Scottish Christian Party face fines for illegal posters

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A minority party standing in the Scottish elections could face huge fines for illegally displaying election posters.

On Friday areas of Glasgow were festooned with the distinctive purple notices of the Scottish Christian Party.

The party – slogan Proclaiming Christ’s Lordship – is funded by born-again Christian Rev George Hargreaves.

Hargreaves co-wrote and produced the 1980s anthem So Macho, sung by gay icon Sinitta.

The B-side of the single was called Cruising.

Last October he was reported to have offered to donate £50,000 to an appeal by nine firefighters from Strathclyde Fire Service.

In August 2006 they were ordered to undergo an intensive course in diversity training as a punishment for refusing to hand out leaflets at the gay Pride Scotia in June.

They lost their appeal.

The Express reports that 50 SCP election posters went up along lampposts on Sauchiehall, Buchanan and Argyle streets in Glasgow on Friday night.

They were removed on Saturday, and were back up on Monday morning.

Scottish electoral law says no candidates may put up posters until the election has been declared, and the SCP could be fined up to £1,000 per poster.

Rev Hargreaves is reported to earn £10,000 a month from the royalites to So Macho, which reached number two in the UK charts in 1986.

He stood in the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election in February 2006, and came 6th, with 411 votes.

Rev Hargreaves led Operation Christian Vote, a fundamentalist Christian political party that unsuccessfully contested seats in the 2005 election.

Hargreaves is known to have links with the religious right in the US.

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Ahead of his 2004 election bid, he flew to the Unites States to consult with Christian political strategists.

He has also worked with Stephen Green of Christian Voice in an effort to censor “blasphemy” in the media.

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