Right Honourable Gentleman

This was started yesterday, and thus is now out of date in the grand scheme of things. But nevertheless.

I was having a ponder out of my kitchen window this morning, and the radio was on. Obviously, it was politics (incidentally, my radio exposure has increased recently to include 3 hours of drum and bass whilst baking til 4am, and some old yorkshire men arguing about the existence of aliens on what I can only assume is 5live in the afternoon, and I quote, "then explain crop circles!" flawless argument as far as I can see). But yes, on this occasion it was election events.

I was thinking about the leaders, and who I'd want to run the country. The phrase 'best of a bad bunch' popped into my head. This is my take on politics generally. Nowadays I just pray for someone to be in charge that will in some way, be it deliberately (yes please) or unknowingly (I am resigned) put our nation in a position in which God's kingdom values like justice, love and grace can increase.

I was thinking about how the term politician seems to be synonymous with lies, intrigue, corruption, failure, selfish ambition, so much of the time. Things that are really, when you think about it, the exact opposites of what we would look for in a leader, were an alternative available. In my own little way, I wondered why we didn't put a civilian in power, instead of all these politicians that are intrinsically convoluted it seems. Yes, after a moment I too saw the flaw in this.

But then I wondered, why are they like that? As far as I can see, politicians are human. And we are all, at our core, imperfect. They'll always fall short, always make mistakes, but only as many as I can make in the same time. It's just that their mistakes affect perhaps more people than mine. Another thing that I think is an issue, is that even if they're not following selfish desires, problems still arise. This is because they'd be working for us, representing us, our needs, our wants, our demands. And here's the big problem. We don't even know what we want. And even if we did, we wouldn't all want the same thing. I think the election proved this adequately. And let's face the truth of life, I don't want what I need, I want what I want. Half the time, I don't have a clue what I'm lacking. Only God knows this. Yes, typically, my political views are for the kingdom of God. A friend said Jesus should be PM. I'm not sure Jesus would fit into the British political system...but I do think that He's the only perfect leader we could ever have.

Until then, David Cameron is going to have to do his best. These are scary and exciting times. I can't remember the Conservative years of my youth. I'm a clean slate, don't ruin me.

Gordon Brown resigned. I cried. I liked Gordon. At first, I thought he was dealt a rough hand and had a lot of rubbish piled on the plate set before him. Then I thought he was a bit of a joke, and never quite got it right except for giving good caption competition photos. Then I wanted to hug him. Tonight when I was listening to his speech, he started talking about how being PM was his second most important job, after being a husband and a father. Good man. I wept a little. I hope he enjoys his life. I really, really do.