Exclusive Faith-based Cults

Jackson Carlaw's recent comparison of the SNP to an "evangelical faith-based cult" may not, and indeed is not, going down well with some evangelical Christians and Calton has some sympathy with them. However Carlaw is quite right in his analysis. Whether it will help him to electoral victory is another matter ...

Meanwhile Christians are patting themselves on the back at the news that "one of them" has just been appointed Scottish Finance Minister, replacing the emotionally immature Derek Mackay, who is apparently now getting medically assessed after bombarding a 16 year old boy with 270 messages. What these Christians don't seem to understand is that cults are exclusive. Mutually exclusive. You can only belong to one at a time. Their leaders demand unquestioning obedience and a total lack of criticism. You have to give your all, 24/7 - you can't be a member of one cult on a Sunday and another Monday to Friday. It doesn't work that way. Which takes us back to Kate Forbes. It is claimed she is a Christian but, from what Calton can see, she seems to be a fully paid up member of the cult of Nicola. Her arrogant tweet on the resignation of Sajid Javid was certainly pure SNP.

With the banning of Billy Graham's son Franklin by SNP-led Glasgow City Council, the battle lines have been drawn. The SNP are ploughing ahead with gender recognition proposals which many Christians (and feminists) are unhappy with and they are promoting porn in our schools. If Forbes doesn't have the sense to get out she may well be pushed out for holding views unacceptable to the SNP cult. (The murmurings have already started.)

In the meantime Calton would like to remind her that a person can only serve one master (or mistress).

A stark contrast

It is frightening the way some people are trying to silence their opponents in this supposedly democratic country. The latest example Calton has heard was Jeanette Winterson on Any Questions? last night. She had been given plenty of air time to make her points, some of which were quite pertinent, but that didn't stop her trying to silence Andrew Lansley when his turn came. When told by Jonathan Dimbleby that Lansley was entitled to have his say, her response was "I'm not sure about that" and repeated shouts of "NO". Not only was this extremely rude, it was a deliberate attempt to stop another panellist from putting forward his point of view and it was totally undemocratic. Thankfully Dimbleby sat on her (metaphorically speaking) but not before she'd shown herself to be a screeching dictator with no time for anyone else's views. The very essence of democracy is free speech. The minute we start denying certain people the right to air their opinions, we start down the slippery slope of censorship which leads to dictatorship. Winterson's behaviour was the very opposite of another man in the news this week - Nelson Mandela. He was willing to work with his opponents and to listen to them. That is why he is being revered right now. The contrast with Winterson could not be more stark.

Police Scotland - making it up as they go along?

It seems that Police Scotland have unilaterally decided that the Bible is illegal, or, at least, the Gospel of John, which is what a street preacher was quoting from when he was arrested in Perth on Wednesday. Actually, it seems that officers were making up laws on the hoof as, according to preacher Josh Williamson, they first of all complained that he was too loud, then told him that the noise level was not an issue but someone had made a complaint and then, finally, that the content of his message was illegal before arresting him for breach of the peace. They also arrested another man who protested against Williamson's arrest on the grounds that it was a denial of free speech. Now, as Calton understands it, the Police are meant to uphold the law, not invent it. Preaching the gospel is not a criminal offence in Scotland. Williamson was not using amplifiers and was willing to tone his voice down to an acceptable volume if asked to do so. Unfortunately it seems that the Police were determined to stop Williamson preaching and were grasping at any excuse to do so. We still have freedom of speech in this country but only if the Police do not take the law into their own hands. Calton is in total agreement with Andrea Minichiello Williams, CEO of Christian Legal Centre, who has said of this latest arrest that “Freedom of speech is a precious freedom that we must uphold. This injustice must be tackled to halt the chilling effect already felt by many Christians. The threat to freedom of speech is a concern for wider society, not just for Christians. ... It’s evident that police all over the UK need clear guidance on this matter. ... It’s up to police chiefs to take a lead and issue guidelines so that this stops happening.” Calton also wonders if Williamson would have been arrested had he been preaching from the Koran.

