I have had enough! Kenny Farquharson’s hit piece on Kate Forbes in the Times is a new low in Scottish journalism. Ignorant, bigoted, hateful, untrue and lies. Here is my response on Christian Today
The following is the unedited version
Persecuting Kate….
It’s happening again. After the demise of Humza Yousaf as Scottish First Minister, with perverse predictability the witch-hunt amongst Scotland’s wokeratti is on again. It’s time for the ‘Anyone but Kate’ campaign. It appears as though having a Muslim First Minister is something to be celebrated. Having a Scottish Christian Presbyterian is something to be feared, sneered at and viciously mocked. The Daily Record’s Political Editor, Paul Hutcheon, kicked off with claims that voting for Kate Forbes would be voting for the ‘candidate of the 19th Century’ or ‘one of those awful right-wing Republicans in the US’.
Such chronological snobbery and political illiteracy is sadly not unexpected from some political journalists (thankfully not all – the impeccably left-wing Kevin McKenna of the Herald, Guardian and National – has consistently condemned the anti-Christian bigotry of his fellow journalists). But this week it reached a new low with a bitter, hateful, and ignorant hit piece of invective from the Times Journalist – Kenny Farquharson. It was so shocking that even avowed political opponents and atheists have whispered how shocking it is (of course such is the current poisonous atmosphere in Scotland that they dare only whisper).
Because the article is behind a timeline I will quote extensively from it. The article itself is badly written, astonishingly incoherent, historically illiterate, and full of dishonest hate speech. So, let’s dive into these murky waters.
First note how prejudice colours political judgement. Farquharson recognises – as do the vast majority of informed, intelligent commentators that Kate Forbes is by far the most competent of the SNP leaders.
“Forbes has ideas and energy. She has a vision of how to tool Scotland for the challenges of the age: poverty; productivity; artificial intelligence; net zero. She has shown herself to be open to a pro-business agenda while protecting benefits for the poorest families. She speaks the language of public sector reform with a conviction absent in most of her peers.”
But none of this matters. “Whoever leads Scotland next, it can’t be Kate Forbes”. Despite the fact that she would govern the country better than anyone else, despite the fact that from a nationalist point of view she is the only leader capable of saving the independence cause – none of this matters. Not because of her religion. No – because of Kenny Farquharson’s. And Patrick Harvie’s, Nicola Sturgeons and Paul Hutcheon’s. It is the religion of all the nameless cultural Marxists who have taken over most of Scotland’s main systems. No one must be allowed in any public forum who does not bow the knee to the ‘progressive’ gods.
Although Farquharson talks about Forbes not being able to represent Scotland in all its diversity – that is Orwellian newspeak for precisely the opposite. It is because she is diverse and differs from Farquharson’s elitist opinions, that it must be anyone but Kate. Left or Right it doesn’t matter. As long as they accept The Only Truth.
“Kate Forbes is unfit to be first minister of a 21st-century Scotland. A 1920s Scotland, maybe. A 1950s Scotland, perhaps. But not Scotland in 2024.”
Note the chronological snobbery. It is part of the Progressive Creed that being in 2024 automatically makes you better than if you were in the 1920’s and 1950’s. There are many living in Scotland today who despair at just how far Scotland has regressed since these times. But for Farquharson the nightmare of his Handmaid’s Tale is that anything modern must be better. It’s not rational. It’s not capable of any proof. But none of that matters. The mantra must be repeated as an endless meme.
“Humza Yousaf was the first Muslim to lead a national government in the western world. This in itself is an extraordinary badge of honour for Scotland.”
The inconsistency here is astonishing. One assumes that Kenny has no idea what Islam teaches on gay rights or abortion. But perhaps as a journalist you would think he would at least have a passing awareness of how homosexuals are treated in Muslim countries – including Humza Yousaf’s own country of heritage? Or maybe Kenny is so blinded by US culture wars that he really thinks ‘Queers for Gaza’ makes sense?
Who our leaders are matters. What they believe matters. What they represent matters. What message would a Kate Forbes first ministership send? That single mothers are sinners? That sex outside marriage is wrong? That ghouls should be allowed to stand in the street outside abortion clinics muttering incantations? That most of us in secular Scotland are going to hell?
The lies and misrepresentation are so obvious that it is almost unnecessary to point them out. But such is the level of irrationality and disdain for truth in Kenny’s Brave New Scotland that we must. A Kate Forbes ministership would say to single mothers that they are as loved as anyone else. It would not be making adultery or sex outside marriage illegal – but one would hope that there would be some nod to the idea of sexual morality. In a Christian society it is possible to argue that something is immoral without criminalising it. In a secular progressive society – where the State replaces God – it is precisely the opposite. Everything disapproved must be outlawed.
