Kathleen Stock has written a fascinating piece for UnHerd about the recent attacks on Kate Forbes. Here’s an excerpt:
Lent began this week with a rehearsal for a crucifixion. On Tuesday, SNP leader hopeful and devout Presbyterian Kate Forbes was faced with something she must have known was coming: a challenge from journalists about her views on gay marriage, womanhood, and children being born out of wedlock. She did not flinch from spelling out what she thought. By Ash Wednesday, several of her backers within the SNP had publicly recanted, running scared from the ensuing furore, and Forbes was said to be taking “a break from media commitments”.
Accompanying Forbes’s profession of faith was an apparently sincere endorsement of existing equality law, reiterated on Twitter since. But this complication has been widely ignored in the denunciations that followed. Perhaps unaccustomed to the sight of a principled act of conscience from a Scottish politician, our modern-day Pharisees — otherwise known as newspaper columnists — swung into action to make sure it would not happen again.
As is their wont, several commentators pretended to be taking the room’s temperature while actually turning up the thermostat. In the Times, Alice Thomson warned that if Forbes “can’t step back from the pulpit, she’s in danger of becoming as polarising as Sturgeon”.
Another Times correspondent declared that Forbes was now “fighting for her political career, not just the leadership” — as if there were no room in serious politics at all for someone with Forbes’s views.
The Guardian was yet more forthright. “Pass the idiot pills!” hooted John Crace, punning that the politician was on “a mission” (geddit) “to torpedo her own career”. Over in the New Statesman, progressive clergyman Michael Coren blathered that Forbes shouldn’t “receive a free pass” on her views “because they’re allegedly a product of her faith” — the “allegedly” vaguely implying that her membership of the Free Church of Scotland could be a front for something even worse.
It is common now for Christians in political life to downplay the impact their private beliefs have in their public role. Jacob Rees-Mogg pointed out his views on abortion wouldn’t have any impact on policy, and Kate Forbes has made a similar point about same-sex marriage. Stock, however, makes the argument that such beliefs do have an impact on policy, but that this is welcome in Forbes’s case, given her clear views on the dangerous excesses of the trans rights movement.
Forbes has found her defenders, too: most notably, Kemi Badenoch, who referred to her duty as Equalities Minister to protect religious freedom, arguing that Forbes should be allowed to have “freedom of conscience”. As strategic as this defence from Badenoch is, though, I don’t think it quite works. Individual citizens of course have the right to freedom of conscience — including Forbes, who should be able to think and say whatever she likes within reason. The more pertinent question, though, is whether the religious or philosophical beliefs of a politician are relevant to their suitability for office, and especially when the office in question is leader.
Generally speaking, I don’t see why they aren’t — quite the contrary. The farming industry might reasonably be concerned if a vegan became Secretary of State at Defra. The Equality Act protects the philosophical beliefs of spiritualist psychics, but if a would-be prime minister claimed he could see into the future, voters might worry. And in both cases, the assurance that the beliefs in question were “personal” wouldn’t be much consolation — after all, they are still beliefs, involving a distinctive way of looking at the world that by definition can’t be switched off at will. Where a person appears to be able to leave his personal beliefs at home — as Forbes’ rival Humza Yousaf implies he can with Islam — then arguably, he doesn’t have very strong beliefs in the first place.
Equally, sometimes the personal beliefs of a politician can make them look a lot more attractive to voters. Speaking for myself, I think it’s a promising sign that Forbes is willing to say that the rapist Isla Bryson is a man. It makes her look a whole lot saner in that respect than many of her SNP colleagues. But if that’s the case, it can hardly be a problem in itself that, for others, the very same belief makes her seem like a liability. If legislation in a particular area is still a live question and stands a chance of being influenced by the views of a party leader — as is certainly the case for gender reform law in Scotland — then it’s reasonable to place any would-be leader’s background religious or philosophical beliefs about it under the microscope.
While Stock believes Forbes’s beliefs should be taken into account, she finds the attacks to be largely disingenuous woke posturing:
What we have here is a clash of two religions. One of them is full of sanctimonious, swivel-eyed moral scolds, rooting out heresy and trying to indoctrinate everybody into their fantastic way of thinking. The other is a branch of Calvinism. One of them asks “what would Jesus do?” and the other “what would Owen Jones think?”. Faced with a choice between their representatives on earth, I know which kind I would prefer to see in high office.
Worth reading in full.
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Customers?!
FFS!
If they don’t buck their ideas up I’ll use another department for my State Pension!
Yes, HMRC use “customers” also as if you have a choice.
That comes from some very expensive management consulting …
As an ex-employee I can confirm that DWP policy, and it certainly was and is policy is to refer to anybody claiming benefits as a “customer.” I refused. I never ever referred to a claimant as a “customer,” they were ALWAYS claimants.
My logic, repeated frequently was…
“Well they are not going to take their business elsewhere.”
This is the sort of garbage rhetoric that is embedded in the Civil Service and for the vast majority of staff they see no other logic. The majority are woke and extremely lazy.
Huxley you are a very unusual individual. In a good way. Much respect.
Many thanks MAk. Very kind of you.
Yeah that’s like “thanks for your patience” – as if I had an option!
I was on hold on the phone to HMRC today with their interminable musical loop being regularly interrupted by messages telling me that me that my call was important to them. Clearly it wasn’t at all important or they would have answered me sooner,…!
I was amused rather, after a blue light episode, to be asked if I would recommend the hospital to family and friends for emergency care?
As it happens the care I received was excellent and I’m still here as a result, but I did ask them where else I might have gone under the circumstances… no response, so far!
For emergency care?
I would have expected that there wouldn’t be the time to ponder.
The problem isn’t where they work, it’s that there’s nothing that requires them to work or that can be easily done to replace underperformers. Those that want to do minimal work can do so.
