of cabbages and kings.
I have always felt that I align mostly with the Left. That seems the appropriate place to be as a Christian, just like the Methodist founders of the socialist movement. Just that, somehow, the Left doesn’t seem to align with me. Giles Frazer summed it up very well in his Church Times column last week.
When I decided that I had to be at least a little politically active, I just couldn’t bring myself to join the Labour Party. In practice there is no party that anyone can fully believe in all of the policies—that would be an interesting challenge question to the candidates. But we are stuck with a party system and, perhaps if we ever get some sort of decent proportional voting system we will be able to say that “I like 50% of the policies of A, 25% of B and 25% of C” or similar. There seems to be no other way. So slightly active I am, but I won’t canvas because. if challenged on the doorstep over a particular policy, I can’t be sure that I would agree with what the manifesto says.