Does Kenny care about the many people’s lives, especially amongst the poor, who have been blighted and ruined by the middle-class immorality of the bourgeoise he represents?
Calling those who want to protest against the death of innocent babies ‘ghouls’ is cheap and ugly journalism. Besides which it is an own goal given that Forbes voted in favour of the ban on protests outside abortion clinics.
As for secular Scotland going to Hell. There are some in Scotland who think we are already well on the way there. They have created a desert and called it paradise. The purpose of Christians is to save people from Hell. The purpose of propagandists like Kenny Farquharson is to keep them there.
” On the day of Yousaf’s resignation Allan Kennedy, a lecturer in early modern Scottish history at Dundee University, said on Twitter/X: “Kate Forbes as first minister would be some impressive playing of the long game on the part of the Covenanters.” I laughed. But it was laughter in the dark.”
Perhaps we can forgive Kenny for knowing nothing about theology, or Islam – but as a Scottish journalist we surely have a right to expect him to know some history. The Covenanters, like all people had their faults, but without them we would not have had modern Scotland. They believed in limited government, Lex Rex (the law is King, not the other way round), and some degree of religious toleration. Yet thousands of them were judicially murdered. Take for example the Wigtown martyrs, Margaret McLauchlin (aged 63) and Margaret Wilson (18) who were executed by drowning because they refused to bow the knee to the States edict on how they should worship. Kate Forbes is the heir of those women. Kenny Farquharson is the heir of the persecuting Establishment. He would doubtless have been writing his piece in the Times celebrating the removal of such dangerous women who did not represent ‘Scotland’s values’!
I want a Scotland where the only weeping and gnashing of teeth is over the performance of the national football team, where the only fire and brimstone is in high school chemistry classes, where punitive Presbyterianism is taught as history rather than modern studies.
We don’t and haven’t had punitive Presbyterianism for several hundred years in Scotland. For Kenny to imply that Kate Forbes would want to bring this back (even if she could) is deliberate slander. The irony is that he is writing in defence of a government which has just brought in a new blasphemy law, the Hate Crime Act. Punitive Presbyterianism is not the issue in modern Scotland. Punitive Progressivism, backed up by the full power of the State, and cheered on by Progressive journalists is now the real issue.
I want a secular Scotland. I want this century to be the very first in Scotland’s story where religious belief and ecclesiastical power did not routinely dictate the way people were governed or lived their day-to-day lives.
But what kind of secular Scotland? One where there is diversity and equality? One where a woman who believes the Bible can be First Minister (or is it only the Koran that is acceptable now?). Kenny is very happy for those who share his religious/philosophical beliefs to wield their secular power and dictate to us how we are governed and live our day to day lives. In modern Scotland we are told what to eat, drink, what we can use to heat our homes, and now even what we can or cannot say in our own families! The old Kirk Session has nothing on the new Secular Stasi!
I want a Scotland that need not fear any US-style curbs on a woman’s right to choose an abortion.
What is it about progressive journalists – who in the name of wanting to stop culture wars, keep introducing US culture wars? The only way that US style laws on abortion will be introduced in Scotland would be if Kenny’s extremist views were actually put into practice. There are currently limits on abortion in Scotland. Does Kenny want the system in some US states where there is abortion on demand up to birth? What about partial birth abortion? Is he really arguing for no restriction on abortion? Anyway – why stop there? Why shouldn’t we just regress a bit further and go back to the ‘right’ to kill your unwanted infant? Then we would be back in pre-Christian Greco/Roman/Pagan times.
I want a Scotland that celebrates every child, regardless of their mother’s marital status or sexuality.
Again, the insinuated falsehood. Setting himself up as the celebrator of every child and mother – whereas the woman who is a mother is demonised as some kind of heartless witch! Besides which, Kenny doesn’t really believe in celebrating every child. He after all wants to permit some to be killed in the womb. And one suspects that even he would have some scruples about ‘celebrating’ every sexuality.
. During the last SNP leadership campaign, I called Forbes “the MSP for the 19th century”. I stand by that. I would prefer a politician whose values chimed with the nation he or she sought to lead.
Repeating an error doesn’t make it any less an error. What Kenny is really saying is that he wants a politician whose values chime with his. And he wants all of civic Scotland to share exactly the same values. Those of us who do not are ‘Untermensch’ – to be despised and disdained. No equality and diversity in Kenny’s Brave New Scotland. I remember a BBC producer telling me that he wanted me to appear on his show because I represented the views of at least 50% of Scotland’s population – a 50% he admitted the BBC would never represent. In the echo chamber that Times journalists live in I’m sure Kenny finds that everyone agrees with his values…. but don’t pretend that that is anywhere near all of the nation.
