MacCaliphate or the New Jerusalem: Scotland faces a hard choice 

Since Nicola Sturgeon realised she was surplus to Scottish requirements, Scotland is in the news, for once, for something other than tartan todgers on men pretending to be women. All media attention is now on who is going to replace her as leader of the SNP and by default as First Minister of Scotland. The front runners seem to be devout Muslim Humza Yousaf, currently the health secretary, and devout Christian Kate Forbes who is in charge of finance.

This is a bit of a Hobson’s choice between two types of tyranny. On the one hand we have Yousaf who adheres to the tyranny of Islam and, on the other hand, Forbes who adheres to the tyranny of the Free Church of Scotland. Clearly, I am being facetious, but it is how the press is painting it in relation to Forbes. Nobody questions Yusaf on the basis of his beliefs, but all eyes are on Forbes who professes some beliefs which do not accord with the woke commentariat led by its vanguard newspaper The Scotsperson. 

Yousaf adheres to a religion whose most devout followers believe their mission is the establishment of a caliphate, whereby religion and government are united in the implementation of Sharia Law. Laws which see fit to stone women to death, teach gay people how to fly from buildings and to decapitate people in public. The popularity of this style of government can be attested to by the length of the queues of people fleeing from the west to Islamic countries. Forbes meanwhile, adheres to a religion whose most devout followers and extremists believe that shops and pubs should be closed on Sundays. I know which system I’d vote for.

I am not saying there is the slightest shred of evidence that Yousaf is an extremist or an advocate of Sharia law. He is probably a perfectly nice chap, but we don’t know that he doesn’t have posters of Shamima Begum on his walls; until now, nobody has asked. In fact, nobody really seems to know what he thinks about things, especially the ‘big one’, gay marriage. Conveniently, he was absent for the vote on this in the Scottish parliament, and it is rumoured that he was thus advised by leaders of the Muslim community in Scotland, the MacMullahs. He is, however, a proclaimed supporter of the even bigger issue of gender self-identification for which he did vote. He’s a strange one our Humza.

Forbes, at least, has been honest about how she votes or would have voted (she has been on maternity leave), but she also seems to be jumping through political hoops to ensure that she is electable. Despite being personally opposed to abortion she says that she will defend the right of women to have an abortion – thus proving that she is, essentially, just another ambitious politician who is eminently capable of using her intellect to kill her conscience. She does maintain her stance on gay marriage, however, and is prepared to defend it. She also says that she would not have voted in favour of gender self-identification which may be her trump card (no pun intended) since two-thirds of Scottish voters are opposed to it too. She may transpire to be the most electable candidate.

However, while I would not downplay the issues of gay marriage, abortion or transgender self-identification, for the people of Scotland these are mere trifles as is the issue of who will lead the Scottish government. When the new leader is announced, sometime soon after 27 March, whether it is Islamic Yousaf, Wee Free Forbes or someone else, Scotland will have a major problem: The SNP will still be in charge.

Roger Watson is a retired academic, editor and writer. He is a columnist with Unity News Network and writes regularly for a range of conservative journals including The Salisbury Review and The European Conservative. He has travelled and worked extensively in the Far East and the Middle East. He lives in Kingston upon Hull, UK.