Another Approach
Restoring the Land of The Book
The Manifesto of
Scottish
Parliamentary Election
3rd
May 2007
The Scottish
Christian Party has formulated policies on all the main areas of responsibility
of the
Scottish Parliament.
·
Economic
Development 2
·
Education 7
·
Health 9
·
Housing 12
·
Law and Home
Affairs (including the police and the emergency services) 13
·
Local Government 16
·
Social Work 18
·
Sport and the Arts 21
·
Statistics, Public
Registers and Records 23
·
Transport 25
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
1. Self-sustainability
Scotland’s natural resources and its historical
work ethic are well suited to self-sustainability in the climate of reduced
reliance on fossil fuels. Wise stewardship of
God-given resources is essential to build a just and prosperous nation. Scotland has great natural advantages that,
properly managed, can provide the essential services for civilised life and
useful productive employment. The economy
should be the servant of the people of Scotland, not their master.
To achieve
self-sustainability waste must be reduced.
We will encourage built-in continuity rather than built-in obsolescence.
We will seek to improve energy efficiency in our homes and lifestyles. We will also support local supply of food
and recreation, power and building materials.
2. The Working Week
Many people work too much, many not enough. The Scottish Christian Party would seek to
profoundly reduce waste in society and encourage the more equitable
distribution of the opportunity to work and the benefits that flow from work. The Scottish Christian Party believes that
“obedience is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15: 22) The Scottish Christian
Party therefore believes that the first step that Scotland should take to
reduce waste and apparently environmentally damaging carbon emissions is to
have greater observance of a weekly day of rest. We would seek a Royal
Commission to report on the social and environmental benefits of observing
Sunday as a day of rest. The Scottish
Christian Party notes that the observance of a day of rest as prescribed in the
Ten Commandments would not only bring Scotland into obedience with God’s Word
but also be an immediate blessing to the over worked Scottish people.
3. Venture Capitalism
The Scottish Christian Party supports local wealth
generation with an emphasis on local entrepreneurs rather than handouts to
multinational firms. We will encourage
joint ownership schemes where venture capital rather than grants would be made
available by local government. Profits
from successful ventures would be ploughed back into new ventures. We will support incentives including
business rates holidays and business mentoring for start-ups.
4. National Work Service
The Scottish Christian Party, in partnership with
industrial leaders, will support training schemes to reduce skills shortages in
Scotland and the need for costly immigration.
School-leavers who have not found a job within weeks of leaving school
would be attached first and foremost to new and growing Scottish owned
businesses. Salaries would be
subsidised for the first two years to the extent that benefits would have been
paid if the school leaver were unemployed.
As a condition of unemployment benefit we would explore the condition
that claimants are available each Monday for work experience or work on
environmental improvement projects.
This would safeguard the habit of work and give opportunities to get
positive references.
5. Super Casinos
Recognising that gambling
addiction is a blight on society the Scottish Christian Party will oppose all
plans to establish super casinos in Scotland.
6. Water
Scotland’s water
resources are a long-term national asset with the potential to deliver an
increasingly competitive advantage over countries where water is becoming more
scarce and expensive. We will keep
Scottish Water in public ownership and encourage long term integrated planning
(with housing, energy and transport) in the interests of all the people of
Scotland. We will explore the potential
for the large-scale export of water from Scotland.
7. Oil
In
the North Sea, the remaining oil must be effectively extracted and the
decommissioning process maximise the re-use of oilrigs and infrastructure into
marine renewable projects. Similarly
when the Atlantic frontier is developed, part of the revenue must be set aside
to encourage renewables and the infrastructure designed to be adapted later for
marine renewable projects.
8. Nuclear & Coal
We accept that a
sustainable balance of energy sources is currently needed, including some new
generation nuclear and clean coal provision, but supplemented with as much
renewable energy as we can, as soon as possible. The Scottish Christian Party believes that it is wrong to leave
the problem of the disposal of nuclear waste to future generations. Therefore we would require any budget for
new nuclear power stations to include a significant percentage of that budget
ring-fenced for research and development of a nuclear waste disposal solution.
The Scottish Christian Party is wary of any large-scale reliance on imported
energy. We would invest now to be
sustainable and self-sufficient in the future.
9. Renewables
Scotland has outstanding
potential to be the renewable energy capital of Europe. The key to unlocking this potential could be
a sub-sea ‘ring main’ round the coast from Hunterston to Torness. We would encourage serious research into its
viability as a basis for making us
self-sufficient in energy and a major exporter. The planning system and grants should encourage greater energy
efficiency and the incorporation of appropriate technology into all new
buildings and major improvements. We would encourage small-scale renewable
schemes and champion their right to sell energy to the grid. We would cooperate internationally with
research into the potential to transform energy storage and transmission; e.g.
through the use of hydrogen.
