Peter Kearney

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Peter Kearney (born 10 February 1963) is a former Scottish National Party (SNP) candidate for the United Kingdom Parliament, as well as being the Director of the Scottish Catholic Media Office (SCMO), headquartered in Glasgow. He was born in Paisley, Scotland.

On 6 May 1999 Kearney contested the devolved Scottish elections for the SNP, a first time candidate and the SNP's National Political Education and Training officer. There was a swing of 8.4% from Labour to the SNP and Elaine Smith, the Labour candidate, was elected as Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the constituency of Coatbridge & Chryston with a majority of 10,404 over Kearney. Labour (Smith) took 17,923 votes (or 59.35%), down 8.97%, while the SNP (Kearney) took 7,519 votes (24.90%) up 7.88%.

A year later Kearney contested the SNP deputy leadership in September 2000, obtaining 108 votes (13.3%) compared to 48.2% for Roseanna Cunningham, Member of Parliament, MSP, and 38.5% for Kenny MacAskill, MSP.

An orthodox Catholic, Peter Kearney strongly supports denominational education in Scotland, a contentious subject as most non-Catholics in Scotland oppose the taxpayer-funded system of pluralist schooling, where people have the right to choose the type of education they want for their children.

In May 2006, the Scottish Catholic Media Office (SCMO) launched a Da Vinci Code DVD which "aimed to tackle many of the myths and misinformation contained in the best-selling book and newly launched film."

[edit] Quotes

“I believe an evangelical media office would be a major asset and it could work with other denominations such as ourselves, to better present the Christian voice to Scotland.” July 2006