Forbes' lapse

SNP MSP, Kate Forbes, appears to have blown her chances in the race to become her party's new leader and First Minister of Scotland almost before the echoes of the starter's gun subsided.

Where to begin? Recently I wrote about 'woke' but now it seems I must move on to cancel culture. Ms Forbes' announcement (some commentators have said honest, others hurtful, but almost all unwise) that had she been an MSP at the time she would not have voted in favour of same sex marriage when it was put to the Scottish Parliament has prompted a predictably angry and hurt reaction.

As a member of the socially conservative evangelical Free Church of Scotland, the so-called 'Wee Frees', she said that the public "were longing for a politician to answer straight questions with straight answers". Well, they certainly got a straight, in the sense of heterosexist, answer to this one and, for very many, her ineptitude was enough to decide the matter. And not in her favour.

Ms Forbes, in a hole but still digging furiously, went on to say "I will defend to the hilt everybody’s right in a pluralistic and tolerant society to live and to love free of harassment and fear. And in the same way I hope others can be afforded the rights as people of faith to practise fairly mainstream teaching. That is the nuance that we need to capture.” I'm sorry, Ms Forbes, but your search for nuance sounds more like sophistry to me. You say "defend to the hilt" but how can you be believed when you have made your hardline position on certain issues so clear? In other words, if similar contentious issues were to arise under your leadership, would you vote any differently? Patently not. 

Why should the LGBTQ+ community in Scotland, therefore, have any faith in her willingness to support them? And, talking of faith, she goes on to speak of "fairly mainstream teaching". I might remind her that burning heretics at the stake was "fairly mainstream teaching" a few hundred years ago, as was John Knox's misogynistic opinion of 'the monstrous regiment [rule] of women'! Must we  in the LGBTQ+ community wait yet more centuries for such entrenched and discriminatory attitudes to change? 

No, I'm afraid it won't wash. Frankly, such views are incompatible with politics in a modern western pluralistic society and therefore I suggest Ms Forbes should withdraw from public life if she feels unable to unequivocally support minority communities in their battle against prejudice and inequality. I'm quite willing to believe that hers are sincerely held religious beliefs but they are anachronistic and plain wrong. 

No-one holding such views should be allowed anywhere near the levers of power. How can any marginalised voter be expected to trust a person with such abhorrent views to fairly represent their needs or protect their interests? In a private individual such views may be deemed a matter of personal conviction and religious conscience but in the public sphere they smack of bigotry and intolerance. 

Things move on, socially, politically and even doctrinally. Politicians like Ms Forbes who feel uncomfortable with the way social attitudes are changing in terms of improving people's lives and making for a fairer, kinder, more tolerant society, face a dilemma. It is easily solved. 

They must either get with the programme or spare themselves the contortions necessary to square their personal beliefs with the needs of the wider public where these are at odds. In short, if they can't compromise their position they should do themselves and the electorate a favour and stay out of politics.

They can't have their Tunnock's tea cake and eat it.

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