In the 13 months since she lost the last SNP leadership election Forbes has cast herself as a victim. A martyr, even. She has characterised her opponents as enemies of freedom of worship. This is misdirection. The problem is not faith, per se. The problem is the way her particular faith intersects with our public polity.
Again, that is just a straight out lie. (Kenny is beginning to make Donald Trump look like a paragon of virtue!) Forbes has behaved herself with great dignity and has never played the victim card. And she did not characterise her opponents as enemies of freedom of worship. It is one thing for Kenny to disagree with Forbes’s views. It is quite another for him to make up her views and then disagree with his own fantasy!
The problem is not her beliefs. The problem is her opinions.
In the deconstructivist world of columnist journalism, I’m sure that makes some kind of sense. For the rest of us it’s just meaningless babble. Why should a belief that a man can’t become a woman be less offensive than the opinion that a man can’t become a woman?! When Kate Forbes says, (like the Pope, the moderator of the Church of Scotland etc) that marriage is given by God and is between a man and a woman – that is not her opinion – that is a belief from her faith. Just as Kenny’s views on marriage fit with his faith. If morality is just a matter of opinion, then it means that the rich and powerful, the class represented by the Times readers and writers, will get to just make up their own morality….
So, what would a Kate Forbes first ministership signify? What would it say today to a young girl in a single-parent household in the Raploch? What pride could such a kid possibly take in a national leader who disapproves of their very existence? What would Forbes in Bute House, framed by saltires, say to this young girl about the nation she calls home?
Of all the lies – the is the most breathtakingly audacious and cruel. Kate Forbes does not disapprove of any one’s existence – least of all the poor. The one thing about Kate Forbes – that puts her streets ahead of her opposition – is her genuine commitment to the poor and the marginalised. Not for her the comfort of the metro-elites, discussing poverty in the abstract, and comfort of their heat pump filled homes. Perhaps growing up in the poverty of India, or perhaps because she actually believes what Jesus says about the poor, Kate Forbes is way more radical than any of her detractors. I lived amongst the poor in Dundee – and the progressive ideology espoused by Kenny has done them nothing but harm. The young girl in Raploch is going to find far more in common with the young mum from the Highlands, than she will from the Times journalist!
I want a Scotland marked by generosity of spirit, not punitive social conservatism.
The irony of this being said in what is by a long way the least generous spirited article in a major newspaper for a decade, cannot be lost. And once again we have to point out – for the hard of hearing – that it is social progressivism which is the most punitive in Scotland just now. Exhibit one, your Honour, the punitive witch-hunt of this article.
“Forbes represents an authentic strain of rural Scottish Presbyterianism. But she cannot successfully reconcile the moral strictures of the Free Church with the values of contemporary urban Scotland in all its diversity and dynamism.”
We’ve already seen that Farquharson has a somewhat strained relationship with the truth, and a lack of historical and theological understanding. Now it appears he doesn’t even know his own country. The attempt to smear the Free Church as some kind of rural Highland backwater (yes Kenny, we know the code – it’s the implicit anti -teuchter racism so often found in the Glasgow and Edinburgh metro elites) betrays an ignorance of both the historic and current Free Church which is largely growing in the urban centres. What Kenny is telling people like me is that we have no place in modern ‘diverse’ Scotland.
Which is why I say again: in the third decade of the 21st century, Kate Forbes is unfit to be first minister of Scotland.
Kate Forbes would be ideal as First Minister of Scotland – which is why the SNP establishment don’t want her to become First Minister of Scotland. One does have to wonder, having read this bile, what right Kenny has to be employed as a journalist in a reputable newspaper? If he had written in the same terms about Humza’s faith, as he has about Kates, he would be out of a job and probably in court in modern Scotland!
So, I have decided, if you can’t beat them join them. I have reported Mr Farquharson for Hate Crime. There is no other way. In attempting to engage with him and his anti-Christian bigotry in the past he just ended up blocking me.
I consider his article to be hate crime against Christians who believe the Bible. It has already resulted in significant abuse and mockery. His only reason for Kate Forbes not being fit to be First Minister is her faith and her membership of the Free Church. Under the Hate Crime Act, religious beliefs are protected from those who want to stir up hatred. There is no doubt that any ‘reasonable’ person would see the hatred and abuse in this article. The police have promised they will investigate such reports. I hope they are good to their word…. feel free to join me by reporting him as well!
More importantly pray for Scotland, pray for Kate Forbes and for all her enemies. And pray for Kenny. There was once a man called Saul who persecuted the church – he was ‘the chief of sinners’ – but he was blinded by the light – and ultimately came to be known as Paul -the great messenger of Christ – whose influence even eventually reached and revolutionised Scotland. Lord – do it again!
David Robertson
Scot in Exile…
Newcastle NSW
Kate Forbes: Would a Christian be permitted to lead Scotland? – CT