Well the question seems to be,

‘When will we have a general election?’

I am not sure who has decided that that is the question, but clearly it is a question that is being asked and asked again. My difficulties in this matter are manifold. If the question is being asked because the Labour party has had a change of leadership, quite plausible, then we give fuel to the ‘Presidential’ rather than ‘Prime Minister’, pattern of leadership. So my first marker is ‘patterns of leadership’.

Of course we are aware that at present both in matters of local, national and European government we have a process of ‘representative democracy’.  It is clear that the ‘representative’ strand has been generally drawn in line with political parties. There have been several notable independents who have either championed a particular cause or have been held in high esteem by the community that elected them. A representative is not a delegate, who is expected to vote always in the way they have been instructed. As a representative you are expected seek election on certain grounds, issues, values, ‘the manifesto’ of a particular party, but then to listen well to those who you represent, and taking into account their views and weighing the matter carefully to influence the direction of legislation. So my second marker is how do we make sure we are ‘represented’?

Now the other word is ‘democracy’. I think it means that we have a process of government that believes that each person is of equal value and so one person has one vote, and each person has one vote. We come to this place through a costly story, and so we should take this responsibility seriously. I think I mean by that to exercise our vote. So I come to my third marker ‘responsibility’.

I know this is the musing of the Chair of Birmingham District of the Methodist Church and so I have to be very careful in matters of politics and religion. That is not to say, Christians should never talk about politics, but rather that we should do that carefully.

So as a responsible citizen, what are the values you want your representatives to carry with them into the political arena and what style of leader do you want? Serious question.

‘World stage’, ‘global village’, ‘good neighbours’, ‘peace, health and well-being’ are just a few of the pointers that might influence our answer. Then there is the matter of the date. Well just to live each day as if it was the last, puts an interesting edge to living. So whatever the date we had better be ready.

I hope that provides some food for thought on these Autumn evenings.

Yours in love,

Bill Anderson.

Reporting to Synod from Conference

Deaconal Centre re-opened

               
Harvest Festival - LIving Thankfully?