Why the Greens are wrong over Catholic education representatives – John McLellan

As long as we have Catholic schools, it’s not unreasonable to have church representatives on council education committees, writes John McLellan.

Archbishop Leo Cushley, seen opening a new gym hall at St Margaret's RC Primary school in South Queensferry, called on parishioners to oppose moves to block voting rights for religious representatives on Edinburgh council's education committee (Photo: Alistair Linford)

It is a sign of the febrile political times in which we live that, in pondering over this week’s column, I quickly concluded that even for someone brought up in a Rangers-supporting, Protestant Glasgow household it would be easier to write about Catholic schools than Brexit.

In the two years since I was elected as a Conservative councillor (I have to keep mentioning that otherwise social media trolls complain), there is no question the letter-writing campaign orchestrated by the Catholic Church to fight a Green Party move to strip church representatives on Edinburgh’s education committee of voting rights is the strongest cross-city protest we have received.

Yes, we get bombarded with cut-and-paste anti-Zionist complaints about the Lothian Pension Fund’s investment in the Israeli Bank Hapoalim, but this is different; after Archbishop Leo Cushley’s condemnation was read from pulpits a few weeks back, scores of hand-written letters and Catholic Church postcards arrive every day to demand that voting rights are preserved.

The place of three religious representatives on Scottish education committees is a statutory guarantee, going back to the 1918 Education Act when ‘voluntary’ Catholic schools were brought into a new state system along with board schools and given the same funding under new county education authorities.

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Next week Edinburgh Council will vote on a Green Party proposal to remove voting rights following a similar move in Perth & Kinross after religious representatives sealed the fate of Blairingone Primary, a school near Dollar with just six pupils which the council administration was recommending for closure because it only had the prospect of five more.

In Edinburgh, the same situation is unlikely to arise because of a convention that the religious representatives only vote on matters directly related to faith-based education, and as yet no-one has been able to point to an issue in which the religious representatives have caused controversy or swung a decision against a political majority. In Edinburgh, this is an issue looking for a problem. This week, an editorial in the Scottish Catholic Observer didn’t pull its punches, saying that while the Green Party had some good ideas “a strain of absolute lunacy also runs through it... The party is arrogant and blindly devoted to its cause. ‘Religion is bad, therefore state-funded religious schools are bad’ is their thinking.”

The Church regards undermining the place of religious representatives as the start of a process which will lead to the dismantling of Catholic schools and so presents a threat to the entire system, pointing to the history of discrimination as evidence of their continued relevance.

While claims that Catholics face an ever-present threat of sectarian exclusion might still have some substance in small pockets in the West, in the East of Scotland it is weak to say the least. But not so the threat to Catholic identity of which, in an increasingly secular age, the schools are an essential part, and as Catholicism is an essential part of Scotland’s heritage this is something which should be valued and understood.

But the schools also represent state-supported choice in education, which councils did so much to destroy in the 1970s with the dismantling of historic institutions like the Royal High, the High School of Glasgow (which I attended for three years) and Allan Glen’s. Like those schools, the choice they represent is one of improving standards. There might be a point if Catholic schools and their representatives were a drag on attainment and a threat to their children’s learning, but the opposite is the case with Catholic schools consistently out-performing their non-denominational neighbours.

Judging by the attack on private school funding and the withdrawal from all but one international education measurement system, comparison and competition spell danger for the Scottish Government and eroding the position of Catholic schools would be one more step down that road.

The Edinburgh Green Party’s position has grown from their enthusiasm for giving children the day off to go on climate strikes to a desire to give pupil representatives a place on the education committee, but realising this is a non-starter it has decided that if the kids can’t have a say then neither can the churches. This article started with a declaration of my background and some will no doubt argue that in itself is an illustration of a problem which separate schooling perpetuates. But diversity and choice is not the same as division and as long as there are Catholic schools then giving the Church one voice on matters which directly affect the faith in those institutions does not seem to be controversial. The Green Party has chosen to make it so. As they say, hell mend them.

Say no to Hangover Day

On choice, shops currently can choose whether to open on Ne’er Day, but a Holyrood motion from Labour MSP Jackie Baillie bids to force large shops to close to give staff a guaranteed break. But what represents a large shop? Your local Scotmid, Tesco Metro or Sainsbury Local? In this age of online shopping and New Year tourism, it seems strange to legislate to reduce choice and in these health-conscious days, wouldn’t it preserve the notion that the day after Hogmanay is Hangover Day?

Curing capitalism

And of once-mighty, fallen Labour figures... For once not the main event, Gordon Brown was on stage at the Edinburgh Book Festival this week to interview Serbian economist Branko Milanovic about his new book Capitalism Alone: The Future of the System That Rules the World. “It’s a privilege to be interviewed by a Prime Minister,” said Milanovic, to which Mr Brown quickly replied, “Former Prime Minister. I’m unemployed.” Aw.

An expert on income inequality, Mr Milanovic’s book divides global capitalism into two categories: liberal capitalism, such as the UK and US, and political capitalism, like China and Russia, the former characterised by self-perpetuating affluent middle/upper classes, the latter by corruption. He did not offer an alternative and many in the audience would have been disappointed about his view that global capitalism offered the best way to reduce global income inequality. Judging by the age profile, more than a few would baulk at his medicine for the evils of liberal capitalism – inheritance taxes.

Mr Brown had a wrestle with Mr Milanovic, not over ideas but which member of the audience got to ask a question, but he takes back control is back at the Book Festival a week on Monday when he shares his observations about Scotland’s place in the UK and Europe and “the challenges around understanding of national identity”. He could throw Catholic schools into the mix.