Serves him right for sucking up to the Church

After Jim Murphy Labour’s Scottish Secretary had declared:

“When the Cardinal speaks, people listen”

the leading political analyst Professor John Curtice, presciently warned that appealing to religious values could backfire. How right he was. Within hours of Murphy’s crawl to Canossa, the Ballycastle-born Scottish cardinal dealt Murphy, a devout Catholic, a stinging rebuke.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of the Roman Catholic church in Scotland, welcomed Mr Murphy’s “recognition of the role played by faith and religion in society….”Instead we have witnessed this government undertake a systematic and unrelenting attack on family values. This is a charge I personally put to Gordon Brown when we met in 2008 and I have seen no evidence since then to suggest anything has changed.”

So we now know God is an SNP voter.

I can’t imagine this exchange taking place in Holy Ireland, can you?

Brian Walker

Former BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London