We will support the
development of biomass energy and encourage the planning of Scotland’s forests
to meet our long term needs for energy, carbon sinks, construction and
insulation materials. We will increase
the level of support to community forest initiatives that encourage sustainable
resources near to where people live.
We will seek to encourage
retailers and builders to make the maximum possible use of local sources of
supply, through the planning system. We
will encourage home growing and allotments and the community use of 'set-aside'
land.
12. Fisheries
We will seek limits
around our coastline to preserve stocks of fish and sand eels. We will examine the role of the Crown Estate
Commission to ensure that communities benefit from the potential offered by the
shoreline and seabed.
13. Consumer Debt
We
would legislate so that consumer debt not repaid within seven years, and the
interest thereon, would be completely written off, forcing a new responsibility
on lenders in advertising, contractual terms and collection mechanisms.
14. Working Mothers
We
would reverse the incessant drive to get mothers into the formal labour market
and lobby Westminster for a tax and benefit system that recognises the evidence
that children brought up by a mother at home, with a working father, have by
far the ‘best life chances’.
15. Tourism
Tourism is without
doubt the fastest growing and largest single industry in Scotland, particularly
in rural areas. Tourism accounts for around nine per cent of employment, and
this figure is increasing. This sector is currently worth approximately £4.2
billion to our economy, and this figure is also on the increase. The Scottish
Christian Party will promote this industry within government and encourage
further growth and professionalism at grass roots level.
Changes which have been detrimental to the tourist industry were
introduced three years ago with the integration of the Area Tourist Boards (ATBs)
into the centralised body Visitscotland.
The regions of Scotland are too diverse to be run centrally each
having its own identity and history. We would propose the reinstatement of the
fourteen Area Tourist Boards acknowledging the worth of their local expertise
and passion for their respective areas.
Visitscotland as an organisation should be downsized and reformed
as a small co-ordinating body with direction and control coming from the ATBs.
We will encourage registration of all tourism service providers
without requiring classification and burdening them with legislation. The
option of classification would still be available if desired.
The first point of contact is often the local Tourist Information
Centre. Their current restricted hours need to become more flexible and they
should be located, preferably, in establishments that are open for longer hours
thus allowing more access to tourist information.
We will endeavour to take steps to lessen, where possible the
building of large scale hydro-electric
schemes and onshore wind farms in predominantly tourism orientated areas. We
will encourage their construction in more industrialised locations where the
power produced is most needed. We will encourage research into and development
of small-scale renewable energy resources such as micro-hydro to directly
benefit local communities, thus enhancing the eco tourism potential.
We will seek to develop an apprenticeship scheme within the
tourism industry to encourage young people to view the hospitality industry as
an exciting and worthwhile career choice with a definite structure.
We will encourage the promotion of cultural tourism, building on
Scotland’s established links within the UK and abroad. Thereby enabling more
and more to say, ”Scotland’s for me”.
16. Mechanical copyright protection for recording artists and producers
The
Scottish Christian Party will seek that the Mechanical Copyright Protection
enjoyed by songwriters should be extended to featured recording artists and
record producers. The Scottish
Christian Party will seek that a minimum royalty percentage (the level of which
should be decided through consultation with the music industry) should be paid
to featured recording artists and producers on exactly the same basis as is
currently paid to songwriters. This
could be administered by the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society.
EDUCATION
1. Choice
The Scottish Christian Party believes that the
biblical injunction to “train up a child in the way he should go…” (Proverbs
22:6) is of critical importance and relevance to the well being of Scotland;
both now and in the future. The rising
tide of humanist secular fundamentalism in schools in Scotland has meant that
the choice of education in line with parental beliefs and wishes is
increasingly difficult to come by.
Nowhere is this more so than within the Christian community.
The
Scottish Christian Party believes that parents – not the state – should set the
agenda for their children’s education, within educational parameters designed
to prepare children for a positive contribution to Scottish society. For this to occur greater choice is
required.
At
present only the rich can afford to make such choices, as fees of up to £25,000
per annum are out of the range of most people.
The Scottish Christian
Party will seek the introduction of an Education Voucher Scheme in Scotland,
where voucher funding would
follow a child. This would enable parents to spend the amount of money the
government spends on each state school pupil (approx. £5,500 p.a.) at a school
of their choice, provided the annual fees for that school were no more than
115% of the value of the voucher. Thus the voucher could not be used to
subsidise a place at an expensive private school, but could, for example, go
into a school being set up by parents, a charitable foundation, a church, or be
applied to the cost of home schooling.
2. Sex
Education
The
Scottish Christian Party will call for sex education classes to be given only
to children on a parental opt-in basis. The Scottish Christian Party will fight for the promotion in
school of chastity before marriage, and faithfulness in marriage, as the safest
sexual practice, as and when sex education is taught.
The
Scottish Christian Party will also call for the re-instatement of Section 2A,
thus calling for the end of the promotion and “the teaching in any
maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family
relationship."
