The Scottish Christian Party believes the country needs a distinctly Christian
Voice in the Scottish Parliament and, by God’s grace, it is possible to do so.
How is it Possible? Click here.
How does the PR voting system work?
Is it possible to get a Christian Voice in Holyrood?
What is the SCP attitude to Christians in other Parties?
Can voting for the Scottish Christian Party have any effect?
Are there not two Christian parties? What is the difference?
Why do you say that we need the grace of the Gospel in modern society?
How does the Proportional Representation “PR” voting system work in the Highlands and Islands Regional election?
The name and the system seem complicated, but they can be explained rather simply. It is called the d'Hondt formula and it works like this.
Let us take the example of the Regional Vote in the Highlands and Islands in 2003.
The Conservatives got 26,989 Regional votes. We need to divide this total by the number of Constituency Seats won by the Party. However the Conservatives got no seats, and one cannot divide by 0. So the d'Hondt calculation divides it by the number of Constituency Seats +1. This gives 26,989 Regional votes for the Conservatives.
The Liberal Democrats got 31,655 Regional votes. This is more than the Conservatives, but the Lib-Dems also got 5 Constituency (first-past-the-post) Seats. The d'Hondt calculation divides the total by the number of Constituency Seats 5+1. This gives 5,276 votes for the Lib-Dems. This number is so small that all the other parties beat it, including the Scottish Socialist Party (who got 9,000 Regional votes).
So the Lib-Dems got no Regional Vote seats. Every single one of their 31,655 votes was wasted, although they received more votes than the Conservatives, the Greens and the Scottish Socialist Party. So a Christian Liberal-Democrat could have used their vote more wisely to vote for another candidate, and we are urging Christians to vote for the Scottish Christian Party.
Thus the first of the seven available Regional Seats went to the Conservatives.
Who gets the second Regional Seat? When we now recalculate the Conservative vote, it collapses down to 13,494 as 26,989 is divided by 2 (1 Regional Seat +1). This is smaller than Labour who got 37,605 Regional Votes divided by 2 (=1 Constituency seat +1) = 18,802.
So the second of the seven available Regional Seats went to Labour. But when we recalculate the Labour vote to find out who receives the third Regional Seat, the Labour vote collapses to 12,535 = 37,605 divided by 3 (1 Constituency seat + 1 Regional Seat +1). This is smaller than the Greens who got 13,935 Regional Votes divided by (0 Constituency seat +1) = 13,935.
So the third of the seven available Regional Seats went to the Greens.
The whole table can be seen here: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/elections/sourceSheets/analysis/pdfs/table6.pdf
See also the Highland Council explanation here: http://www.www.highland.gov.uk/yourcouncil/elections/votingsystems
The seventh of the seven available Regional Seats was won with 9,875 votes. So if the Scottish Christian Party can gain 10,000 votes on 3rd May 2007, we are likely to win a seat in Holyrood.
Is this possible? Click here.
About 146,000 people voted in the Highlands and Islands Region. How many of these are Christians who will vote for the Lordship of Christ over the nation? We believe a significant percentage of them will, and many of them have already said they will do so.
Further, there are more people than this who did not vote at all. Could it be that many of these non-voters, who felt that they could not support the mainline parties, will see that the Scottish Christian Party is the only Party bringing something new to this election? We look to the Lord to move the hearts of these multitudes to vote for us.
Click here to consider how far we have come already.
What is the SCP attitude to Christians in other Parties?
We wish to encourage them in their work. We recognise the difficulties under which they labour to bring Christianity to bear upon their party policies. It is this difficulty which necessitates the existence of the Scottish Christian Party.
The Scottish Christian Party will work with Christians in other Parties. We are already doing so. We recognise that some of them may have difficulty working with us, but that will be because of their Party managers. We do not wish to compromise these Christians but to complement them. We will be able to say what these Christians are not able or not allowed to say.
As the Christian voice grows in the Scottish Parliament, other parties will wish to 'win back the Christian vote' and they will allow their own Christian members and politicians to articulate the Gospel and the grace of the Gospel more openly. This is to everyone's advantage.
We will talk with other Parties, but we will oppose them when they oppose Christian values. Thus we do not attack the Green agenda, but we attack the Party for supporting homosexual practices. At the same time, the Scottish Christian Party will oppose discrimination against homosexuals as we are to love our neighbour as ourselves.
