Election Special:
Election Time
With the general elections just around the corner, it is time to start thinking about how to vote and how your faith can influence that decision.
The expenses scandal, the recession and the resurfacing of the inquiry into the legality of the Iraq war have blighted the political landscape over the last 18 months and given the public fresh reason to doubt the integrity and abilities of politicians. As a result the average British voter has been left even more disaffected with politics – a dangerous trend for the health of democracy.
‘Trust in political systems had been eroded by the expenses scandal, and the last few years have generally been bad ones in terms of trust and public institutions more generally (be that the banks or the BBC),’ says Paul Bickley, senior researcher at public theology thinktank Theos.
For the first time, politicians have dropped below journalists in terms of levels of public trust (73% of the public think that they will not tell the truth as opposed to 70% of journalists!) but what does this mean for our engagement?
‘[the level of voter trust and engagement] does seem to be pretty low,’ agrees Rev Dr Malcolm Brown, director of mission and public affairs for the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. ‘The first thing is to remember that hope is a Christian virtue and avoid despair and cynicism. But the parties could help by treating the voters as intelligent adults and admitting that problems are often deeply complex. The culture of political spin, and treating politics as a branch of marketing, has been a disaster for voter trust.’
This, combined with a privately owned media culture in which major players seem more interested in securing victory for their chosen favourites than objectively informing the public, may tempt Christians to ‘go with the flow’ and brand politics a ‘dirty game’ – one from which we should distance ourselves. But if we are to take seriously our duty to be salt and light in the world, that is a temptation we must resist. ‘There is no space in the Christian tradition for apathy or casual disinterest, which is the reason most people don’t vote.’ says Paul Bickley. He believes that society as a whole would benefit if more people became involved in politics, working to influence decisions in their communities.
‘This would mean more power for everyone,’ he says, ‘but also more responsibility. Perhaps we would learn that it’s not always right to blame politicians for everything that goes wrong.’
In a democracy, every citizen has a responsibility for what happens in the country – and a say. From how much money is spent on reacting to disasters abroad or whether or not we go to war, to legislation on abortion, gay rights and religious freedom, some of the biggest and most important decisions in the world are made in the world of politics. And so are some of the closest to home: your local council’s attitude to the homeless, whether your children are bombarded with advertising in school, whether and how fast your roads are gritted during periods of snow – so much of our everyday life and experience is massively impacted by politics. The fact that it affects us is why we can’t avoid it. But the fact that it affects others means we have a duty not to ignore it.
This series of articles in the run-up to the election aims to examine key issues from a ‘values’ perspective, rather than a comprehensive overview of all party policies, and includes biblical reflections and questions to stimulate thinking around the elections, starting with the economy.
Why the economy matters
‘The economy’ is, when you think of it, a fairly simple way of referring to something immensely complex: the sum total of all spending, buying, selling and serving that goes on in a country between citizens, businesses and the state itself. With so much of 21st century life defined by financial transactions, it’s little wonder then that the economy is such a major issue for governments.
With Britain only just having officially emerged from recession, the next election seems likely to be one in which even more emphasis is placed on it.
‘People need security about their futures,’ says Andy Reed, Labour MP for Loughborough. ‘They will then want to know what sort of economic system we rebuild so that it doesn’t happen again and hopefully will focus more on issues of general well-being rather than consumerism.’
The world’s recent experience of near-catastrophic global economic failure led to serious questions being raised, for a while, about the practical viability, as well as the morality, of our economic system. As recession has been avoided, many of the fundamental questions seem to have been swept under the carpet and all the main parties (in Britain at least) seem content to go on with ‘business as usual’.
‘The reality is that none of the major political parties in Britain depart in any meaningful way from the basic assumption that we should pursue economic growth and that more material wealth will make us ‘better off’,’ writes Paul Williams in Votewise Now. Some would argue this is what led to the eventual collapse of the banking system last year. The collapse begs the question about whether that should be the case.
But within the general consensus on continuing without radical change in direction or system, differences exist. And most of them revolve around markets and how (if at all) they should be regulated.
‘Too much regulation of the market can crush innovation and development: too little regulation gives us violent swings between boom and bust – and the vulnerable suffer most,’ says Malcolm Brown. He points out that other countries take different regulatory approaches, and asks the important question: ‘Can we have a grownup debate about the right level of economic regulation?’