3. Faith
The
Scottish Christian Party will seek to re-introduce corporate readings from the
Bible in all Scottish state schools, thus reflecting the Christian
constitutional foundation of Scotland, as set out in the Monarch's oath of
allegiance and the Act of Union 1707.
The
Scottish Christian Party believes that the provision of Christian religious
education should be mandatory, (with no obligation to promote other faiths),
the history curriculum should reflect Scotland's rich Christian heritage and
the science curriculum reflect the evidence of creation/design in the universe.
4.
Discipline
The Scottish Christian Party would allow
schoolteachers to use reasonable force to maintain discipline in schools. The Scottish Christian Party would allow
schools to elect to use supervised corporal punishment as a “punishment of last
resort”.
5. Further Education
The
Scottish Christian Party would link the funding of university courses to the
medium and long-term needs of society and the economy. We would also seek to promote vocational
training as equally vital to a modern economy.
The Scottish Christian Party is fundamentally opposed to the concept of
student debt as a means of funding student education and would seek to reverse
this trend.
HEALTH
1.
National Health Service
The Scottish Christian Party supports the National
Health Service, celebrating it as a gift from God, and believes that care
should be free at the point of delivery.
However, in spite of massive investment in recent years, the general
sense of chaos in mainstream patient care persists.
The allocation of limited resources requires proper
individual stewardship and relief from over-management. The elimination of waste and inefficiency in
the health service is an environmental and a personal issue requiring the
promotion of individual conscientiousness in Scotland’s citizens. The Scottish
Christian Party will seek to create incentives for individual participation and
involvement in solutions in order to draw on local knowledge and talents.
2. Abortion
Whilst
recognising that in seeking to save the life of a mother the life of her unborn
child may be lost, the Scottish Christian Party would ask the Scottish
Parliament to request Westminster to either legislate to ban abortion, or to
make abortion a devolved matter. The Scottish Christian Party believes that the
life of the unborn child should be protected to the full extent of the powers
available to the Scottish Executive. We
would encourage more supportive care for all expectant mothers. We will also campaign for full human rights
to be given to the unborn child, thus acknowledging the child’s humanity from
conception.
3.
Work – Rest Balance
Whilst
recognising that one man’s level of stress is another man’s requirement for
productivity, the Scottish Christian Party will promote the restoration of a
healthy work-rest balance.
4. Personal Worth
We
believe that restoring a sense of purpose and personal worth will promote
realistic and achievable aims in each individual’s life and help to remove the
depression and despair so evident in modern life. We will promote policies that seek to identify the talents of
individuals and to use their energies and resources for their personal and our
collective good. Motivation and rewards
are God-given measures for the promotion and recognition of faithful service.
We
will publicise the catastrophic effect of ungodly behaviour on the life
expectancy and health of people, whom God loves and we should love;
particularly homosexuality, excessive drinking and the use of addictive
substances. We will do this in a way
that shows Christian love to those affected and offers help back onto a healthy
path. The Scottish Christian Party
would also seek to increase taxation on alcohol and tobacco.
5.
Obesity
Obesity
is a new epidemic, which threatens the health and longevity of the individual,
as well as the economic well-being of the nation. We will promote physical education in schools and will protect
physical education teachers from unreasonable litigation through school
insurance schemes. We would encourage
personal sustainable exercise programmes.
6.
International Health
The health of the nation can be affected by
international ill health. Infectious
diseases e.g. avian flu, Aids, know no boundaries. Immigration also brings new health challenges to the nation. We believe that a portion of national aid
budgets should target the world’s poor and needy not only for their sake, but
also out of Christian charity. We believe that a robust health education
program for international travellers should be initiated, especially in advance
of international sporting and other events in high risk areas.
7. Drugs and Alcohol
Our
drugs and alcohol policy will
involve the promotion of personal worth.
The wanton defacing of the image of God in man, attributing less
responsibility to a non-sober human being to the extent that many use this as
an excuse for criminal behaviour, reveals a lack of self-worth and
accountability that arises from humanist philosophy. Too many look upon alcohol as an escape from their low self-esteem,
just as the obese person may turn to comfort eating. We believe a restoration of God’s estimate of their personal
worth will help individuals to regain their self-control. The Scottish Christian Party will legislate
to support efforts against easy access to alcohol, particularly to the young.
8.
Personal or Other Insurance Schemes
While
we believe in unconditional care for the needy, we also note that alcohol
impinges disproportionately on the costs of Accident and Emergency medicine and
other medical services. We will support
initiatives to bring personal responsibility to bear upon self-inflicted
disease, whether through personal or
other insurance schemes. The
costs of careless driving and road traffic accidents should be recouped more effectively
to the NHS through insurance schemes.
