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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Referendum question

62 replies

millymollymandy46 · 02/10/2014 23:33

AIBU to think that Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond should have attended the Service of Reconciliation at St Giles Cathedral after the Referendum, arranged well before 18th September?

OP posts:
MrsTerryPratchett · 02/10/2014 23:35

Are they religious? If they are, do they believe in the separation of Church and State?

I wouldn't be going, much as I'd like everyone to be kind and nice to each other.

OldLadyKnowsSomething · 02/10/2014 23:36

YABU.

AnguaResurgam · 02/10/2014 23:39

Who organised the service?

If it's a state, or quasi-state, occasion then perhaps attendance ex-officio would be required. But as neither was there, I'm guessing the event did not have that status.

Original poster
millymollymandy46 · 02/10/2014 23:46

As I understand it, it was organised by the Moderator of the Church of Scotland.

www.churchofscotland.org.uk/news_and_events/news/2014/church-of-scotland-holds-referendum-service-of-unity

OP posts:
OldLadyKnowsSomething · 02/10/2014 23:49

So why should they have attended?

MrsTerryPratchett · 02/10/2014 23:49

Why on earth should they?

MrsTerryPratchett · 02/10/2014 23:49

x-posted...

AlpacaLypse · 02/10/2014 23:55

I think this whole religious 'unity' thing didn't really get organised until either after the referendum or within days before when it really looked a very close run thing.

Having said, I think it would have been sensible for at least one of the two (out of Salmond and Sturgeon) to have turned up. Bridge building is surely what all sides concerned need to be doing right now, and no matter how anyone personally feels about organised religion, the Church of Scotland is a powerful and respected organisation.

Original poster
millymollymandy46 · 03/10/2014 00:03

John Swinney attended so I appreciate that it's not that the SNP weren't represented.

www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/politics/referendum/351820/reconciliation-church-service-no-show-for-salmond-and-sturgeon/

However, personally, I think at least one of them should have attended.

OP posts:
OldLadyKnowsSomething · 03/10/2014 00:03

How many members does the CoS have, and how often do they update their records? (I joined in, um 1978, and emotionally left in the same moment... I am now atheist, and have been for years.) How many people attend CoS services weekly? What about Catholics, Muslims, Hindus... ???

The service was proposed in advance, before the polls got close, but inevitably could only appeal to a tiny minority of people. I see no reason for politicians to "show face" at such events, and actually find most of them utter hypocrites when they do.

(Like parties in power at WM who "show face" at Poppy Day events, while still cheerfully sending our young off to kill and die in illegal wars...)

MrsTerryPratchett · 03/10/2014 00:04

You haven't actually said why, though.

FannyFifer · 03/10/2014 00:17

Why?

FannyFifer · 03/10/2014 00:18

It really doesn't matter.

ChippingInLatteLover · 03/10/2014 00:21

Why are you asking now? This was done to death at the time!

Sorry, but it just seems like another goady thread.

PhaedraIsMyName · 03/10/2014 00:23

Salmond has always been very keen to be bestest friends with the Catholic Church in Scotland. Whether this is because he has faith or whether he personally may be less liberal on sexual politics than some on the left of his party might like (one of his other best friends being Soutar of course)or whether it's just to try to win the traditional working class Catholic vote from Labour I'm not sure.

Interestingly the composer James Macmillan has some very strong words to say about it.

blogs.spectator.co.uk/damian-thompson/2014/09/the-scottish-catholic-bishops-and-the-nationalists-a-scandal-is-coming-to-light/

OldLadyKnowsSomething · 03/10/2014 00:26

On what grounds do you say that Salmond is "best friends" with Soutar? MacMillan is a well-known bigot.

Original poster
millymollymandy46 · 03/10/2014 00:32

MrsTerryPratchett- because I think that the principle of the service, to promote unity within Scotland now, was a good one and that it would have been good if the FM and/or the DFM had been there too.

ChippingInLatteLover - I don't mean to be goady. It is just something that has bothered me over the last few days.

OP posts:
JellicleCat · 03/10/2014 00:32

Totally irrelevant, but I'm wondering of this is the first time the P&J has been linked to on Mumsnet?

PhaedraIsMyName · 03/10/2014 00:33

On what basis do you say James Macmillan is "a well known bigot"?

And as for Soutar sorry , how much has he bank rolled the SNP for?

Original poster
millymollymandy46 · 03/10/2014 00:38

JellicleCat - the P & J is an excellent publication so I would be surprised if it hadn't!

But delighted if I am the first to do so..!

OP posts:
OldLadyKnowsSomething · 03/10/2014 00:40

On the basis that he is, Phaedra. What about Ian Taylor and Vitol, with the Arkan connection, if you want to talk about dodgy donors? How about the permitted participants registered for No that included an offshoot of the BNP (people thrown out of the BNP for being too rightwing) and the Orange Order? (How would MacMillan like them apples?)

PhaedraIsMyName · 03/10/2014 00:46

Sorry James Macmillan is a bigot because you say so?

OldLadyKnowsSomething · 03/10/2014 00:50

No, MacMillan is a bigot because his own public pronouncements have shown him to be one. He's worse than Galloway on the "Catholics will be persecuted in an indy Scotland" theme. And your take on Ian Taylor, Vitol and Arkan is...?

PhaedraIsMyName · 03/10/2014 01:02

I think it comes down to Macmillan being a bigot because he didn't buy into the National Collective view of what artists in Scotland are supposed to think.

Having attended an exhibition organised by the National Collective I share Macmillan's scepticism about the quality of the work produced by its members.

I have no intention of debating your other points. The thread is about Salmond and Sturgeon's non attendance at a particular church event. So far as Salmond is concerned it's certainly not because he has any scuples about religion.