BLAME THE BIBLE!

Glasgow is the City of.......Fit in your preference. Its Rulers so far have adopted Culture, Architecture and some other professions that have escaped the notice of its citizens. Its latest boast is City of Curry, a title won for it by Mohammed Sarwar MP who apparently made a hot case for the accolade in Parliament. What the Rulers do not want, regardless of their pleas for tolerance and freedom of speech is to be become City of Vandalism or even City of Blasphemy. Yet that is what has happened. Their sturdy dismissal of traditional values and the religious feelings of their citizens in favour of artistic licence has made world wide headlines, including a papal reprimand.

The invitation to express resentment at feelings of exclusion apparently attributable to Scripture seemed too much for a sizeable minority of latrinographers who on the face of it, had lost their way to the narrowest room and found themselves in Glasgow Museum of Modern Art, a cultural no-go area for anyone who appreciates the finer things in life. The invitation to write the passing thought was irresistible and appears to have been accepted with some gusto. Good manners forbid repeating their efforts.

The episode shows up three things. First the Rulers, who exact the highest city council tax in Scotland and have the lowest rate of collection, have no inhibitions about how they spend other peoples' money: a now universal habit among councils up and down the country.

Secondly, regardless of the social make up of the city, the Rulers' urge to commit to a secularist and 'liberal' agenda seems unstoppable. Culture, Architecture, Curry......we are citizens too of no mean City of Political Correctness.

Lastly, the Catholic Church was slow to resond.A spokesman for the Catholic Church, (always anonymous) suggested that the episode was 'infantile'. Not quite good enough. Ordinary people would have provided 'blasphemous' or 'repellant' or 'insulting', but these kinds of sentiments were thin on the ground. Perhaps our bishops could have collectively commented a little more loudly or forcibly or even at all.