Clapped-out idea

THE 2012 General Assembly ­decided that the Kirk would “remain impartial as to the outcome of the referendum” but allowed its Church and Society Council to be “wholly engaged in the discernment process”.

The problem with this scenario was that a relentlessly “happy-clappy” committee was going to take a dim view of any trace of negativity even if it involved questioning wishful-thinking the SNP presented as fact.

After a series of “community events” held over a year, it produced a report with the counter-intuitive finding that Scots are focused on esoteric values and that personal finance is at the bottom of their list.

As a parish minister of some 35 years, I think it extraordinarily unlikely that the fate of one’s pension or whether one can afford the gas bill is of no interest and I suggest the report is pure Humphrey Appleby.

Alex Salmond could not have commissioned a better document to undermine the Better Together strategy because it effectively spiritualises his risible white paper and lifts it out of the sphere of rational debate.

(Dr) John Cameron

Howard Place

St Andrews, Fife