off a journalist like Douglas Fraser just because they don't like what he says does not help their cause. Man up, SNP and call off the cybernats.

Cockroach or fruitcake?

So Nigel Farage has been cosying up to Rupert Murdoch. So what? Calton wishes a few politicians would cosy up to him because that cold wind coming off the North Sea is really getting in amongst his feathers! Perhaps he should move temporarily to Brighton - there's certainly plenty of hot air coming out of the Libdem conference. Good old Ming seems to have lost his marbles, as demonstrated by his Radio 4 interview where he said that Eastleigh gave them "cause for optimism". They turned out in strength and still only managed 32% of the vote! If rumours of Farage's conversation with Murdoch are true and UKIP do manage to tie up with the Tories under someone other than Cameron, the Libdems are stuffed. Tis a result devoutly to be desired because, let's face it, who wants to be governed by a party of cockroaches? Calton would rather have fruitcakes any day.

Common sense for the common man

Knee-jerk reactions are never a good idea but one very good definition of stupidity is 'doing the same thing and expecting a different result'. Another very good definition of stupidity is thinking that winning Eastleigh on just 32% of the vote vindicates the Libdems going into coalition with the Tories and gives them more muscle in negotiations with their bedfellows. Dream on Nick. Your party only retained the seat because the anti-EU, keep-marriage-as-it-is vote was split between UKIP and the Tories. Since Dave seems determined to hang on to what he sees as the 'common ground' (does he even know the meaning of the word 'common'?) and UKIP are now on a roll with their 'common-sense' policies, we can hopefully look forward to right-of-centre voters abandoning the good ship Conservative next time and the country's first UKIP MP. Not that Calton agrees with all UKIP's policies but Nigel Farage is quite right when he says, speaking of the main three parties, that "you can't put a cigarette paper between them on policy". They are also completely out of touch with the common man. Time for a shake-up.

PC gone mad at Strathclyde HQ

Interesting that in all the hand-wringing, analyses and excuses no-one is mentioning the fact that over half the voters in Eastleigh chose candidates who are opposed to same-sex marriage. Ditto the EU. Perhaps if Conservative candidate Maria Hutchings had been able to be more vocal about her Euro-scepticism and support for traditional marriage she might not have been pushed into third place by UKIP. Unfortunately it is all too easy for Cameron to dismiss this as a 'protest vote' and a typical mid-term by-election result. Calton is wondering what his excuse will be in 2015.

In another, related, vein, it has come to Calton's attention that the Crazy Rev has been sacked as Chaplain to Strathclyde Police for expressing support for traditional marriage on his personal blog. What on earth did the Force expect? He's a Minister of the Gospel for God's sake! This is political correctness gone mad with a vengeance. Are they also going to sack all the Roman Catholic chaplains? And the Moslem ones, if they have any? Does the spiritual health and comfort of Roman Catholic or Evangelical Christian or Moslem coppers not matter any more? And whatever happened to freedom of speech? This is a very worrying development, especially for bloggers. Where will it end?

A double-edged sword

Given that Pope Benedict XVI is an enthusiastic promoter of the 'new evangelism', by which the Roman Catholic Church aims to bring straying sheep back into its fold, and, given that one of the fattest of those sheep is the Church of England, the fact that David Cameron recently gave the Pope a copy of the Authorised (King James) Version of the Bible is particularly apposite, as Archbishop Cranmer has already noted. Calton agrees with His Grace that Cameron probably didn't realise the significance of the gift but someone, somewhere obviously wanted to send a 'hands off our church' message to His Holiness (who seems to be described as 'that man of sin' if Calton reads the introduction to his copy of the AV aright). What is clear, is that the translators of the AV considered it of first importance that the people of Great Britain should have a translation of God's Holy Truth in their own language and they looked to King James VI & I to support and protect them in this endeavour. Now, Cameron is hell-bent on introducing legislation which will cause those who believe in all of God's Holy Truth, as expressed in the Bible, to be discriminated against and criminalised. He seems to have forgotten one of the other descriptions of God's Word - 'sharper than any double-edged sword'.

