Whenever I see another Kevin MacKenna piece on the SNP and Catholic support, I’m reminded of the joke about Ian Paisley, above, picking up a bowl of pot pourri from the WC lid, charging downstairs, opening the back door and throwing it out with the words:
‘We’ll have no pot pourri in this house!‘
I’m also reminded of the photo of me and my RC father-in-law, whose first words about me had been:
‘Get rid of that F****ing Proddy!’
later sitting amicably on the settee, he looking for all the world like Ian Paisley and me the very double of Gerry Adams!
At the time, I had insisted that I was no longer a Proddy but an anarcho-syndicalist. Finish that one off yourself.
I tell these two stories partly as a frustrated comedian but also to make the point that stuff about being Catholic correlating with anything much at all, these days, is old, tired and meaningless.
Nevertheless, today in the Herald, MacKenna writes:
‘There is a reason Catholic voters support independence. Don’t take them for granted‘,
before going on to report utterly evidence-free that Catholic support for the SNP is under threat:
The SNP’s proposed Gender Recognition reforms and Hate Crime legislation also pose challenges for authentic Christians.
Typically unreliable, he writes:
Even a cursory inspection of the Twitter accounts of young SNP activists reveals an alarming degree of hostility to Catholic schools and any elected officials who dare to confess their Christian convictions.
As often before he has nothing. I know a few sort-of Catholics, not to mention lapsed ones like my in-laws. They never bring up the GRA or the Hate Crime legislation. Actually, they never mention being Catholic at all except in jokes. All that remains of any identification for them is ‘the Celtic‘
Identification with Catholicism was at 16% in the 2011 Census and a 2017 survey put it at only 13%. In sharp contrast, identification with No religion went up from 37% to 48%:
Click to access Religion_Topic_Report.pdf
We’ll have no anarcho-syndicalism in this house!
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
[more asides: okay this one is more difficult to categorise, but I think with one person being named and the ‘typically unreliable’ comment – whether justified or not – counts towards the slagging off a person quotient. So we have, counting,
Slagging off a newspaper: 1
Slagging off BBC: 1
Slagging off a person: 2
Good news stories telling us how fantastic Scotland is: 0
For today. So,,, that’ll be 50% of articles slagging off a person so far. Results are swinging in my favour, just tell me when to stop counting 😉 ]
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Yes but, I’m using the individual to introduce the general like wot all good writers do! Rabbie Burns dun that all the time.
This a media monitor of sorts
Humph
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Oh and yeh, MacKenna, slagging off, defo!!!!
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Well, it looked more like the opposite, using the general to find a way to slag off MacKenna…
Heh, a media monitor – in real time too! You are privileged.
You DID tell me to start counting,,, 😉
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Why is it that only in Ireland and Scotland,religion is a dividing factor?
Being cynical,one might suspect that the British state has a hand in this.
England doesn’t seem to have an issue with religion or have any unionist politicians demanding unity with Scotland or Ireland.
They do have other issues however relating to foreigners.
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Well you don’t need to be cynical – plantation is a known and historical technique of the British State, and that caused most of the divisions. They continue to fuel the divisions.
Plenty of countries round the world have problems with religion… In fact its common? Or do you mean, why not in England in Wales?
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A religious division, the Curse of Scotland.
On learning my first name, my future mother-in-law was aghast, she thought I was a Kafflick.
And me a former pupil of a school whose school song was The Sash. Black affronted, so Ah wis.
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Religion, sport, and now gender, it’s all orchestrated to divide folks, it’s soo bloody obvious and the BritNats really will attempt to stoke up divide in Scotland any which way the can in the next few months.
Frankly the MacKenna article is a disgrace, attempting to sow divide, sow doubt in peoples’ minds as well. It’s an attempt to create unease, to threaten and to make a mountain out of a molehill. How dare these anti independence story tellers in the media attempt to stoke divisions within the independence movement.
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McKenna is a FALSE FLAG operator.
MI5 stooge? Total imposter.
He has ZERO interest in Scottish independence.
Only his next cheque, Queens Shilling or Brown Envelope.
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Somewhat off topic, there is an editorial piece in the Irish Times about a border poll in NI, the demographic trend, possible voting intentions and preventing the possibility of violence and more.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/shared-island-northern-ireland-is-still-a-society-on-a-sectarian-edge-1.4344699
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Heh, it sounded more like the current Irish government doing a lot of handwringing to try and avoid the issue!
I was kind of laughing that the article kept using the word divisive: so NI is divisive for wanting to join a country and Scotland is divisive for wanting to leave a union. The common factor, and so the common problem, in all this is, of course, England. It caused the divisiveness in the the first place, and still causes if. Semis like that the best way to resolve all divisivity problems is to leave England behind.
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Yes. Very interesting. As a recent returnee from England to the east of Scotland I have noticed a tendency toward religious prejudice, but entirely from the rangers supporting union flag waving anti-Scottish element in the small town I returned to. Apart from these morons there is no religious prejudice.
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What about my photo? Sheesh!!
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Everyone looked like that in the 70s!
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