For many of us, issues of regulation and markets seem beyond our understanding, the concerns of technocrats and specialists, about which we would have nothing useful to say. But such assumptions may be completely wrong. Our faith may well provide simple principles by which we can judge the most complex arguments.
‘Start by remembering that Christian ethics isn’t a choice between a Daily Mail or a Guardian position – our beliefs can help us to pose the questions differently,’ says Brown. ‘For example, instead of treating personal behaviour and economic questions as separate issues, we might point out that when everything is reduced to its cash value, it’s small wonder that people treat each other like commodities. When short-term gain is exalted above long-term investment, no wonder people find it so hard to make relationships endure. These things are connected. Governments won’t get strong communities and citizenship if they let economic priorities undermine human virtues.’
So how do the politicians themselves stack up? I asked representatives from the three main parties to characterise their party’s position on the economy.
Councillor Martin Eakins, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Wythenshawe and Sale East, says of the Lib Dems: ‘Liberal and fair. We are economic liberals, but it does not follow that the economy is more productive when it is most free. Explanation: if you drastically reduce the size of the state during a recession or recovery, then you harm the recovery from recession as you put millions of people onto the unemployment register (shrinking the public sector means making millions of public servants redundant). This isn’t liberal or fair, as you plunge your economy into a depression, enslaving millions to poverty. In times of growth we would shrink the size and scope of central government, but grow the size and power of local government. We believe that strong local economies linked into global networks are most resilient and best placed for growth.’
Rebecca Smith, senior parliamentary assistant to Conservative MP David Burrowes, says: ‘The Conservative Party will prioritise fixing the broken economy as part of its commitment to fix broken Britain. The party acknowledges that the country currently faces a credit crisis, a jobs crisis and a debt crisis. However, they also acknowledge that within the population of the country, are the skills and resources needed to get the country out of recession. We need a government that helps and not hinders the process.’
Andy Flannagan, director of the Christian Socialist Movement, says of the Labour Party policy on the economy: ‘Responsive to the changing global situation. The laissez-faire economics that both the main parties subscribed to in the last 15 years have thankfully burned themselves out. The almost religious faith that was placed in the free market has turned out to be misplaced. Speaking to economists and bankers in the last 18 months has been like talking to a group of agnostics anonymous who have recently lost their faith. The belief in the market’s ability to self-regulate, and that wealth creation would automatically trickle down have both been shown to be spectacular self-serving errors of judgement. Christians have a more realistic take on human nature, knowing that when we are left to our own devices, we often migrate toward selfishness. This reality is evidenced by God’s guidance to his people in the Old Testament. Jubilee was required because God knew that wealth and power would accumulate at the top of the tree and would need redistributing.’
Ready for action
Despite seemingly sharing some basic assumptions over the last few years, the three main parties still differ perhaps most significantly in their economic philosophies. But there are other differences, too. Future articles in this series will hopefully help you to make an informed decision on election day. But while voting is very important, it is far from the only way we should be engaging politically.
‘Fixating on voting is one of the things that leads to disenchantment with politics, because people are fully aware they are personally unlikely to have a significant influence in safe seats,’ says Paul Bickley. ‘Voting is only one tool in the box. If it is a duty, it’s just one duty among many related duties and opportunities! Achieving change is about so much more than putting a cross on a ballot paper, but it’s definitely not less!’
‘Christians have a key part to play in seeing trust restored by getting involved in the political parties,’ adds Andy Flannagan. ‘The salt and light thing genuinely does work. Every sphere of life is redeemable! If we don’t believe that, we may as well give up now. Let’s stop shouting from the sidelines and see politics as mission. A place where we make the transition from commentators to participants.’
Regular readers may remember an editorial I wrote back in August about how I hadn’t voted. You’ll be pleased to know I am intending to this time. Thank God that we are on a journey, that God is patient and forgiving of our sins of omission and apathy as he is of everything we wilfully do wrong. Relentless optimism is something really difficult to keep hold of, especially regarding politics at the moment, but researching and talking to people who are genuinely passionate about politics has definitely taken me on a journey, and I hope this series does the same for you.
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