Belfast Telegraph – Never underestimate a fundamentalist. They’re not half as stupid as many people think, which makes them twice as dangerous.

“Intellectual baboons”, as Richard Dawkins scathingly dismissed the Causeway creationists? If only. That makes them sound like dumb, innocent creatures, with bright pink bottoms, scampering across the African savanna, causing no harm to anyone.

In reality, they wear suits, exert a disproportionate influence on social affairs in Northern Ireland and like nothing better than sticking their sin-seeking proboscis into other people’s business.

Only now they do it with love, or with the appearance of love. Because these ultra-conservative Christians have evolved.

Most know that hellfire threats, guldered from the pulpit, have no place in a rapidly secularising society. So they have become smooth, genial, respectful.

They offer sweet doughnuts and waffles at their church services. They are policy-literate, proficient in the compassionate discourse of human rights and equality.

But the diehard beliefs are still there, the same punitive intolerance hiding out behind the mile-wide smiles.

Take the reform of our ridiculously outdated gambling laws, back in the news because one of Europe’s biggest gambling companies, Rank, has said it wants to open Northern Ireland’s first-ever casino.

Ex-NIO minister Sir Richard Needham, who’s a non-executive member of Rank’s board, is – perhaps unsurprisingly – keen on the idea.

He envisages a “mini-Singapore” (a reference to a different conservative culture, which has been able to accommodate the advent of casinos) springing up here, bringing wealthy visitors with it.

Will it happen? Will it heck. Law reform is currently in the hands of Mr Fun, aka Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland, who has piously intoned that his “priority is to minimise the harmful effects of gambling”. He has already said that the current ban on casinos will be retained.

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