Dave in Wonderland

How on earth can an incredibly divisive bill possibly make our society stronger? David Cameron is definitely in Alice in Wonderland territory with this one, as the Honourable Member for Thanet North so aptly put it. Calton is wondering just what bottle the Prime Minister has been drinking from to give him such a distorted view of reality. He has been likened to a 'disco dad' in his attempts to appear liberal and has failed to convince many homosexuals that he really has their best interests at heart. He has also completely failed to take the majority of his party with him on the issue of gay marriage and so his hopes of rebranding his party are now in tatters. Just in time for the Eastleigh by-election. Nice one Dave.

Warning - marriage can be bad for your career

If, as Culture Secretary Maria Miller says, the Conservatives think marriage is a good thing, they should be getting on with their manifesto promise to introduce tax breaks for married couples, not trying to destroy the very concept of marriage by stretching the definition to include relationships it was never meant to cover. Marriage is, by its very nature, not inclusive - it is the exclusive life-long relationship between a man and a woman who have promised to have and to hold until death parts them. That is not to say that other sorts of loving or committed relationships are not possible - they are just not marriages. Rumour has it that David Cameron's wife is pushing her husband to bring in same-sex marriage legislation. If so, she may well be seeing a lot more of him after 2015 and he might have the distinction of being one of the few politicians whose career was ended by his marriage, rather than the other way about.

Bare-faced cheek

Well, it looks like the choice open to us in Scotland is to be ruled by Brussels or ruled by London because the SNP don't have the bottle to rule from Edinburgh. They'd rather continue to have someone else to blame post-independence when things don't get better. Nicola Sturgeon wants us to be like Ireland, whose budget is now scrutinised by the EU because they've had to be bailed out of their financial difficulties. If it wasn't so sad it would be laughable - Ireland is the tiger economy which can't even mee-ow these days unless Brussels gives it permission. It is the great Broon's boom and bust writ large, complete with ghost towns. At least their European Affairs Minister still has some teeth, and a good sense of timing. Her intervention today over Scotland's continued EU membership post-independence probably had our Deputy First Minister spitting nails. Serves Nicola right for having the chutzpah to accuse David Cameron of causing business uncertainty and threatening Scottish jobs by calling for a referendum! What a cheek! Does the bare-faced effrontery of the SNP know no bounds? It seems not.

An unconstitutional bill

Sovereignty and self-determination - one way or another they are filling the news these days. Unfortunately some of our politicians don't seem to have grasped the meaning of the words. Cameron has been forced into a referendum promise on the EU because many people feel that we have given away too much sovereignty to Europe. Alex Salmond wants self-determination for Scotland, only to hand it to Brussels instead of London. As Calton understands it, the reason why we don't allow our Monarch to be a Roman Catholic is because Roman Catholics are subject to the Pope, who is not only the Head of the Roman Catholic Church but is also the Head of the Vatican State. If our Monarch was Roman Catholic, it would put our Sovereignty under the rule of the Vatican. (And the Head of the Church of England under the Pope.) So Cameron wants to repatriate powers from Brussels only to potentially hand them to Rome at some future date by abolishing the ban on successors to the throne marrying Roman Catholics. Saying that any children from such a union will not be brought up as Roman Catholics is a nonsense because any decent Roman Catholic will want to educate their children in the Roman Catholic faith. Calton is all for changing the rules of succession to stop girls being ousted by younger brothers but any other change needs to be properly scrutinised, not rushed through parliament without debate, as Cameron and Clegg are now doing. Otherwise the constitutional consequences could be profound. (For more on those consequences read this article by Cranmer.)


PS. Calton often thinks that it would be no bad thing if the Church of England was disestablished, but there's no point in doing so just to replace it with the Church of Rome.

It's a bit rich Dave

It's a bit rich for David Cameron to say that people "shouldn't suffer discrimination due to religious beliefs" after Nadia Eweida won her case at the European Court of Human Rights. This is the man whose government did not support Eweida and three other Christians when they claimed that the government failed to protect their human rights. This is the man whose decision to go ahead with same-sex marriage legislation will cause many Christians, and those of other faiths, to be discriminated against in the workplace, when they try to adopt or foster children, when they object to their children being taught that homosexual marriage is equal to heterosexual marriage. This is the man on whose watch Christians have been demoted or sacked because they do not agree with same-sex marriage and street preachers have been arrested for simply quoting from the Bible. Cameron plays the 'Christian' card when it suits him but Calton, for one, isn't buying it. Handsome is as handsome does Dave.

