Interesting way to silence a cardinal I'm not particularly religious, but I do believe that if a Roman Catholic Cardinal wants to make some comments about Scottish Independence then I feel that he should have every right to do so without government heavies weighing in to "persuade" him to change his mind (or at least his statement).

From the press:
Scotland On Sunday - 15-Oct-2006: Mark Your Vote With A Cross

"I can see [scottish independence] coming, perhaps not in the next few years, but before too long," [Cardinal Keith O'Brien] adds. In further comments to this newspaper, in which he fleshes out his views, the cardinal expresses his personal "frustration" at the limits of the Scottish Parliament's current powers, particularly over the question of nuclear weapons. "We have no wish to pay host to these evil weapons, yet we have no power to remove them," he declares, with obvious irritation.

Scotland On Sunday - 5-Nov-2006: Cardinal under pressure from Brown to change mind on independence

LABOUR'S hierarchy has begun a behind-the-scenes offensive to persuade the leader of Scotland's Roman Catholics that his controversial backing for independence was wrong. However, one source described the charm offensive as "more offensive than charm". A source close to Brown said that the Chancellor had used his meeting to pressurise O'Brien over his comments on independence.

Some other comments on this topic:
* Labour arm twisting of cardinal pays off
* Gordon Brown - Enemy of free speech  ¶ 00:06