Participation in dangerous sports should be properly insured so that the
NHS can recoup its costs for emergency medicine. Irresponsible use of the emergency services is a growing
phenomenon, impinging upon the responsible use of these services. We will support initiatives tackling this
problem
9.
Prescription Charges
Whereas most people don’t pay prescription charges
for their medicines, there are a minority who have to pay for medicines for
chronic illnesses, which have not been self-inflicted. It is unjust that such people should pay
prescription charges when many people with self-inflicted illnesses do not pay
for prescriptions. We will support
abolition of prescription charges, as it will be difficult to introduce a more
equitable system. We acknowledge the
successful efforts made by General Practitioners to reduce patient expectations
for a prescription. Along similar
lines, General Practitioners merit more assistance to reduce patient dependence
upon Sickness Benefit certificates.
10. Parental Rights
The
Scottish Christian Party will promote parental
rights regarding the medical treatment of children, particularly
relating to contraceptive services and abortion. We believe that parents have the right to know what medical
treatment their child is having, and the right to decide what medical treatment
their child should have, so long as the sanctity of life remains paramount at
all times.
11. Care of the Elderly
The
Scottish Christian Party will promote the care of the elderly in a Christian
environment and review recent rules which are making it difficult for small
local hospices to offer a vital service to rural and isolated communities. The provision of care at home is important.
For those who cannot have an elderly relative to live with them, and cannot
live with that elderly relative themselves, but where the elderly relative has
a spare room, the alternative of a live-in funded carer could be promoted.
HOUSING
1. Affordable Local Family Housing
The Scottish Christian Party believes that
Scotland’s housing policy should support the sustaining of local communities
built around the family unit. The
dispersal of the extended family, owing to the lack of housing near to parents
and siblings, is of major concern as it weakens traditional family support
systems, particularly in the care of the elderly. The Scottish Christian Party will seek a year on year increase in
the supply of affordable housing (and crofting land where appropriate)
earmarked for members of local families. However, through our other polices, we
will try to reduce the demand for new homes to the extent that demand is driven
by family breakdown.
2. Housing Asylum Seekers
Political correctness has made the issue of asylum
seekers a subject that no one dares mention, lest they be branded racist or
worse. The Bible is clear as to our
responsibility to love and to care for the “alien in the land” and to “love of
our neighbour as ourselves”. These
principles guide the Scottish Christian Party’s policy on housing asylum
seekers. We also recognise that the
handling of asylum seekers is seriously in need of improvement. The current situation is bad for the
majority of asylum seekers, who are marginalised and alienated, and bad for the
host community who see money and resources assigned and wasted in ways that are
patently not fair or right. We further
recognise that the majority of asylum seekers are single people (mostly men). The Scottish Christian Party proposes that
local authorities adopt the practice of ‘Asylum Seeker Hosting’ that has been
successfully pioneered by the charity Praxis in the East End of London.
3. Housing
Stock Transfer & Public Assets
We would seek to create a public sector housing
model that retains the accountability of local government and its low cost of
capital along with greater involvement of tenants in the running of services.
This can be through a “housing partnership” where the tenants have voted for
such, or otherwise through the local authority. We would seek to ensure that
decisions about land owned by public bodies, or in the ownership of charities
who receive government assistance, are transparent and are taken in the best
interests of Scottish society as a whole, through the planning process. We would reinstate genuine 'local
connections' as a basis for housing allocation.
LAW AND HOME AFFAIRS (INCLUDING THE POLICE AND THE
EMERGENCY SERVICES)
1. Equalities Legislation
The
Bible teaches, “For there is no partiality with God.” (Roman 2:11 cf. Act
10:34); therefore the Scottish Christian Party is against prejudice in all its
guises, and takes breaches of equalities legislation very seriously.
The Scottish Christian
Party believes that the criminalisation of equalities offences will give more
proportionate protection for victims of prejudice, as well as protection for
those innocent persons that might otherwise be targeted for pernicious
litigation on the basis of their faith or other reasons that are void of
criminal intent.
With
this in mind the Scottish Christian Party calls for breaches in equalities legislation, including the Sexual
Orientation Regulations (see Section 2. below), to become ‘criminal’ offences
rather than ‘civil’ offences. Thus in cases of alleged breaches in equalities
legislation criminal levels of proof and evidence would be necessary, and
legal actions would fall under the auspices of the Procurator Fiscal rather
than private individuals, pressure groups, quangos, etc.
The Scottish Christian
Party will seek to achieve this aim by way of the “Reverse Sewell’ process
which allows the Scottish Parliament, with the approval of the United Kingdom
Westminster Parliament, to introduce legislation that enters the scope of
United Kingdom Law.
2. Sexual
Orientation Regulations
Along with the majority
of Christian and other faith community leaders, the Scottish Christian Party
believes that the Sexual Orientation Regulations not only discriminate against
the rights of individual conscience, but are an unprecedented and ominous
imposition of immorality by the state on the people of Scotland.
