²⁹But in answer, Peter and the apostles said ‘We ought to obey God rather than men.’

Acts 5:29 – The Keys of the Kingdom Holy Bible

²⁴’Nobody is able to serve two masters, for either he will not care for the one and he will love the other, or he will cling to one and despise the other. You are not able to serve God and mammon.’

Matthew 6: 24 – The Keys of the Kingdom Holy Bible

²When the righteous are in power the people rejoice, but they groan when the wicked hold sway.

Proverbs 29:2 – The Revised English Bible

¹²If a ruler listens to what liars say, all his ministers become wicked.

Proverbs 29:12 – The Revised English Bible

²Conform no longer to the pattern of this present world, but be transformed by the renewal of your minds. Then you will be able to discern the will of God, and to know what is good, acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:2 – The Revised English Bible

The first General Election at which I was able to vote was on 28^th February 1974. Some of my older readers may remember that this was the election at which it was said that Prime Minister Ted Heath had asked the people: ‘Who rules this country: the government or the Unions?’ The answer was a resounding: ‘Not you.’ I’ve never been a ‘political animal’ and have voted for all three of our major parties at different times: Labour, Conservatives and Liberals/Liberal Democrats.

1974 represented the days when there was a yawning chasm between the Labour party and the Conservatives and when the terms ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ held sway. I’m now far from alone in thinking that those terms are obsolete. Instead, we’re now, I fear, in the middle of an election where this old joke applies:

“These are my policies and my values and I will not hesitate to stand firmly by them……….but if you don’t like them, I can find some others.”

The three parties seem to have merged into one so-called ‘Uniparty’ and whoever wins the next election, the trajectory of our country will continue in a negative direction. I much regret delivering this pessimistic assessment, but more and more I find that my fellow-citizens, from whatever background, share this view. I’ve not heard one single ringing endorsement of any of the traditional parties during this election. Why is this?

I’ve tried to piece together some issues which I think have contributed to this. My list is not in any particular order, and it’s not meant to be definitive – a definitive list would be unreasonably long! And, sadly, a list of things that I think any party has got right, would not be long enough to make a blog post!

• Craziness & Silliness. I no longer follow the legacy media; I pick up headlines from various sources to give me an idea of what’s going on. Most days, there are several things that make me gasp in astonishment. It would appear that we no longer know what a woman is; it’s now commonplace for universities to put students’ confected ‘feelings’ above any obligation to add to learning and understanding; wars are now fought by proxy. This list is also almost endless and it’s literally astounding in its stupidity.
• Dishonesty. It’s fair to say that throughout my voting life, politicians haven’t exactly been famous for their honesty. But in addition to the usual, historic lying, we now have, practiced to perfection by the ‘Uniparty’, an ability to use words that can literally mean anything at all. I call it ‘Word Soup.’ When I listen to politicians, I groan, because they treat me as so stupid, that I’m not supposed to notice what they’re doing. This morning, I caught a short video when Penny Mordaunt told a studio audience that although the Conservative party had promised to reduce immigration during the last four elections and yet presided over an almost unlimited increase in numbers coming to this country, both legally and illegally, this time things were going to be different and they would guarantee to control the numbers! The audience burst into guffaws. Did she look embarrassed? Not a bit. You see, we’re supposed to be far too dumb even to notice that she’s lying to us.
• Run out of ideas. What does the ‘Uniparty’ think is the solution to an NHS that, as almost everyone knows, no longer functions? More money. Yet more money, on top of the massive amount that’s been added, precisely at the same time as the service has been going down the drain. None of the constituents of the ‘Uniparty’ is suggesting any root and branch reform, nor do any other confected policy initiatives stand a chance of addressing the real problems that we face.
• Lack of Respect for Voters. The election ‘debates’ have been a complete charade, where all of those present continue to pretend that things are just the same as they were in 1974. ‘Don’t vote for them, things will get worse; our policies will make our country better.’ I would struggle to think of a single policy that addresses any of our largest problems. Politicians and Civil Servants seem to have forgotten that their task is to serve the public, not the other way around.
• Costs of government rise exponentially as the services provided deteriorate. Do any of you think we’re getting value for money? Please do let me know if you do. Public spending has gone from 32% of GDP to 46% over 20 years. National Debt has risen from £564 billion to £2,770 billion over the same period. Yes, those numbers are correct. The number of Civil Servants has increased by 580,000 since the last election in 2019. We have so many layers of local government, all of course with their own highly-paid ‘Diversity and Inclusion Managers,’ that there’s no time to deal with ‘real-world’ problems. I’ve had a ‘pot trench’ (not pothole) outside my house for over 18 months. Pleas for something to be done have simply been ignored. Is the ‘Uniparty’ promising to get a grip of this problem? No, they’re promising more expenditure, more waste, more incompetence, more legislation, more woke nonsense. What we actually need is less meddling, less legislation, less regulation, fewer overlapping layers of government, fewer MPs and massively fewer Lords. None of this is promised.
• Uninformed or lying through their teeth? The data is now overwhelming that the so-called MRNA ‘vaccines’ have done monstrous, life-changing damage to countless people, since they were introduced in 2021 (and let us not forget, enforced on many care workers, in total breach of the Nuremburg Code, which says that ‘the voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential’). Which party in parliament challenged this? Not one. People like me who challenged this policy were ridiculed, cancelled, silenced or accused of being selfish. And as long as the Prime Minister considers these products to be ‘safe and effective’ (a mantra he repeated not that long ago) there’s a zero chance that we’ll learn the lesson and not repeat the mistakes on a future occasion. Will there ever be another ‘lockdown’, in view of the now blindingly clear economic and mental health disasters left in their wake? It’s a genuine risk and certainly the ‘Uniparty’ is not giving any assurances.
• Too weak to challenge the ‘Blob’. There are, of course, honourable exceptions, but I’m afraid that not only has our Civil Service largely become highly politicised, but the Conservatives have shown that they’re neither willing, nor able, to stand up for our country and its people and hold public servants to their historic obligations of impartiality. Will Labour? That, surely, has to be very doubtful?

So, I’m left with these questions: Will a Labour government be bad? Absolutely. Will yet another so-called ‘Conservative’ government be bad? Yes, and if they do not get a hammering in the polls, they may start to believe that it doesn’t matter how badly they perform, they’ll always be re-elected. Some mixture of all three parties would probably be even worse. We desperately, urgently, need a complete re-alignment of politics; perhaps the best starting point might be to make illegal the system of ‘whipping’ MPs into line?

If there was a box on my ballot paper that said ‘Tick here for the total annihilation of all three of the major parties,’ it would have a big, bold X from me!  

Dearest Father, we all know that being in government is not easy. Please breathe into those standing for parliament a respect for those they seek to represent. Confound those who are in it for their own advancement and self-aggrandisement and those who dissemble and have a high opinion of themselves. And please breathe support into any who believe they are there humbly to serve the people. Amen.