People First - my thoughts

 Today I was at the People First march and rally in Glasgow.  The heavy rain meant the rally was curtailed, and I wasn't able to speak - but here is what I would have said!

I’m happy to be able to speak for the Moderator today –

because he agrees with me

that when the rich go on getting richer,

and the poor go on getting poorer,

and nothing – nothing in government policy

is designed to change that, to make

any difference at all –

it’s time for people from churches

to stand beside people from unions,

to stand beside people from disability groups,

to stand beside people from right across Scotland

and say that this is an offence

against the kind of society

that we want to be part of.

To be as the old Testament prophets who stood up and named what was wrong ;

Challenged injustice,

And called

No demanded

that those in power

Put others first

Some people, of course, think they come first.

Because of their wealth

Their status

Their position

Or their antecedents

And the deep desire of these people

is – at all times and at all cost

to anyone else – to stay first.

That’s why we have a body of millionaires

making up the Cabinet,

trying to get their own taxes cut

and telling us that we can’t afford

poor people.

The Bible get a lot of stick these days,

but let me tell you now what the Bible says:

It says that when there are resources to be shared out,

everyone should get enough. Everyone should

get enough, and everyone can get enough.

We’re told there’s no choice

about which direction to go in.

And of course they’re quite right,

the government.

If things are to stay the same –

the same inequality,

the same winners,

the same losers,

the same lack of values,

the same lack of compassion,

the same holding on to weapons of mass murder,

the same refusal by the wealthy

to pay a decent share of tax,

the same lack of political will and imagination….

If all these things are to stay the same

then we’ve no choice.

But today we exercise choice – the choice

to say no to the same old, same old,

business as usual.

Today we say it is time to make other choices,

it is time to put some other people first.

All over Scotland

The nation of which we are all part

Whatever our roots and our beliefs

 there are young people who believe

that our society has nothing for them –

no respect, no decent work, no hope, no future.

It really is time to put them first.

All over Scotland there are people

Some of who are here today ,

who have  already felt the sharp edge of cuts –

transport services to disabled people taken away,

to save a fraction of a banker’s bonus.

It really is time to put them first too.

If the Moderator was here he’d tell you

that these are the very people

who should get a fair deal,

because right now they are last,

and what Jesus says in the Bible

is that the last shall be first.

The way they get to be first

is that we stop living as though

there was no alternative

and make the changes that are needed

to prioritise the poorest.

Scotland has a proud record

of caring for all of its people.

We need to call on that pride today,

and say that we will not cease

in our efforts, until we have

a change that puts people first –

that puts all of our people first,

and the ideology of market forces last.

What we have now is not rational,

it is deeply irrational to have an

economy in which the only thing

that  is growing is inequality. And

it is deeply irrational to have some

with all the opportunity and others

with none. 

It’s time for those with the power

to change our political priorities

to rediscover the morality that

needs to underpin our society, and

to say no to the ideological cuts

that are doing such terrible damage

to the most vulnerable people

in it.

On behalf of the Moderator

I thank you for listening, and

thank you for coming.