The Scottish Christian Party
believes that respect for conscience, which has served as a bulwark against
tyranny, has been dangerously discarded by New Labour and must be urgently
restored and defended.
3. Criminal
Justice
The Scottish Christian Party recognises the
Christian constitutional foundation of the country, as set out in the Monarch's
oath of allegiance and the Act of Union 1707.
We would promote biblical alternatives to the current criminal justice
system, reducing the number of prisoners in our overcrowded prisons, including
extending parental responsibility to compensate the victims of juvenile crime
and holding a referendum on reintroducing the death penalty for murder, where
there are at least two human witnesses in addition to whatever forensic
evidence is available.
4. Zero
Tolerance on drug possession
The Scottish Christian
Party will promote a zero tolerance approach towards drug possession, and prohibit
the current police strategy of non-arrest for possession for personal use. The Scottish Christian Party recognises that
any business, including the illegal drugs trade, relies on demand to survive. The current supply-sided approach that
focuses only on drug dealers will never work if the demand side is not
simultaneously tackled in a robust way, using a range of alternative
punishments rather than prison sentences.
5. Elected Fire and Police Chiefs
The Scottish Christian Party will campaign for
Chief Constables and Chief Fire Officers to be elected by the community that
they serve, in order to bring greater public accountability.
6. Evidence
and Restorative Justice
The Scottish Christian Party would seek to replace
the standard of 'beyond reasonable doubt' with the more biblical 'evidence of
two or three reliable witnesses', reducing the tendency for the guilty to evade
justice. We would also support the
imposition of large financial penalties on convicted criminals, to properly
compensate victims of crime and to reimburse damage done to the community.
7. The Right to Evangelise and Preach in the Public
Square/on Public Streets
The Scottish Christian Party is alarmed at the
curtailing of free speech in the form of inhibiting street preaching and personal
evangelism. It will defend and affirm the right to publicly preach the good
news of salvation, love and everlasting life in Jesus Christ.
The Scottish Christian Party does not support the
claim that we have a right to give offence, but since the Macpherson Report has
re-defined racism in subjective terms, ‘taking offence’ has become as important
as giving offence. Criminalising a
person for someone’s subjective taking offence, when possibly no offence was intended,
will prove to be unworkable, and will itself contribute to louder and louder
protests at being offended by disparate groups. This new criminal offence will only stoke up charges and
counter-charges of being offended by each other’s speech and way of life. Those who can shout loudest and make most
use of the judicial system will prevail.
This is not the sort of society the Scottish Christian Party wishes to
promote.
8.
Mini-Brothels and Prostitution Tolerance Zones
The Scottish Christian
Party will resist all attempt to make prostitution socially acceptable through
so-called ‘tolerance zones’ and will seek to reverse the decision to allow
mini-brothels. Prostitution allows
women, in particular, to be abused and enslaved in such a manner that has no
place in Scottish society.
9. Prisons
The Scottish Christian
Party believes that the much needed extra prison capacity should be purchased
from developing countries for the purpose of catering for Scotland’s medium
Security Prisons. This should take the
form of building state of the art prison facilities in developing countries
that wish to host Scottish Prisons.
Advantages would include:
1.
Less overcrowded
prisons, cheaper costs and greater efficiency
2.
More resources at
home to look after our worst offenders properly
3.
More economic trade instead
of aid handouts to developing countries
4.
Raising prison
standards in developing countries by example and the provision of expertise.
10. Curfew for the under 11 year olds
In light of the alarming rise in abduction, abuse and murder of children, the increase in juvenile crime, the unprecedented levels of alcohol abuse and drug use amongst the young, the Scottish Christian Party would seek mandatory intervention of child protection agencies in relation to any child 10 years or younger that is found unaccompanied on the street after 9:00pm. We believe that this would have far reaching benefits to the lives of our young, protecting them from the dangers that lurk in the streets at night. It would also encourage the rebuilding of the traditional family structure and the parent-child relationship.
1. Reverse
Centralisation
The Scottish Christian Party is concerned at the
ongoing breakdown of local communities and the weakening of local government
through centralist policies in Edinburgh, Westminster and Brussels. Individuals, families and communities should
be encouraged to manage their own lives as much as possible, with collective
arrangements being made at the most local level possible.
2. Freedom
of Conscience
The Scottish Christian Party will seek to reverse
the anti-Christian discrimination that permeates much of public life and
enshrine in Scottish law the right to “freedom of conscience” for employees in
relation to non-core duties and extra-curricular activities, particularly those
working for statutory authorities and the BBC. In the event of dispute, the onus should be on the employer to
demonstrate to an employment tribunal that the requested action is part of a
core duty.
3. Control
of Schools
The Scottish Christian Party opposes any plans to
take responsibility for state schools away from local government in favour of
large quangos. We would favour more
issues concerning curriculum, discipline and policy being devolved from
Edinburgh to local authorities.
