2010 General Election
At the Election Count in the Sports Centre, Inverness, Dr Donald Boyd thanked his supporters on behalf of the Scottish Christian Party at 5:00 in this short video clipping.
Donald stood against Danny Alexander in the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency.
Donald has lived in Inverness and its environs since 1980 and has been acquainted with the Highlands from his childhood.
He is a medical doctor and, although he is a GP, his face may be more familiar to you from Raigmore Hospital where he has mainly worked since 2000, or from Street Pastors where he helps out each month in the city centre or Merkinch. To this local knowledge, Donald’s interest in British and world history adds an international and historical perspective to his assessment of the needs of Britain at several levels of society.
Donald is concerned at the marginalising of Christian values in public life, and the open hostility to the practice of Christianity. He believes it is Christianity which made Britain Great, and the fragmentation of our society is because of the decline in practical Christianity. “I challenge someone to mention one thing which unites British society at present - not even a common language unites us,” he says. This is even more true of the European Union. Although Donald has a keen interest in languages, with a mother who is a native Gaelic speaker, he understands that the ordinary British citizen is unable to follow what happens in Europe - they only feel the adverse effects of European laws made by faceless bureaucrats whose languages they do not even understand.
Donald thinks that the recent equality legislation will divide society further as different groups clamour for their rights to be paramount. He looks to the lessons of British history which led to the establishment of parliamentary democracy, the clarifying of the relationship of Church and state through Scottish Covenanting times and the 19th century Disruption. These lessons are being forgotten by our surveillance society, spying on its citizens instead of promoting neighbourliness through gracious influence. He looks in vain for parliamentarians “to fix broken Britain” with the Christian courage of William Wilberforce, who abolished the slave trade against powerful vested interests.
Vigor, Vision and Voice
Donald believes the nation needs to hear a distinctive Christian Voice in Parliament and so he has been persuaded to stand in this election. He says that he is “in it to win it” as Danny Alexander is simply a mouthpiece for the Liberal Democratic Party’s ‘not so liberal’ agenda. The people of Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey need an MP who does more than reiterate party policy. The Scottish Christian Party comes with a new vigor, vision and voice which the country needs to hear. Donald wants to be part of that vision and victory.
Donald is the founder and current chairman of the Inverness branch of the Scottish Christian Party. He has campaigned for Christian issues for decades, but he began campaigning with the Scottish Christian Party in 2007 in order to fight the Holyrood Election in that year. He was appointed campaign manager for the Highlands and Islands in that election, and in less than four months of organising and campaigning, the Scottish Christian Party in the Highlands and Islands came from a standing start to overtake ten other parties, all in existence for a longer period of time.
He is married with four adult children and lives in Westhill, Inverness.
Dr Donald Boyd
Prospective parliamentary candidate for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey UK Parliamentary constituency in the General Election on Thursday 6th May 2010.
Donald Boyd’s election interview - read more at the Christians Together website.
Click on each underlined heading to view the news story
Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democratic Party leader, wants to force faith schools to teach that homosexuality is “normal and harmless”, and he wants gay civil partnerships to be replaced by true marriage. This is an important part of his campaign for he has said: “The heart of our manifesto will be short, direct and to the point. We have stripped away everything that is not essential.”
What does this mean for the Highlands of Scotland? The Highlands and Islands have five constituencies held by the Lib Dems: Ross, Skye and Lochaber (Charles Kennedy, former leader of the Lib Dems), Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (Danny Alexander), Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (John Thurso), Orkney and Shetland (Alistair Carmichael) and Argyll and Bute (Alan Reid).
Since Dec 2007 Danny Alexander has been Chief of Staff to Nick Clegg, and he is responsibile for leading the preparation of the Party’s manifesto. In other words, this part of the Lib Dem’s Manifesto is being driven through by the MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey.
The Scottish Christian Party will fight the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey seat at the next General Election as well as supporting forthright Christians who stand in other constituencies.
Do Christians in the Highlands and Islands want to vote for Lib Dem MPs with such an agenda? What can they do? Will they turn to the Labour Party, which won the Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber seat in 2001? The problem is that Labour has no better record on this topic. In the same interview the Lib Dem leader went so far as to compliment Labour “for its track record on gay rights”.
Our present Home Secretary, Alan Johnson MP, as Secretary of State for Education, was interviewed by John Humphrys on the Today programme on 31/5/2007. At the end of his interview he was asked if faith schools should be allowed to teach that same sex relationships are wrong. He replied: “No. I don’t think that they should, actually.” That was almost three years ago - and he is now Home Secretary. Christians need to waken up to what is happening.
Now David Cameron has joined the club, and he has said the Church of England should recognise “full equality” for homosexuals in a wide ranging interview for a gay lifestyle magazine. He believes that children should be taught that homosexual civil partnerships are just as valuable as marriage.
Times are a-changing, as Barack Obama discovered when the Democrats lost former Teddy Kennedy’s ‘safe’ seat. It is time for a change - to the Scottish Christian Party for a clear Christian Voice that will speak against such folly.
1. ¼ million people voted for a Christian Voice as NUMBER ONE in the 2009 European Elections. These are not second choice votes, but first choice votes across the whole UK.
2. This makes the Christian Voice NUMBER NINE in voting strength in the UK, only six years since the launch of the Scottish Christian Party in 2004.
3. The Scottish Christian Party overtook TEN established Parties in our FIRST contesting the Highlands and Islands Region in the 2007 Scottish Parliamentary Election.
4. The Scottish Christian Party has been consistently THIRD in the Western Isles, ahead of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, with 12.5% of the vote.
We will contest the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency against Danny Alexander’s promotion of the “not so liberal” Liberal Democratic Party’s agenda.
5. On 30th July 2009, Jeff Green became the first Christian Party politician in the UK, when he was elected a Local Councillor in the picturesque town of Llandrindod Wells, in Wales. This has been followed by another success when Martin Wiltshire became our second councillor in the same council on 2nd April 2010.
Manifesto for 2010 General Election
Download the Christian Party Manifesto for 2010 General Election [PDF 5.08 MB]
Christian Institute Election Briefing
Download the Christian Institute Election Briefing [PDF 635 KB]
If you live in the Highlands and Islands then click here to email Dr Donald Boyd if you have a question.
If you live elsewhere in Scotland, you will find contact details here.
Related Stories
If you live in England or Wales, visit the Christian Party website to register your interest and download the forms. If you do it this way you may even find that the deposit is paid for you.
The Christian Party (Wales) Party Political Broadcast