It’s also that they’re protected from consequences by the system.
A few years ago I had to call DVLA for something. As it happened I had time on my hands, so was able to hold… for nearly an hour. Long story short; I complained to my MP and, when the answer came it was to say that all calls to DVLA are answered within 10 seconds and therefore there was nothing that needed attention, everything is hunky dory… so, the moment your call is ‘answered’ and you go into the queue is all they measure. I imagine this kind of jiggery pokery is rampant through every facet of the civil service?
Where’s the hard evidence that working from home is related to productivity?
Motivated people will work wherever they need to or can. Well supervised people will work wherever they have to.
This article is about the DWP staff who are apparently neither motivated nor well supervised and will leave customers on hold for unreasonable amounts of time.
I know what it’s about, what I can’t see in the excerpts is any reference to hard evidence that current poor productivity is related to working from home.
tof, if you have never worked in the Civil Service you will never understand that it really is another planet.
I can imagine. I know a couple, one county council and one Whitehall, who work hard and are intrinsically motivated, but probably they are the exception. One is a socialist and has devoted his life to the public sector, the other is decidedly not a socialist and is actively working on starting his own business or moving into the private sector – not a surprise but a shame as he’s exceptionally bright.
Elcom (Electoral Commission) are still I believe “working” from home and boy can they give people the run around on the ‘phone. An absolute shower.
PS I’ve just logged off work (at home, 5 days a week) – not done tons of hours today, just my standard 7.5ish, spread out a bit so I can fit other things in that make me happy and a better worker when I am working. Whenever I am on calls and there are people in the office there’s a cacophony of noise from chatting – how anyone can work in that environment is beyond me!
When I visit the office every so often I am a lot less efficient. My work requires focused concentration for long periods of time, and my excellent boss understands this. When I am in the office I often arrive late in the morning so I can then stay late and get some work done after everyone has gone home and I can be certain I am not going to be interrupted.
Working from home is what everyone used to do, let’s face it.
But yes, an ill-motivated and ill-managed individual will find a way to avoid work wherever they are. The worst offenders in my experience are the “managers”. Where the Civil Service is concerned, I imagine this effect is multiplied many times – other people spending other people’s money on what other people tell them are other people’s problems, so no-one cares about quality service or product and they don’t care how much it costs.
This is why state must be as small as possible. Where’s Maggie when you need her?
100% agree
I look back on my early days of commuting into London and working in the office with fondness, and perhaps for some of our younger staff who choose to do that it’s the same now (we have a lovely office available for people who prefer it, as many or as few days as they choose), but at my advanced age I find my lovely home in a more rural setting (or wherever I am with my laptop) much improve my quality of life. Horses for courses. If your staff are valuable to you, look after them as long as they deliver the work.
We did internal studies – WFH was a mess. Office productivity measured in outputs, alignment, and meeting KPIs was achieved by being in the office. GDAD (geo agile projects) also suffered from failure – about 60% failed in some way (failure needs clear defining).
Interesting. Overall it has made little difference to us – some have been more productive, others less. What aspects of WFH do you think made the difference?
During the earlier lockdowns my whole department (bar one) worked from home. We did all the usual stuff to the usual schedule, occasionally popping in to the office for the odd day when necessary and delivering paperwork to each others homes as necessary. I’m sure some of my staff didn’t work exactly office hours, though I did (plus some as I didn’t have to commute), but we all achieved the same output as normal and management accounts were published on time.
I guess, as a small team, we after motivated to do what we always did. I suspect that the behemoth that is the Civil ‘Service’ doesn’t have the same motivation…
That chart… ‘Annual change in productivity growth‘.
Change in growth? Rate of a rate? Really?
So in Q1 2021 there was a -10% change in growth of productivity compared with a year before – or 90% of the growth in productivity from the year before? No mention of a decline in productivity at all?
“Not a word has been spoken about what’s in the interest of the child. The reality is if you’re holding down a job, it’s very difficult to spend adequate time with the child”
Best to get another government department or an expensive stranger to look after your children. Longer term, it’s easier to get them wearing masks and be vaccinated without the burden of parental consent.
What we have to be aware of is that this collapse in civil service productivity, productivity which I would argue is largely immeasurable, is deliberate. All our public services are being collapsed:
The police pick and choose who to arrest and similarly arbitrarily pick and choose what they might deem arrestable offences depending on lots of factors – skin colour, religion, height, weight, sex or lack thereof, length of time to end of shift.
Most of the above can be applied to the NHS although here the game is to make lots of noises while doing F A except creating waiting lists.
ELCOM – absolutely brilliant at knowing nothing and doing less while sending you round in circles and all while we interrupt their watching of ‘Flog It’ or some such crap.
We are deliberately being led and manipulated in to believing we are a Third World shit hole and within a couple of years we will be.
The tory Party has undergone a controlled demolition orchestrated from within. The same demolition processes are being applied to all the mechanisms of state. Kneel is already overturning Parliamentary traditions eg rearranging the David Amess Bills Day and other procedures.
The country is being dismantled from within. Our history is being rewritten such that the glories of Empire are now the greatest sins the world has ever seen. There will be no let up. Why do we think the Khant was installed in Londonistan on the back of 1.2 million votes? He has been placed there to do precisely what he is doing – destroy the greatest capital city in the world.
So the crap of working from home is just one small element in the whole and that is the demolition of the United Kingdom.
Everything is linked.
“We are deliberately being led and manipulated in to believing we are a Third World shit hole and within a couple of years we will be.”
Perhaps that’s why there’s been a trend over recent years of eateries with a run-down look so that people get used to it before it stops being a choice.
Yes more than likely.
E-mail to all staff: “A failure to return to work on Mondays or Fridays will be construed as indication of your wish to terminate your employment…”