Another step towards the Scottish Autumn

It's not surprising that the Scottish Government are bringing forward a bill on same-sex marriage before the results of their consultation on it have been published. These government consultations are looking increasingly like irrelevant nods to public opinion by a party which has no intention of listening to the electorate. All Alex Salmond's promises about protecting the rights and freedoms of those who disagree with gay marriage are only so much hot air - the only ones who will be protected, it seems, are ministers or denominations who do not want to conduct the ceremonies. There does not seem to be any protection for teachers, registrars, foster carers and would-be adopters, social workers, marriage guidance counsellors and so on and so on. If the bill is passed, it will be a huge step backwards for freedom of conscience in Scotland and a big step towards the Scottish Autumn. The fact that the SNP are trying to introduce it before the independence referendum shows some desperation on their part - they have presumably come under intense pressure from the gay lobby to do so. Not content with sowing division in Scotland with their nationalist policies, the SNP are now set to tear the nation apart over gay marriage. Their legacy is already apparent; their fate will not be long in coming.

Haste ye back Nigel!

Calton thought for a minute that Alex Salmond was talking about himself when he was recorded as saying "This is a man who doesn't like getting challenged because, when the obnoxious views of his party are put to him, his bubble deflates very quickly." but then Calton realised that our First Minister never deflates so he must have been talking about Nigel Farage, thereby earning this blog's Black Pot of the Month award. The way Farage has been treated in Scotland, not just by the demonstrators yesterday but also by the presenter of Good Morning Scotland this morning and by the SNP leader who dismissed him by saying "people shouldn't take someone of Mr Farage's mentality seriously", is nothing short of shameful. It casts all Scots in a bad light and exposes the nasty underbelly of Scottish Nationalism. Farage is quite right to call it fascism. As someone on twitter so aptly put it:

Farage exposed unpalatable truth that Scottish independence is as much about hatred of the English as the desire to be a sovereign nation
— Seat of Mars (@seatofmars) May 17, 2013

Calton does not agree with all Farage's views but you've got to like someone who continues to speak his mind in the face of those who try to bully and intimidate us into silence. Haste ye back Nigel!

Not enough hot air

It seems that there is no point in looking to Holyrood for an alternative energy source - students have measured the hot air coming out of Westminster and have discovered that, even if all the MPs were talking at once, they would only generate the equivalent of 10 hairdryers! No wonder Calton is freezing - even if you add the heat generated by MSPs burning off their political lunches you still wouldn't get enough to keep the eyrie at a reasonable temperature. Meanwhile the chill wind of press restriction continues to blow through both parliaments - Holyrood Mouse must be feeling a bit like the hamster which was rescued from a blizzard earlier this week. Calton has just signed the Blog Off petition for an unregulated blogosphere and Nick Pickles, Director of Big Brother Watch, has a thoughful article on bloggers and press regulation on Conservative Home. Depending on who you listen to, blogs such as this one, which is not for profit and written by one person, would not be covered by the proposed new Royal Charter however we have yet to find out what the impact on Scotland will be and so Calton is keeping his tinder dry (as much as he can in this weather). The threat to freedom of speech remains a very real one.

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?

Orwell - a prophet for our time

Calton is wondering if it was purely coincidental that Radio 4 should choose to do a season on George Orwell precisely when Westminster was voting on redefining marriage. It has certainly been extremely apt. Hearing the new adaptation of 1984 on the radio this afternoon was chilling, all the more so because so many of Orwell's predictions have come true. We may not quite have the thought police but expressing an opinion on social media could well cost you your career or your freedom. If you dare to go against the current political consensus and vote against gay marriage in the Commons you get death threats. Anyone who disagrees with lesbian feminist Julie Bindel (and others like her) gets labelled a bigot. There is an atmosphere of fear and hate surrounding the current debate on marriage which prevents many people from speaking their mind. Some people in this country want to dictate what we think, by force if necessary. That's called totalitarianism and it's what Orwell fought against. It's high time those of us who value freedom of speech and thought followed his example.

A year in posts

Today is the 1st anniversary of this blog. It has been quite an eventful year, with issues such as independence, the state of the EU and same-sex marriage dominating the political headlines. All of these issues and more have been covered by Calton over the course of the last 12 months and it is interesting to see which posts have attracted the most attention. By far and away the most popular in terms of hits has been It's raining, for reasons which remain inexplicable to Calton. Aye right Willie! has also been popular, which is more than can be said for the Libdems generally. Posts on the Biased Broadcasting Corporation got a lot of hits with the latest post being picked up by other BBC-monitoring websites, showing that Calton is not alone in his concerns about Auntie.

