Proportional Prayers: Social Equality in the Scottish Parliament?

Abstract

New legislatures do not come into being very often. When they do, the arrangements they choose provide interesting insights into the intended relationship of the legislature to its environing society. The Scottish Parliament established in 1999 was designed to launch a closer relationship between the people of Scotland and its new legislature than that held to exist between the Scottish population and the UK Parliament at Westminster. Defining the relationship of the Scottish Parliament with external religious institutions was one of the key requirements of this attempt at democratisation. But it is not easy to find a sustainable pattern of accommodation between the potentially-combustible spheres of politics and religion. Cromwell’s statue at Westminster stands as a potent reminder of this point in relation to the UK Parliament, the monarchy and religion.¹