This Christian voice will be available for all Christians in Scotland.
Can voting for the Scottish Christian Party have any effect?
Yes. The Scottish Christian Party influenced the Western Isles result at the last General Election and led to "Yates of the Yard" knocking on 10 Downing Street.
What hope does the Scottish Christian Party have of making any meaningful contribution to Scottish politics?
In the latter half of the 20th century we have seen two political parties begin and succeed in politics. The SNP made its breakthrough 40 years ago and is now poised to lead the next administration in Holyrood according to the pundits. In Northern Ireland the DUP began 50 years ago and now find itself ready to govern in Ulster. The Scottish Christian Party intends to make a difference by God's grace.
The reality is that Christian parties are here to stay for the foreseeable future, because the Christian People's Alliance which began in England is also standing in Scotland. It stands for Christian values. Although this seems to appeal to a wider group of people, it also allows the CPA to have a muslim as its number one candidate in Glasgow. Thus it is possible that the only MSP representing the CPA in Holyrood may be a muslim! The Scottish Christian Party stands for Christianity, and we proclaim Christ's Lordship over the nations. The CPA should not be the only choice for Christians; we have a clear and better alternative in the Scottish Christian Party.
Are there not two Christian parties? What is the difference?
See the previous answer.
The CPA has a total of 16 candidates standing throughout Scotland's eight regions; the Scottish Christian Party has 73 candidates.
The CPA is standing in the Highlands and Islands, but it has shown no activity whatsoever in this Region known to us. Possibly the CPA hopes to pick up votes from the SCP campaign. This introduces confusion into people's minds, and God is not the author of confusion. The CPA refused an offer from the SCP to divide the eight Regions of Scotland so that we would not stand against each other at this Election.
In an article in The Herald, 13/3/2007, Teresa Smith, leader of the CPA, said about the SCP: "I can't stress enough that we have nothing in common with these people." The official website of atheist Professor Richard Dawkins sees fit to quote this article from The Herald.
During the 2007 Holyrood campaign, the media in the Scottish central belt gave the Christian Peoples Alliance (CPA) more political credibility than the SCP. However, the SCP beat them soundly in every one of the eight Regions of Scotland. Our sister party in Wales, the Welsh Christian Party, also beat the CPA in all five Regions of Wales. Every other Party beat the CPA in four of the five Welsh Regions, and the CPA was second bottom in the fifth Region. The media's assessment has been shown to be far off the mark.
So, what about the muslims?
Alex Salmond, First Minister, and leader of the SNP, wishes to allow muslim schools, to extend to muslims the right to denominational education such as Roman Catholics and Jews enjoy.
Bashir Ahmad, SNP, is the first muslim elected to the Scottish Parliament. In his first BBC interview upon his election as an MSP, he was asked what he will try to accomplish for Scotland. He answered: "A school for muslims" and on further prompting, "Independence for Scotland." 4/5/2007 BBC 1, 6.05 a.m.
The SNP has been the most successful party at courting the muslim vote in Scotland, although Labour has been doing so for years in England.
Salmond is concerned about the lack of progress. The Times reports: "Other party leaders refused to help Muslim campaigners. Murdo Fraser, the deputy Scottish Tory leader, said Muslim schools could aggravate religious tensions which have grown in recent years. “The concern is that creating more faith schools is divisive and not in the interests of societal cohesion,” he said. A spokesman for Jack McConnell said the issue should remain for local councils to decide and that he would not intervene. A source close to Nicol Stephen, the Scottish Liberal Democrats leader, said the existing laws already allowed Muslim state schools to be created so long as they met acceptable standards.
David Cameron for the Tories supports faith schools, but he warns: "The correct policy response on faith schools is to heed the words of David Bell, the chief inspector of schools, who expressed his concern over what is being taught in muslim schools."
Along with choice comes the issues of standards, tolerance and tax-payers' money.
When a muslim school in Scotland failed to come up to educational standards a few years ago, the response at the time was that tax-payers' money should be used to bring it up to standard. With this recipe Christians could open a few schools with minimum funds, fail the standards, and then demand money to bring them up to standard.
