Talk:Robin Harper

Picture
Thre should be a picture of Mr. Harper on this page. I see them all over the BBC and the Scotsman. Why isn't there one here? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bruce Cabot (talk • contribs) 16:17, 10 May 2006

Question
As I was saying, I met this guy once on the Aberdeen University campus, but with two English guys who were Catholic that I knew from uni. So why is he in Category:Anti-Catholicism?--h i s  s p a c e   r e s e a r c h 19:19, 5 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I've met him as well, being a member of the Scottish Green Party myself. He should definitely be removed from Category:Anti-Catholicism. I'm guessing that someone has put him in here because the Scottish Green Party are opposed to faith schools, but that does not in my view make Robin Harper anti-Catholic and it would be a very extreme POV to characterise him as such. --User:hartlandcat —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.251.240.73 (talk) 00:40, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

Text revisions
In case anyone was wondering why I've removed the line about "In April 2007" Robin Harper was "removing support for Catholic Schools" it's because the phrasing is tendentious and the reference was to a foreign source with no author specified which is an escalation of http://www.sces.uk.com/articles/10/1/The-Greens-Manifesto-on-Catholic-Schools/Page1.html (the original article which sparked the controversy). Within that article the neutral reader will see that the Greens' manifesto commitment which sparked that article is not related to any specific denomination as would be implied by the wikipedia entry, instead it is personalised by an author of an organisation which feels threatened at the reduction of status, funding or role. If reinstated in any form (which I don't think would be appropriate here on a personal biog) it would be appropriate to include a copy of the letter which RH sent to and published by the Scottish Catholic Observer refuting various points but which has not been included. It would also be more appropriate to document this particular episode on a page relating to the 2007 election in general or else in discussion of the Scottish Greens commitment to separation of Church and State and a wider discussion of the history of other Scottish politicians courting religious groups, most notably the 'Catholic vote'; both as pursued currently by Labour and SNP (as well as historically by Scottish Labour in the early part of 20th century when they set up the state funding of Catholic churches). It would also be appropriate to have a page dedicated to recording and discussing the actions of religious groupings seeking to influence politics in Scotland if we are going to expand wikipedia in this direction. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.11.186.247 (talk) 02:23, 8 January 2010 (UTC) (Oops, apologies, forgot my tildes.. 86.11.186.247 (talk) 02:27, 8 January 2010 (UTC))

Current status
The article states that he "was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Lothians region" but not what he is. Does this simply require the modification "is... Lothian region..." (no "s")? Mutt Lunker (talk) 06:50, 2 February 2016 (UTC)
 * He was a MSP until 2011 and he was elected as an additional member in the region that was Lothians (Scottish Parliament electoral region). After the First Periodic Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries, that electoral region was replaced by Lothian (Scottish Parliament electoral region). Drchriswilliams (talk) 08:12, 2 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Mutt Lunker (talk) 08:48, 2 February 2016 (UTC)

Music career
Harper was at one one time well known for his music, but having gone into electoral politics before the internet started recording things, there's practically nothing out there. This article should be a good start, though: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12239239.green-msp-owns-up-to-an-enduring-obsession-fretting-from-first-thing-in-the-morning/ 51.7.246.143 (talk) 20:32, 3 August 2023 (UTC)

Openly gay?
Do we still use / need that description? It feels rather old fashioned (at least in a UK context). We don't say that someone is openly hetrosexual. QuakerActivist (talk) 10:17, 11 June 2024 (UTC)