Voting Preferences

Make sure you use your vote today!

Someone said that I nail my colours to the mast politically. I absolutely respect other people's right not to declare their voting preferences and would never sway them (a former pupil of mine contacted me last week through Facebook to ask for tips on who to vote for. I can't answer that for her. I advised her to read party manifestoes, find out information about each candidate and in particular about their experience in representing people, and to think about what issues were important to her and to her local community).

But for me.... I don't care if people know ...I am pleased to have been on demonstrations and rallies and to have had a history and involvement in pressure groups. It's helped me see some things differently. I have always wanted to be around people who campaign for the rights of the poor/the asylum seeker/the lone parent/children in poverty. In Glasgow ordinary people seem to get more hands on involved in campaigning (look at Rose Gentle!), we ran all kinds of different mock elections in schools and nearly all of my friends have been on a march. I've been on many - anti-poverty, anti-poll tax, education cuts, CND, dawn raids, immigration and asylum policy. It's an amazing feeling to get out and "do". So does that make me a socialist? Does that make me a left winger? I'm trying to be a Christ follower - I want to stand up and be counted sometimes and not just about how much inheritance money I can get before its taxed.

We often want to tag one another with labels......politically or theologically (am I post-charismatic? ooooh watch and see). I have been wondering why that is. Is that so we can say: oh, they're a Conservative so I won't like them because I'm not like them. They're a Calvinist so I won't be able to work with them because I'm not like them. I've been really challenged by the hypocrisy in my own heart. I want not to do the labels thing and yet at times I so know I do it in my own heart - I desperately need sanctification!

Back to the state of Britain: I worked for three years in banking and became an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers so I am little interested in economic and financial issues. I get fed up with people slating Brown about the recession. How did it start? Banks had lent out too much money in consumer credit spending - I want I want I want - they were left high and dry, they collapsed, the FT index responded, the pound weakened, house prices fell as lending was squeezed and we know the rest. Last month we were declared as comingout of recession, meaning that this recession has been a short one. This is a VERY interesting read:

"Lord Freud, a Conservative spokesman on welfare, has congratulated the government on its handling of the recession, saying it has contributed to 500,000 people not losing their jobs.

He also admitted the British experience of the recession has been much better than during the previous recession of 1992, which was overseen by John Major's Tory government.

Freud, a former businessman who has advised both Labour and the Tories, praised the government's flexible labour market during debates on the government's child poverty bill".
Worth reading the whole article here. It's a good'un.


Disclaimer: this posting is entirely my personal views and does not represent any organisation I work for or liaise with either now or in the past!!!!