4. Voting
System
The
Scottish Christian Party will resist plans to change the current system of
voting for Scottish Parliament elections to the Single Transferable Vote (STV)
system, and will seek to have the Additional Members System (AMS) adopted for
local authority elections.
5.
Diversity Training
The Scottish Christian Party will seek to ensure
that all diversity training sponsored by local authorities should include the
biblical Christian perspective on faith, morality, marriage, sexuality,
etc. Currently, diversity training
promotes the homosexual lobby’s idea that mere toleration of homosexuality is
condescending, and that nothing less than wholesale acceptance or approval of
an alternative lifestyle is acceptable.
However, true tolerance only begins where agreement ends. Diversity
training ought to be about learning to live peaceably and tolerantly with
people with diverse lifestyles and world views; and not allowing one’s offence
at other people’s world views to break forth in verbal or violent assaults, far
less intimidating them with legal sanctions.
We must “overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21), “not rendering evil
for evil, but blessing” (1Peter 3:9).
When Christ was reviled, “He reviled not again, when He suffered, He
threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judges righteously.” (1Peter
2:23). This is Christian tolerance.
6. Holyrood
MSPs
The Scottish Christian
Party will seek to close the loophole that allows MSPs, that have been elected
to a seat in the Scottish Parliament from a party’s regional list, to retain
that seat after they have left their party.
We believe the party should be allowed to replace such a person with an
MSP from their official list.
7.
Council Tax
Subject to realistic costings the Scottish
Christian Party would support the replacement of the Council Tax with a fairer
revenue raising system to provide for local services and infrastructure. On the same basis the Scottish Christian
Party would also support the further reduction and even abolition of Council Tax
for pensioners.
1. The
Family Unit
The
Scottish Christian Party believes that Christ’s Great Commission to make
disciples of all nations involves having a Christian social policy for nations
as such. Christian love within the
family unit is the building block of the Church, the nation and society. Both family and state government are
institutions of God. Each has its own
sphere of sovereignty and each should respect its own limits and not trample
over the God-given boundaries of the other.
2. Provision
for the Elderly
The
Scottish Christian Party will press the Scottish Executive to review their
assistance to low income pensioner households with special reference to the
concessionary rail fare scheme, residential care costs, home help provision and
the Council Tax.
3. Family
Rights
The
rights of families are being undermined under the pretext of protecting
children from inadequate parenting. The
Scottish Christian Party believes that social cohesion has deteriorated to such
an extent that parenting classes are now being championed as the remedy for the
lack of good parenting in recent generations, but ask “What exactly will be
taught in these classes?”
Proper
parenting seeks to promote the parent-children bond rather than disrupt
it. Families and children have had too
much interference from well meaning but misguided social workers. The judgement of some professional
paediatricians has also been called into question in recent high profile court
cases, but not before the social cohesion of the families concerned has been
intolerably disrupted.
The
Scottish Christian Party is concerned that political correctness is encroaching
on state education and even the domestic teaching of children, as though the
state is responsible for the world view and moral values of the children. Parents are not rearing children for the
state to take them over, as though there is a battle for their hearts and
minds. Parents are responsible under
God for what a child is taught in the religious and moral sphere.
Just
as there are parental rights, so there are parental duties towards society to
rear responsible and useful children trained to their fullest potential, with
recognition of their talents. Parental
duties extend to meeting the needs and rights of their children in a safe and
loving environment, a caring upbringing and stimulating interest in their
development.
The
Scottish Christian Party abhors all forms of child abuse. The denial of the parental right to
administer reasonable chastisement is one such form of child abuse, as it
denies the child its fundamental right to effective parenting. The anti-smacking laws have altered the
balance of power in the home in favour of the child, to the extent that many
parents fear the legal consequences of reasonable chastisement, and thus elect
to exercise little or no discipline in relation to their children. The Scottish Christian Party will seek to
redress this imbalance and restore the right for parents to smack their
children as a measure of reasonable chastisement.
4. Care, Fostering and Adoption
The
Scottish Christian Party believes that it is in the best interest of the child
to be placed for adoption with a heterosexual dual-sex family, rather than with
a homosexual same-sex couple or homosexual single person. We therefore completely oppose adoption or
fostering by unmarried or same-sex couples, based on the evidence that such
parenting arrangements produce clearly inferior outcomes for children.
Any
individual or organisation (including publicly funded adoption agencies) must
be allowed an exemption from the Sexual Orientation Regulations on the basis
that the regulations would compel action contrary to individual conscience
and/or the teachings of their faith.
The
Scottish Christian Party believes that taking children away from their parents
should be the last resort and that stronger support services to families should
be encouraged in a cost-effective way through local churches and other
agencies.
We
also draw attention to an institutional bias against placing children with
Christian families in some local authority social work departments.
