assumed identification of England and Wales with Britain, which
identification, in our time of devolved governments and parliaments, surely
cannot go unchallenged.
“The truth is that only two parts of the four-part UK voted to leave the EU,
not a majority at all from that point of view.
There was no provision that for such a momentous change to be
undertaken, a majority would have to exist in each constituent part of the UK
and so no recognition of the increasingly diverse nature of this obviously
troubled land, troubled by the inability of its largest constituent, England, to
acknowledge and live comfortably within an entity greater than itself.
“The truth also is that those who voted to remain have as much right to have
their view remain part of national discourse as the so-called Brexiteers have
the right to pursue their aspirations. As a direct consequence of side-
stepping all of these truths and considerations, the whole Brexit project
being so eagerly promoted by Her Majesty’s Government and now by means
of an early General Election, puts the integrity of the UK as a state at very
serious risk: Brexit may very well come to mean Break-up.
“For all their talk of stability and of “coming together”, Mrs May and her ill-
fated predecessor, who have made no secret of their devotion to all parts of
the UK, have already done much to undermine it by giving in to UKIP and
certain elements in their own party, so much so as to put their commitment
to any interest beyond that of their own party’s prospects of office in doubt
among some voters. One result may be that many Scots, who voted ‘No’ in
2014 and ‘Remain’ more recently, and who have perhaps never voted SNP
will in the coming months sadly find themselves pondering with increasing
distaste and disbelief the future mapped out for them by Mrs May, yoked to a
Tory-dominated austerity England, and so increasingly unable to resist the
demand for independence and for the end of the UK as they have known,
loved and valued it all of their lives.”
2016 Scottish Church Census
The Most Rev David Chillingworth, Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld &
Dunblane and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church says:
“The results of the 2016 Scottish Church Census are on some levels entirely
predictable. Historic institutional churches are in decline across the
developed world, particularly when seen against the ‘narrow band’
measurement of church attendance. The processes of secularisation are
systemic in modern societies and are rooted in factors such as population
mobility, an individualism which leads to a reluctance to commit and ever-
widening ranges of choice. While we may wonder at the apparent success of
churches in the developing world, the same inexorable process of change
will in time have a similar effect on them as our societies become more
globalised.
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