Joan McAlpine’s column in the Scotsman this week is uncharacteristically unpersuasive. Since she decided to defend the SNP’s plans for so-called anti-sectarian legislation she was backing a losing horse from the start. Still, it speaks well of her loyalty. Nevertheless, her piece is useful since, in large part, it outlines a kind of consensus that is deemed to exist and from which it is unwise to deviate. Certainly it is hard to think of many opposition politicians who have distinguished themselves in this affair. Even those who question the SNP’s plans do so on grounds of efficiency, not ethics or principle. If the government’s plans are woeful; the opposition remains fearful. How can it be otherwise given they also subscribe to the dreary theory that Something Must Always Be Done?
Remember this: extraordinarily, our elected representatives are now debating what songs may be sung in public and what is or is not perceived to be a sectarian declaration of religiously-aggravated hatred or conduct liable to cause a breach of the peace.
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