What can I do for my country?

Politics has become big business. So big, in fact, that little people, ordinary people, people like you, me, our next door neighbours, friends, and colleagues - all of us little people have been squeezed out. Democracy has been replaced by the political equivalent of a beauty contest, held once every four or five years. This demeans our nation and diminishes our power to do anything to set matters to rights.

Nowadays, it seems, people don't go into politics unless they want power. Almost nobody will admit it, but that's the real reason. If this were not true, we would hear far fewer pleas from particular politicians to "vote for me!". If a politician were truly interested in serving the public, he would want the best man for the job to be elected; and any politician should know that he is almost certainly not the best man for the job of running, or helping to run, a nation. Very few are truly adequate for the task, after all. So each politician should be lobbying for the ablest candidate.

It's time for this power politics stupidity to stop. It's time for our nation to be governed by people who genuinely have the interests of the nation, rather than their own selfish quest for power, at heart. It is time for ordinary men and women to take the initiative, to remove liars and hypocrites from their places of authority, and to elect people who will serve.

You're waiting for me to say "Vote CPA!", so that you can dismiss me as Yet Another Hypocrite, right? Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I don't think you should vote CPA unless you are convinced that your CPA candidate can do a better, more open, more honest job of representing you than any of the other candidates. I urge you, in fact, not to vote for any party; instead, vote for the person who you feel is most able, most open, and most honest, out of all the candidates presented to you in any election.

Of course, the policies have to be right, too. If you're in favour of the murder of unborn children, in favour of gambling deregulation, in favour of giving up what little sovereignty remains to this country, in favour of single-sex "marriages", in favour of suppressing free speech, and all the rest of it, then you're not going to be voting for a CPA candidate, are you?

But if the CPA's policies square with your own views, and if the local CPA candidate seems to you to be a person of integrity and ability, why not vote for him or her?

A wasted vote?

Are you worried that you would be throwing your vote away if you spent it on a minority candidate? Are you locked into a two-party way of thinking? "Okay, it's election time. Which is it to be? The Tories, or Labour? Or dare I be innovative and vote Liberal?" The Liberal Democrat party is actually a good example of what can be achieved when people dare to break out of their traditional voting patterns and vote with their heads instead of their history books. The Lib Dems used to be a standing joke in politics, but they have become a significant faction within Parliament, with -- oh, don't make me look it up -- about sixty seats in the House of Commons. (Someone with more time than me will undoubtedly send me the exact number in an email, so thank you, whoever you are, in advance!)

If only the Liberal Democrats espoused policies in line with God's teaching, the CPA could pack up their bags and go home. But of course that isn't the case. Oh well. The point is that the Liberal Democrats have shown that it is possible for a minority party to become a significant political force, if people can be persuaded that a vote for a minority party is not a wasted vote.

Perhaps it's worth taking a step back from our daily political reality, and looking at an almost allegorical parallel in the Douglas Adams canon. In case you're not aware, Douglas Adams - whose untimely death in 2001 was a shock to a great many of us - was a science fiction humorist of tremendous talent and originality.

In So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, Adams told of a world with two intelligent species, people (by which Adams, of course, means people-like-us), and lizards. "The people hate the lizards, and the lizards rule the people." Nevertheless, it is a democracy - the people vote to decide who rules them. So "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?" Well, that's because it simply hasn't occurred to the people that this is an option. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted for more or less approximates to the government they want." So why do they vote for the lizards, if they hate them so much? The answer is depressingly simple: "Because if they didn't vote for a lizard, the wrong lizard might get in."

The message, I hope, is clear. The people hate the lizards. The people vote for the lizards. The people would rather be ruled by themselves, surely? And yet, if one of them stood as a candidate, how many votes would he get? Almost none, because people don't want the wrong lizard to get in, so they don't want to "waste their vote".

In a parliamentary democracy such as ours, you are supposed to use your vote to indicate which of the candidates (not parties, but candidates) best represents your views. If you do not do this, you have only yourself to blame if the person elected to represent you does not, in fact, represent you at all. In fact, you have truly wasted your vote.

If you vote for the person who really does best represent your views, then you have not wasted your vote at all, even if that candidate only gets a dozen votes. Rather, you have made an effective political statement. And if everyone voted for the person who best represented their views, we'd have a lot fewer power-seekers in government, and a lot more genuine servants of the public interest. Wouldn't that be something?

Is that it?

Nope. One vote every five years, plus an occasional council or MEP election, is not it. That's just a tiny part. There's a whole bunch of stuff you can be doing right now to help to restore our nation. There are lots of different ways in which you can help our country on the difficult path back to godliness. I've made a few suggestions in the list in the right-hand column of this page.

You don't have to do them all! In particular, you don't have to be a CPA member or CPA supporter or even vote for the CPA, to make a difference to our land and its people. Read through the list in the right-hand column, and pick the things you think you can do. Do them. Regularly. And then pick at least one thing you think you can't do, and have a go at it anyway. Make a difference to our nation - today, and tomorrow, and every day for the rest of your life. That's your job.