The
Scottish Christian Party will seek to establish ‘Open Adoptions’ as the norm.
When the knowledge of birth parents is withheld we believe that the biblical
injunction to “honour your father and mother” is rendered impossible.
Furthermore the evidence for serious psychological problems as a result of
‘Closed Adoptions’ gives rise to the urgent need to address this matter.
5. Mental Health
The
Scottish Christian Party believes that those suffering mental distress deserve
great love and care, as close to their family and home community as
possible. Our health policies, on
self-worth, sexuality, drugs and alcohol, together with our policies on family
life, useful employment and education will work to reduce the incidence of
mental distress. For continued
sufferers, we will make greater efforts to include useful work in their care,
as the Bible and clinical studies point to the importance of work in the
self-esteem of human beings.
6. Helping those with Disabilities
The
Scottish Christian Party will seek to love and support those with disabilities
to help them back into the workplace.
We will review the chronic under funding of the current disability
access legislation, where the expectations placed on public authorities are
greatly in excess of the resources being provided to improve access to services
and buildings.
7. Adult
Services
The
Scottish Christian Party will encourage and assist disadvantaged groups to help
each other, thus enabling them to recognise their own potential and social
capital despite their disadvantages. For example, we would seek to help the
poor to build and restore their communities and support them to find work in
social enterprises. Such adult services
will be a priority for the Scottish Christian Party as it seeks to ensure that
God’s love and provision reaches those in need in our society.
1.
Investment in Scottish talent
The
Scottish Christian Party supports investment in proven successful sports,
sports unique to Scotland, and pioneering sportsmen training in Scotland. Scots men and women competing at the Olympic
level and on the world stage are ambassadors for Scotland and deserve financial
and promotional help. This should be a
mutual benefit and there should be some tangible manner of recognising the
partnership, if it is sought by individual sports people or establishments. The allocation of support to tennis, golf
and football, etc., should be transparent to fulfil the public’s right to know
the allocation of the public purse.
The
Scottish Christian Party will promote major international events coming to
Scotland as a means of promoting Scotland, our arts, our sporting facilities,
and homebred talent as well as being economically beneficial to the
country. We note the recent spiralling
costs in staging the Olympics in London. We believe that Scotland’s
Commonwealth Games bid plan should be linked to local regeneration in a similar
manner as the regeneration of the Docklands area of London helped to secure the
Olympics for London. There should be a
clear vision of post-Commonwealth Games transformation. Sites for regeneration should be identified
now which can be dovetailed to the likely timescale in the event of Scotland’s
Commonwealth Games bid being successful.
2. Minister for Gaelic and the Gaelic
Heartlands
The
Scottish Christian Party would emulate the Irish experiment of having a
minister for Gaelic and the Gaelic regions of the country, enabling policy on
the language to be linked to economic and social policy in these peripheral
regions.
3. Mind Pollution Levy on 18 Certificate Films,
DVDs, CDs, Video Games and Top Shelf magazines
The
Scottish Christian Party believes that the easy spread of pornography through
the media has a detrimental and costly effect upon the mental health and social
well being of Scotland’s citizens. This
merits an extra levy on 18 and over Certificate films, DVDs, CDs, games and Top
Shelf magazines. We believe that
immorality promotes an irresponsible and unaccountable lifestyle, which expects
society to pick up the bill. We would
consult local authorities on the feasibility of licensing retail outlets that
stock these items.
4. Arts Subsidy
Restrictions
The Scottish Christian Party believes that our
stretched financial resources can be better spent than giving subsidies to
non-Scottish based or produced, new and recent stage productions. We support the removal of these subsidies,
as well as subsidies for already commercially successful productions, such as
West End shows on tour. We would
reallocate these subsidies to new Scottish talent, particularly to arts
projects that help the nation recover knowledge of Scotland's rich Christian
heritage – which has been downgraded and overlooked by successive
administrations.
1. Referenda
The Scottish Christian Party is in favour of
referenda in order to determine the wishes of the people of Scotland in
substantive matters including issues of morality and constitutional change.
Whilst noting that constitutional change does not
fall within the remit of the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Christian Party
will support the call for a referendum on Scottish independence provided that
(1) the referendum is combined with a binding referendum on the re-instatement
of Section 2A of the Local Government (Scotland) Act of 1986, and (2)
the constitutional position of the Christian Church in Scotland, secured in the
Treaty of Union 1707 and subsequent legislation, is not changed de facto by any future Scottish
independence.
The
Scottish Christian Party notes that when in 2000 a referendum on Section 2A of
the Local Government (Scotland) Act of 1986 took place, well over a
million people voted; with 87% of the ballots returned in favour of retaining
Section 2A. However, the Scottish
Executive and Parliament chose to ignore the wishes of the people.
The Scottish Christian Party notes that, in the
debate on Scottish independence, the public has not been notified of the
consequences upon the Christian constitution of the country. This debate needs to take place before a
meaningful referendum can take place.