A false idea of equality

Calton found it quite chilling the way that three of the panel in last night's Any Questions? were either totally complacent that the introduction of same-sex marriage would have no effect on those who disagreed with it or were quite happy to see anyone who did disagree with it given the sack. Bronwen Maddox thinks that people should be free to do as they like, except refuse to marry a gay couple, Oliver Letwin has no idea of the impact the legislation which he supports is going to have on teachers and Ben Bradshaw seems to think that, as long as churches are not forced to conduct gay marriages, everything's fine. In Calton's opinion, only UKIP's Steve Crowther correctly analysed the situation we now have when he said that it was all about David Cameron, who has deliberately crossed the road to pick a fight with religious groups. No wonder voters are switching to UKIP. Same-sex marriage legislation will only make this country a fairer society if there is reasonable accommodation of those who disagree with it. What the Westminster and Scottish Governments need to remember is that people like Lillian Ladele and Gary McFarlane have not changed their beliefs - the Government has changed the rules. Both those people have been sacked when reasonable accommodation could have been made for them. They have been sacrificed to the god of a false idea of equality and to Cameron's ambition. They won't be the last.

Oh - and Jonathan - don't look now but your anti-UKIP prejudice is showing.

Freedom Fries and Horse Burgers

The President of the European Parliament has warned that, if the UK tries to renegotiate its agreement with the EU, it could result in the EU breaking up. Here's hoping! 'Tis a disintegration much to be desired, here, if not in the State of Denmark. Meanwhile, President Obama continues to usurp the democratic role of the British people by pressuring David Cameron to stay in Europe, for the sake of the USA, ignoring the fact that the British Prime Minister is not bound to act in the best interests of American citizens. If the USA is so keen on the EU they should join it themselves instead of trying to use a surrogate. It is only 10 years since Americans were renaming those little thin things that come with burgers 'Freedom Fries' over France's opposition to the 2003 Iraq invasion. Since when did Europe become flavour of the month with the burger-eating invasion-monkeys? Do they really want their favourite food laced with horse-meat?

Attack Fox

David Cameron must be wishing that he had enough of a majority to overturn the ban on hunting foxes with dogs after Liam Fox's recent intervention on same-sex marriage. With phrases like "ill thought through" and "made on the hoof", the former Defence Secretary has gone on the attack and given the Government a mauling over its proposed legislation. Quite right too - it's a dog's breakfast of a bill, particularly with regard to the Church of England exemption. It seems to Calton, and others, that the reason Cameron (and Salmond north of the border) are so keen to press ahead with this particular legislation has more to do with their legacies than anything else. They may not be able to sort the welfare state or bring down the deficit (or achieve Scottish independence) but they can always say that they were the ones who introduced gay marriage. And, by the time society wakes up to the fact that marriage and the family have been fatally undermined by lax divorce laws, removal of tax benefits for married couples and the redefinition of the very nature of marriage, both Cameron and Salmond will be history. That day can't come too soon for Calton.

Tell them where to go Dave!

Oh great. Yesterday the Americans were expressing concern over our possible exit from the EU. Now we have the Germans weighing in and telling us we're better off in Europe. Well they would say that, wouldn't they! They don't want to lose one of the few net contributors to the project. Unemployment in Spain is around 25%, Greece is an economic ruin and yet we're supposed to believe that being a part of the EU is economically beneficial. What rot. We've clearly got the Germans worried, judging by their scare-mongering tactics, but they have a cheek to tell us we can't renegotiate treaties when they are busy rewriting the rules of the Eurozone, with an impact on all member countries of the EU. Calton's German does not extend to the equivalent of "butt out" but that is definitely what Dave should be saying to Angela. Schnell!

Bring it on Dave!

As an advocate of free speech, Calton defends the right of the US to express its concern over our future relationship with the EU. It's a free world, after all, and we are free to tell the US to mind its own business. Especially since they have only temporarily avoided the fiscal cliff - perhaps a bit more looking inward on their part would not go amiss. The EU is not what it was even 12 months ago, never mind when we first joined, and so David Cameron is quite right to look at renegotiating the deal, especially in the light of the ever closer integration of the Eurozone countries, with corresponding treaty changes. It has taken a while but the Great British public are finally waking up to the fact that the EU train is going full steam ahead towards a European super-state and that is a direction many people in the UK do not wish to go. It's high time we had a referendum on our continued membership of the EU. Bring it on Dave!