It says something about the nature of Thought for the Day, being set amidst and commenting on the topics in the news, that so often it is impossible to tell the precise nature of the hook on which it is hung. The listeners all knew what you were talking about, whereas in retrospect, who knows what were the slogans of that rally, or what link it might have had with the Treasury Review. But the script is still intelligible, and the points it makes still valid. That is a key point about religion. The issues and values it discusses are timeless. The political conference is gone with yesterday.

It is often said that in Islam there’s no distinction made between religion and politics – an idea that some in the post-Galileo west can find disquieting. But at yesterday’s rally in George Square – non-muslims with their muslim neighbours were protesting to bring about political change, and the issue was not just to do with how we spend our taxes, but something more elusive, the principles on which we wish to structure our society. Issues of group morality and ethics, of Law and hence Politics. Politics is about the way we organise what we believe is best for the whole community.

Political conferences do seem to be taking on a religious, even Evangelical flavour, but politics is about more than TV presentation – it is about Education (Education and Education), which for a muslim is a religious duty. It is through politics that we decide if and how our schools should teach morality, which of course needs not just instruction, but example.

An ethical Foreign Policy also has the problem of how you get people to agree to being an example of principles being preached. Strength and courage may be needed (especially as we face the start of yet another purge in Europe), if we are to take Muhammad’s advice and “hold back the hands of evildoers to prevent them from doing evil”.

Even the Budget can’t avoid religious issues. Well, it is how we cut the community wealth cake, and spend it or redistribute it to the community. And wealth redistribution is also a religious duty for a muslim. It is essential to the health of a community, for society to be based on charity and kindness, not on selfishness and greed. But is that economically viable?

Apparently, a Treasury Review has discovered that more spending on pre-school provision could save millions on prisons, remedial education, probation and youth work. Provision to learn what, in our earliest years? Presumably the subtlest things, personal and social identity, giving and accepting, loving and sharing, beauty, coping with sadness and anger, good and bad, restraint and generosity, all those emotions and values at the heart of our religions. It seems that even economists are beginning to accept what religions have always said should be the main priorities in life.