Weekly Reflection – Time to Party?

Before the season of ‘mists and mellow fruitfulness’ is fully upon us, we enter another season: that of the political party conferences. In the months after a General Election these conferences have a particular importance for all our national parties as they reflect, with varying degrees of satisfaction, on their performances at the ballot box.

Politicians, it’s fair to say, are not all that popular at the moment. The latest British Social Attitudes Survey, published in June this year, revealed that no fewer than 58% of people say that they ‘almost never’ trust politicians of any party in Britain to tell the truth. (This compares with 39% in 2020.) On one level it’s tempting simply to shrug when we read these figures: the phenomenon of confirmation bias means that we accept the statistics as confirming what we already believe anyway. On another level the figures should worry us. The way in which we are governed really does matter. If we simply assume the worst of politicians, of whatever party, we will soon cease caring about the political process itself, and that will take us down a dangerous path.

One of the privileges of being an ordained minister is the opportunities it affords for meeting elected politicians, local and national, on a regular basis. In my experience nearly all of them have put themselves forward for election for honourable motives and genuinely wish to improve the lives of the communities they serve. The murders in recent years of Jo Cox and David Amess, respected MPs from different parties, were sober reminders of the cost of such service. Continuing to impute base or cynical motives to our elected representatives’ wish to serve us is not a healthy for us or for our politicians. It may be unfashionable to say so, but they deserve our support.

With love and prayers,
Dean Simon