When you read through the list on the right, you'll see that it's more or less in increasing order of difficulty, time, and trouble. The last item on the list is: Stand as a candidate for election to your local council! Now, this is not a step to take lightly, and you should only consider it if you're really serious about setting to rights some of the many things that are wrong in this country.

If you are willing to stand as a CPA candidate, that's fabulous. But if you would rather stand for one of the mainstream parties, or as an independent, that's okay too. The important thing is that Christians need to get involved with the way the country is run. There is so much Biblical justification for this that it would be futile for me to try to summarise it here; just read the Bible, and see how often God's people are put into positions of authority, from Adam, Noah, Moses and Joseph onwards.

Please be aware that the CPA does not (on the whole) oppose incumbent councillors or MPs who are known to be practising Christians, irrespective of which party they belong to. They have been known to make exceptions (just one exception so far), but that's the general principle, anyway. So if you are fortunate enough to have a Christian councillor in your ward, please support them rather than oppose them. Give them all the help you can. Their task is not an easy one.

Things To Do Today

• Pray for the Prime Minister. Whether you support his party or not (and I certainly don't); whether you agree with his policies or not (and, again, I certainly don't); whether you think he's a saint or a devil (no comment!); whatever your views, it's undeniable that the Prime Minister needs our prayer support. Let's give it freely.
• Pray for our councillors, Members of Parliament, and Members of the European Parliament. Again, their politics, party, and drinking habits are more or less irrelevant -- they all need prayer support, so pray for them anyway. God listens to prayer, and God welcomes prayer, and God responds to prayer. Pray unceasingly (except for an occasional nap or coffee break, I guess).
• Pray for our nation. We are in the midst of massive social change. Street violence and inner-city crime are increasing; young people roam the streets looking for kicks instead of having their energies directed into more positive channels; families are breaking down; people are being forced to sleep on the streets -- you know what to pray for. So do it. Every day. Please.
• Talk to your neighbours and friends about things that concern the public interest. Are they happy with the local council's record on crime, housing, rubbish collection, and so on? Are they pleased with the progress made by Government in improving the prosperity of the nation and of its people? Are there aspects of modern life that make them feel ethically uncomfortable or morally diquieted? Like abortion on demand, for instance. Such things should be discussed openly, not hidden in dark corners.
• Do a minimum of one kind deed for a stranger, or for your country, every single day (except Sunday, if you think kindness counts as work). This is in addition to your daily quota of kindnesses for spouse, children, family, and friends. In case you're stuck for ideas, consider these suggestions:
  • Pick up a dozen pieces of litter, and put them into a bin.
  • Pay the parking fee for a stranger in the car park. Just put the money in the machine, and hand him or her the ticket for affixing to his or her windscreen. Then walk away. (If you're a bus user, pay the fare for the person behind you in the queue.)
  • Smile as you walk down the street. (That will get people worried!)
  • Write a letter to the newspaper, praising something good that is happening in your town.
  • If a shopkeeper undercharges you, go back to the till and hand the money back.
  • Sort out some old clothes, and take them down to the local Charity Shop.
  • Spend ten minutes imagining what it must be like to be homeless. The next time you see a homeless person, give them some cash. If you find yourself rationalising that "they'd only spend it on alcohol", ignore yourself and give them some cash anyway.
  • See that guy stuck behind a lorry in the "slow" lane? Why not give him the room he needs to overtake?
  There are probably around thirty million adults in this country. If each one of us picked up and binned twelve pieces of litter a day, five days a week, for forty weeks in the year, this country would be tidier to the tune of 72 thousand million pieces of litter in a single year. If each piece weighed, say, a quarter of an ounce, that much litter would weigh over half a million tons. Wouldn't tidying up that much litter each year make our country a better place to live?
• Attend your local church, even if you've got out of the habit in recent years. God wants us to meet together, worship together, and pray together. It's called fellowship, and it's an essential part of society.
• Find out what your local churches are doing to help the local people to lead better, more fulfilled lives. And, having found out, get involved. Maybe there's a soup kitchen you could help to run, or a shelter for the homeless; or maybe there's a youth club that could use your talents. I can't even begin to list the possibilities here; find out, and get out there with your fellow Christians.
• Give generously to your local church to help support their work in the community; if you can't afford money, at least give of your time and effort. God doesn't want ten percent of you - He wants one hundred percent! He knows you haven't got an unlimited bank account, and He knows you have other needs. But those who do God's work need the financial support of other Christians.
• Contact the Christian Peoples Alliance, and find out what their policies are. What can they do to affect government thinking? How are they working towards a more equitable, and a saner, society? You owe it not just to yourself, but to your country, to find out.
• Donate to the Christian Peoples Alliance. Yes, okay, this one's a sort of a beg, but what the CPA is doing matters, and it costs money to do it.
• Join the CPA, if you think it's the right thing to do. If you do this, you make the CPA more able to work effectively for a better nation, a stronger people, and a wiser and lovelier world.
• Stand as a candidate in your local council elections. This is the hardest item on the list. You shouldn't even attempt this unless you have the necessary time, energy, and dedication to your community and to God.