• The kind of political party I’d like to see

  09/05/2015

  I’m not a member of a political party at the moment, though obviously I have been in the past.

  Here’s the policies that would be to the fore in the kind of political party that I would like to see and which would get me back into making a more active engagement in politics:

  1. A burning desire to reduce absolute poverty across the United Kingdom
  2. An ambition to reduce relative inequality across the country.
  3. A narrative that focuses more on justice than nationhood.
  4. A reforming zeal for the institutions of government – House of Lords, PR and the EU Parliament to begin with but not limited to these.
  5. A localism that seeks to put power in the hands of local communities.
  6. An internationalism that seeks to redeem colonialism by unashamedly promoting progressive values (equality of men and women, LGBT rights, anti-corruption, anti-bribery) as it seeks to trade with the world.
  7. An ability to articulate what freedom for the individual means in a digital age.
  8. An acceptance that social security is here for the good of us all.
  9. A celebration of the relative peace and prosperity that the European Union has brought to a once warring continent
  10. A stable, mixed-mode economy.
  11. A secure National Health Service.
  12. Disestablishment of national churches

Previous Posts

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  19/02/2011

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• Newsnight Scotland

  15/02/2011

  I was on Newsnight Scotland last night discussing some of the issues that arise from the possibility that the UK government is about to consult on allowing Civil Partnerships to be celebrated in church and with religious elements in England and Wales. Also about the fact that the Scottish Government appears to be dragging its…

• St Valentine’s Eve & the Open Silence

  14/02/2011

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• Egypt

  12/02/2011

  Just before becoming ordained, I spent some time courtesy of a lovely scholarship in Egypt. With nothing else much left to do in Scotland before becoming a clergy-person I flew off to Egypt for six weeks exploration. I spent quite a lot of that time with Coptic Christians, particularly in desert monasteries in the Wadi…