One of Calton's favourite blogs is Archbishop Cranmer and Calton's post in support of His Grace proved popular, dealing, as it did, with issues of free speech and the threats thereto. As a blogger, free speech is something very dear to Calton's heart because, without it, this blog would cease to exist. Doubtless some SNP supporters would think that a good thing. Calton did not set out to write an anti-SNP blog, however the heads of Scotland's current ruling party have got so inflated recently that it is hard to resist the temptation to stick a talon in and pop them. It is also impossible to let their deluded assertions go unchallenged because the stakes are too high.

Last, but not least, on the year's roundup, posts on the Farepak scandal received a fair number of hits, showing that it is still a live issue 6 years later, more's the pity. If you have a burning issue you'd like to see covered, feel free to email Calton (his address can be found under 'profile') and he will give it his consideration. Comments on posts are always welcome, provided they are civil. (Cybernats take note.)

Big Brother is watching you

Calton is very relieved to see that Adrian Smith has won his case against Trafford Housing Trust. Mr Smith wrote a comment on his personal facebook page, in his own time, on his own computer, saying that gay church weddings were "an equality too far". Trafford Housing Trust demoted him and slashed his pay because it thought that his comments "might upset co-workers". Now, if Smith had used the Trust's email system to send an email to all his colleagues airing his views on same-sex marriage the Trust might have had a point. As it is, Calton finds it very worrying that an employer should seek to have so much control over the expression of religious or political views by its employees in their own time and on their own personal social media pages. It's bad enough that you can now get your collar felt for upsetting someone by stating your opinions (or displaying Bible verses). Trafford Housing Trust have taken this one step further by disciplining an employee for expressing views which 'might' upset someone! If this sort of thing continues, the title of George Orwell's seminal work will only have been out by 28 years.

A looming superstorm

Alex Salmond has referred himself to an independent assessor over allegations that he misled Holyrood over the EU legal advice affair. Calton would also like to see an independent investigation into whether or not Salmond can keep the promises he has made to "protect the important principles of freedom of speech, conscience and declaration of faith" if same-sex marriage legislation goes ahead. The Scottish Government has made a number of assertions over the last few months about protecting the rights and freedoms of those who oppose same-sex marriage but it now seems that they may not have the power to do so, given that it would require changes to UK equality legislation, UK employment legislation and UK charity legislation. It also seems that they may not have the will to do so, given that the only protection being considered by the Scottish Government applies to individual marriage celebrants who do not wish to conduct same-sex weddings. This leaves other individuals who do not agree with same-sex marriage, such as teachers, youth workers, foster carers, parents and bloggers like Calton, open to discrimination and possible legal action because of their views, contrary to the impression which the First Minister has given whenever the issue of same-sex marriage and its impact on freedom of speech and religion is raised. The fracas over EU legal advice has left Salmond blustering in the wind but that will be nothing compared with the superstorm which will erupt if it turns out that his promises to protect freedom of speech are only so much hot air.

More on free speech

Following on from yesterday's comment on free speech, Calton is concerned to see in the news that some of the banners at today's Muslim rally in front of Holyrood carried the slogan "No religion is allowed to insult any other religion". This, along with demands for an international law against religious hatred, is deeply worrying to anyone who, like Calton, values free speech. There is a big difference between insult and hatred and the two should not be confused. Apart from anything else, who decides what is insulting? One man's insult may be another's term of endearment. Stirring up hatred on the basis of religion or race or anything else is abhorrent and should rightly be punished however legislating on the basis of insult, real or perceived, is a minefield. No-one is saying it's pleasant to have your beliefs ridiculed but the alternative is a total erosion of our right to free speech. As a comment doing the rounds of facebook says "Internet videos will insult your religion. Get over it."

Keeping speech and prescriptions free

Calton is not sure that it would be a good idea to remove the 'no overnight parking' signs from Highland laybys. Given the increase in 'wild' camping and caravanning in these times of austerity, this would seem like a green light to low-budget holidaymakers to foul our laybys, with Highland Council picking up the tab. Highland council tax payers may wish to make their feelings about this known to their elected representatives.

