The birth has been announced of the first Christian political party, which will present itself at the elections for the Scottish Parliament in May 2007. The Scottish Christian People’s Alliance was founded by former Labour activist Theresa Smith. Its agenda is to defend the family against a government that, according to Smith, “listens to the homosexual and feminist lobbies, and ignores the wishes of the majority of people. The Scottish Parliament has now mounted the most hostile and continuous attack on marriage and the traditional family ever seen in the United Kingdom and perhaps in Europe”. The new party was presented in recent days in the presence of the Bishop of Paisley, Philip Tartaglia, who explained that “it is not up to the Church to align itself with any political party. I welcome the efforts of Christians in the other parties, but there exists a vacuum in Scottish politics and if this party is able to fill it, it will render a service to the country”. The new party’s programme includes the defence of the family, the linking of pensions to average wages and the distribution of free meals to children in schools. Among the party’s candidates is a Muslim, Abdul Dean, a local authority worker who works in the field of ethnic minorities, and who has declared that values like the defence of the family are held in common by Christians and the followers of Islam.