2. Civil Partnership
The Scottish Christian Party believes that the
scope of the current Civil Partnership legislation is inequitable, partial, and
thus unfair. The Scottish Christian
Party will seek to widen the scope of the Civil Partnership to include all
people who have committed to live together as a single household. This would include: friends, sisters,
brothers, and a parent and his or her adult child. The Scottish Christian Party will take the criteria for Civil
Partnerships out of the bedroom and into the living room; sexuality will play
no role.
3.
Marriages
The
Scottish Christian Party opposes the concept of “no fault” and “quickie”
divorce and would seek to re-establish the principle of the innocent party in a
divorce being acknowledged in any divorce settlement. Equally, as Christians are burdened by the need for
reconciliation, a serious attempt at reconciliation should be the required
first step in the legal process of divorce.
The Scottish Christian Party will also discourage the obsessive practice
of spouses being referred to as ‘partners’, and ‘Mrs’ being replaced by ‘Ms’ in
local and national authority communications.
4.
Transgender Registration
The
Scottish Christian Party will seek transparency in relation to gender
re-orientation. We believe that a
policy of lies cannot be justified.
Therefore, we will oppose the practice of altering birth certificates to
reflect gender re-orientation surgery, and we will seek the right of fiancées
and officiating ministers to be informed of gender re-orientation prior to
marriage ceremonies.
In developing a Transport Policy it is necessary to
strike a balance between the demands to stimulate economic well being and
tackle social inclusion on the one hand and the need to reduce congestion and
limit environmental damage on the other.
As Christians we have to take seriously our God-given responsibility to
be good stewards of world resources. It
is therefore imperative that our vision for transport is based on socially and
environmentally sustainable principles, while taxation of transport must be
transparent.
1. Aviation
We will seek to bring aviation within the scope of
the Kyoto environmental and climate targets.
This will involve focusing energy on key business routes and peripheral areas as
well as co-operating with research into alternative aviation propulsion. We support the Executive’s introduction of
the air discount scheme for the Highlands and Islands and
we will give further consideration to a Public Service Obligation framework.
2. Buses
We congratulate the Scottish Executive on the
extension of concessionary travel since 2003 and their investment in community
transport initiatives that have improved the quality of life for many in
Scotland. We will seek to build on this
success by further integrating public transport to provide still more reliable
journey times, enabling more people to use this for their daily work and
business. In the cities we will learn
from the best practice in Europe to expand park and ride and extend priority
for public transport, cyclists and walkers.
3. Cycling and walking
For the sake of health as well as road safety, each
city and town should have a blue print for how cyclists and walkers move
between schools, shops and housing. We
will continue the partnership with Sustrans to develop the national cycle
network.
4. Ferries
We will support a fundamental rethink of the
current ferry network, presently based on incrementalism and local lobbying, to
highlight flaws in the infrastructure and identify where strategic improvements
in other services enable us to rationalise subsidised ferries, in time for the
next tendering exercise. We favour
smaller faster boats where this is appropriate
and more use of the nights for freight runs. We will support operating six days a week where this is
what the islanders want.
The Scottish Christian Party recognises the need
for a High Speed Rail network, which would help stimulate the economy. A dedicated High Speed Rail network would
“free up” existing capacity on the rail network, therefore enabling the
transfer of freight from our roads, and cut the need for internal city to city
flights. There are different means of
delivery, and the Scottish Christian Party presently favours the introduction
of Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) and recognises the need for urgent debate on
this issue.
The Scottish Christian
Party recognises the success of the existing Scottish Rail Franchise and would
press to expand the existing networks.
We will build on the success of Scot Rail’s Glasgow & Edinburgh’s
commuter services with more initiatives such as the Beauly station
refurbishment, which is helping to keep commuter traffic out of Inverness.
The Scottish Christian Party will also look for
sustainable ways of linking rail freight traffic to our shipping network to
take juggernauts off the route from Dover to the North of Scotland.
We would support bringing the strategic roads in
Scotland up to an appropriate standard to reduce journey times e.g. upgrading
the A9 to a dual carriageway throughout to make travel times to the Highlands
more predictable. We will initiate a
consultation exercise regarding the feasibility of variable speed limits for
trunk roads to reduce journey times. We
will link land use planning with transport planning to release appropriate land
for strategic transport improvements, linking local, regional and national
transport plans. We will seek to use transport channels for transmission of
energy to reduce the impact on the rest of the countryside. In the cities we will seek to reduce
congestion on the basis that the polluter pays through differential charging
for parking and/or access e.g. big vehicles cost more. We will review the effectiveness of the
out-sourcing of trunk road maintenance well before contracts come up for
renewal.
We will support the establishment of an
international container hub in Scotland and encourage a
modular coastal shipping strategy for non-urgent bulky cargoes, linked with
rail where possible.
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