Abuse of any sort is foul, however Calton is glad to see that the DPP in England and Wales considers that the bar should be set pretty high before prosecuting, in order to defend freedom of speech. Hopefully the same common-sense approach will prevail in Scotland.

Finally, in today's smorgasbord of  unrelated comments, Calton welcomes the commitment made in today's SNP budget to free prescriptions and affordable housing. He just wishes that John Swinney would stop bemoaning the fact that he doesn't have all the fiscal levers he would like - Swinney has obviously missed his true vocation as an old-fashioned railway signalman. If he loses his job as Finance Minister he could always try pulling pints at his local.

In support of His Grace

First it was Boris banning bus ads because they don't agree with his worldview. Now the Advertising Standards Authority has been hounding a long-dead Archbishop for promoting a traditional view of marriage. (See Cranmer entry for 11th May 2012.) Is it just a coincidence that the Chairman of the ASA is Lord Smith (former Labour MP Chris Smith) who is also Vice President of The Campaign for Homosexual Equality? Calton has no plans to introduce advertising on this blog in the near future however he quite understands the reasons why other bloggers do so (money) and he is very worried about the way Cranmer has been treated by the ASA. It seems to Calton that this is an attack on free speech by stealth and free speech is something very dear to Calton's heart. He therefore fully supports the stance Cranmer has taken and also the 'Feel Free To Insult Me' campaign which has been launched to lobby for the repeal of section five of the 1986 Public Order Act. This is an English Act, however we are not so separate yet that what happens south of the Border does not affect us here in Scotland and, in this internet age, it is not always clear where one jurisdiction ends and another begins. It is high time we scrapped the pernicious idea that just because someone feels offended, a crime has been committed.

Some people think differently to you - get over it

As a blogger, Calton values freedom of speech above almost everything else. It was therefore with some concern that he read of the banning of an ex-gay advert from London buses. To be honest, he finds both the pro and ex-gay adverts rather aggressive with their 'get over it' tagline and thinks that neither of them do their causes any favours, but he is concerned that only one of the adverts will get an airing (on the buses at any rate). Do we still value free speech in this country or not? Who was it said that he didn't like someone's opinions but would defend to the death that person's right to air them? Calton thinks we should all get over being so easily offended by anything that doesn't match our own tiny world view.

Calton's Easter Message

Calton thinks that the secularist lady Clare on Radio Scotland's Call Kaye program yesterday was at least 30 years out of date with her call to have the influence of religion taken out of schools and the state. You have only to look at the number of people in Scotland's supermarkets, garden centres and DIY stores on Sunday morning and compare it with the number of people in church to realise that Scotland is already a secular state, with more people worshipping the Easter Bunny which lays the chocolate eggs than worshipping the risen Christ. These days, ministers of religion are severely circumscribed in what they can say if invited to school assemblies in state schools and the festivals associated with other religions are celebrated in the classroom in addition to Christmas and Easter. No-one is forcing anyone to believe in any God, however it seems that even the mention of religion is enough to get the secularlists up-in-arms. They are the ones who are intolerant because they will not tolerate anything other than their own secularism, which is becoming increasingly, and worryingly, militant. They also ignore the influence which christianity has had in our history. A nation which forgets where it has come from and what has shaped it is a sorry nation indeed. What we should be aiming for is not a secular society but a tolerant one, where people of all faiths and none are free to live and worship as they wish and wear the symbols of their faith openly and without fear.

Journalist objects to free speech

Nigel Farage faced a barrage of abuse for bringing up the subject of Europe in this week's Any Questions? on Radio 4, particularly from fellow-panelist and journalist Viv Groskop. Hello? Earth to Groskop? The whole raison d'etre of Farage's party UKIP is to campaign against the EU. That's why he's in politics and that's why he gets invited onto shows like Any Questions? If he didn't mention Europe there would be something wrong. Now, Calton sometimes wonders if he's mistaken, but the UK is still supposedly a democratic nation where free speech is not only allowed but applauded (or used to be anyway). If the mainstream political parties were not all in the thrall of Europe there would be no need for Farage and his party. As it is, Calton does not agree with all that Farage says but he defends absolutely Farage's right to say it, in any forum where he has the opportunity. It was good to hear Jonathan Dimbleby also making this point at the end of the program. It's just a pity he didn't make it sooner.