THERE may turn out to be a double edge to the compliment which High Commissioner Lord Hogg paid to his close personal friend Donald Dewar, Secretary of State for Scotland, who sat alongside him at the opening session of the 1998 General Assembly.
''I can tell you that his principles are wholly Presbyterian,'' declared Lord Hogg, to the evident surprise of Mr Dewar. Had the 1000 commissioners known the contents of the letter from Mr Dewar which had arrived the previous day in the office of the principal clerk, they too might have raised an eyebrow at this description. When it was read an hour later, Lord Hogg and members of the Government were no longer there to watch as the Kirk reacted to the dagger plunged into its heart.
Several months ago, I warned in this newspaper what would happen if the Government insisted on incorporating the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law without dealing with the anomaly of the 1921 Church of Scotland Act, which granted the Kirk independent jurisdiction in spiritual matters and which was won after centuries of church/state tensions.
In January, in the House of Lords, two sons of the manse (Lords Steel and Mackay of Drumadoon) inserted a clause in the Human Rights Bill which stated simply that nothing in the Bill could alter the freedoms granted in the 1921 Act.
The Dewar letter effectively told the Kirk that not only would the Government be removing that clause but as far as they were concerned, there was nothing to worry about.
From their comments on Saturday, that assurance clearly carried little weight with the present principal clerk Dr Macdonald, his predecessor Dr Weatherhead, and Alastair Dunlop QC, the procurator. They are convinced human rights for all mean the end of the Kirk's right to be free of state interference in a range of matters for which people have gone to the stake in the past.
Make no mistake. If there is no amendment, this is the beginning of the end for the established Church in Scotland. The Government does not mean to dis-establish presbyterianism for, after all, Donald is a Presbyterian . . . and the Lord Chancellor (another of Lord Hogg's friends) is an honourable man.
Over the weekend there were reports the Home Secretary had insisted the Lord Chancellor insert a clause saving the Kirk's 1921 status.
Unless the Government does, another Miss Percy will arise, an industrial tribunal will assert its right, and the pig will have been well and truly poked. And they will think of a warm Saturday morning when they first realised it was all slipping away.
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