Historically there was never much support for faith schools in Scotland. The Free Church of Scotland schools were sold out in 1872 in favour of integrated education, with promises from politicians to maintain the Christian ethos. These promises were forgotten and not kept. In the 20th century, Roman Catholic schools were tolerated but viewed as divisive. However, since the rise of the muslim vote in Britain, the mood has changed. The government has to balance the application of acceptable standards of education with the autonomy of faith communities to educate their children consistently with their own faith.
Abdul Dean is the muslim who was first on the CPA List for Glasgow Region. This illustrates the willingness of some muslims to support Christian values. It can also be seen in the fact that 80% of pupils at one Roman Catholic school, St Albert's Primary, in Glasgow, were muslim. However, the issue of worship leads to divisiveness, and this is where most religious communities divide.
The Scottish Christian Party brings the Gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone, Christians, failed Christians, atheists, muslims and homosexuals, without discrimination. It is Christianity which built the United Kingdom into the tolerant society which received Jews and Huguenots in the 17th Century, Roman Catholics from Ireland in the 19th Century, and muslims in the 20th Century. The crusading intolerance of the secular, humanist lobby which would abolish religion is a 21st Century evolutionary carbuncle on our society.
Why do you say that we need the grace of the Gospel in modern society?
In responding to former Prime Minister Tony Blair, David Cameron wrote: "The decline in civility is not confined to a few unruly families and neighbourhoods. It is all around us - on buses and trains, in shops and on the street. The abusiveness of many young people and the indignity suffered by the elderly; the lack of respect for authority and the consequent lack of courtesy from authority - all this is increasingly part of the normal daily experience of living." The Daily Telegraph 30/4/2007.
This general loss of respect for authority and other people goes hand in hand with the loss of respect for the authority of God. The SCP will remind people that they are accountable to God, although many of them do not want to hear it. However, the SCP will do more than this. It will remind people that there is a better way. There is peace and reconciliation with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Lives and society can be changed. This can be illustrated by the evangelical revival in England under George Whitefield and the Wesley brothers, which is generally credited with sparing England from the excesses of the French Revolution.
In the Richard Dimbleby Lecture on 6/12/2006, Defence of the Realm in the 21st Century, General Sir Mike Jackson, retired Chief of the General Staff of the British Army, said that the battle for "terrain was less important and the battle of ideas has commenced." In April 2007, as the Leader of the Commons and just before he was appointed Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Jack Straw warned of "a brand of terrorism which uses religion to justify its evil."
The crusading arm of the humanist establishment, embodied in such people as Professor Richard Dawkins, sees the solution to be the abolition of religion. This is a counsel of despair; rather we need true religion to counter false religion. This is what the Scottish Christian Party will promote: the religion of forgiveness, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness and peace between man and man, following from peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1). "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" (Luke 2:14) - and in that order.
• Christian Constitution of Scotland: The Scottish Christian Party highlights the irresponsible failure of the SNP to say what will happen to the Christian Constitution of Scotland if the Treaty of Union 1707 is broken.
The Scottish public deserves to know this before an Election in which the pundits think the SNP may form the next administration; but the SNP has not addressed the question publicly far less provided any answers.
• Education: To give real choice we will campaign for an Educational Voucher Scheme, sex education on a parental opt-in basis, a daily act of Christian worship with Bible reading, and no obligation to promote other faiths.
Creationism and Intelligent Design will be considered alongside Evolution in science classes.
• Economic Development: Less reliance on fossil fuels, with increased emphasis on self-sustainability. Investment in new nuclear
plants must be matched by investment in research and development for nuclear waste solutions.
Explore the potential of water export, and effective extraction of North Sea oil with infrastructure designed to be adapted afterwards for marine renewable projects.
• Housing: Affordable housing earmarked as Local Family Housing.
• Gambling: Opposition to super casinos.
• Elected Police & Fire chiefs: The role of the Police and Fire Service does not involve marching in uniform, or handing out leaflets, at Gay parades. We believe they should be maintaining law and order impartially, and fighting fires. Electing chiefs will ensure accountability.
• Freedom of conscience, of speech and of public preaching: We will address the imbalance in law concerning giving and taking offence, and the oppressive emphasis in diversity training.
• Drugs: Zero tolerance on illegal drugs.