GadgetVicar

What was it Jack used to say about the needy?

Is it just us, or has there been a general upsurge in beggars visiting churches lately, especially from other countries? In the last two weeks, we've had (among others) someone from the Congo and a family from Spain looking for help. They all have stories to tell, and I have to do the usual "wanting to be generous, but having to be careful" routine. The Spanish gentleman was particularly unrelenting in his requests, and very good at upping them once one request had been met. If you don't ask, you don't get and all that, but haggling is very exhausting.

I visited the anti-greed camp in Kelvingrove Park yesterday, and offered the use of our shower at the church. They plan to stay into the New Year, but I can't help but feel that the new site is now so tucked out of the way, they might as well set up in someone's back garden. They'd accept a donation of a pot of soup or two.

Wee reminders close to home, of the economic difficulties already here and signs of what might be to come in terms of need and protest?

Vote

I voted over a week ago, having registered for a postal vote. It was a difficult process this time both for the referendum on the Alternative Vote and on the constituency/regional votes.

Culturally, instinctively and historically, I've been a Labour Party member. I left the Party in the late 1990's, disillusioned by the middle-ground the leadership had occupied. I still voted Labour, but in recent years I've moved my vote around different parties, partly drawn by individual candidate's merits, the policies of parties and local issues. For me the question this time has been, 'Which Party will bring the most coherent and transforming opposition to what is coming out of Westminster?'. I've made my mind up, conscious that there might be risks involved. I discovered Scottish Vote Compass after I voted and using the 'further analysis' illustration, I learned that the Party I am closest to is the one I actually voted for!

On AV, I voted 'Yes', not because I think it's the best system, but because I think it's a nudge towards greater change. A 'No' vote will allow those in favour of the status quo for Westminster elections to argue that the country has spoken and doesn't want or need change.  A more proportional system would be better, but that's not on offer (yet), so I've vote for AV in the hope that it might be a stepping stone.

I preached on 'Making the Cross Count' on Sunday night. I hope and pray that the Scottish people (and UK in general) use their hard-earned votes wisely today.    

Bulgarian Metal

Yesterday I discovered a couple of people in the skip which currently adorns the rectory driveway. It's there to receive the stuff left in the basement, but never taken away, by fifteen years of people passing through the 'granny' flat. That's a lot of stuff.

This man and woman had on fluorescent safety jackets and they turned out to be Bulgarians. In broken English, they explained that there was no money in Bulgaria, but they could make a living here from scrap metal and electronics. I helped them get as much as they could, and they helped the latest refugees move in to the basement. It was a lovely encounter and I admired their resolve and commitment to making a living for themselves.

As I thought on it I began to wonder if, as things get more difficult economically, we'll see more such entrepreneurial endeavour here.

Rima Update

Many readers will know about the St Silas' couple who are fostering a young Eritrean asylum seeker, Rima Andmariam. They are on television (BBC1) in Scotland only on Wednesday 19^th May at 22:45. The programme is called “Truth, Lies, and Asylum Seekers” and is a full-length documentary about the situations of three asylum seekers in Glasgow. The story of their family is one of the three. It is also available on Sky 971.

With a new Parliament and a new Government and a new Home Secretary there is a fresh opportunity to bring Rima’s case to the attention of new Ministers.

Robert and Alison write:

Our campaign is entering a new critical phase. Rima will turn 18 on 1st July, and the law covering her situation changes. There is a good chance that the Border Agency will try to deport her soon after then if we have not managed some progress either legally or politically beforehand. However, we have new MPs and a new UK government is in power, so now we are able to resume campaigning.

Thanks to your support, our MP, John Robertson, did write to the former Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, on Rima’s behalf just before Parliament was dissolved, asking that at the very least she be given the opportunity to claim asylum in the UK. Unfortunately the reply he received simply announced that with Parliament being dissolved and the election period imminent no action could be taken. In addition, Catherine Stihler, our MEP, raised a question in the European Parliament (thanks to Rima’s friend Douglas, aged 8) and has received a full and helpful reply from President Barroso, President of the European Commisson.

A new range of letters is suggested, depending on who was elected to Westminster in your constituency. We do not believe at this stage that we need more letters to MSPs or the Scottish Government at the moment, but Scots may wish to write to the new Scottish Secretary as well as to their MP. This is especially worth while given the announcement by the new Prime Minister, David Cameron, that there will be full co-operation with then Scottish Government on all issues. Please do personalise the letters as much as you feel able, and have time for. The more individual a letter the more impact it makes on all of these politicians and their administrative assistants.

Sample letters are available at:

http://www.letrimastay.org.uk/

 

ACTIONS

 

As a first priority please write to the new Home Secretary, Theresa May. See Letter A

 

If your MP was re-elected, then you could use one of this range of letters:

 

B1 – If they have already expressed support

B2 – If they have expressed support and you know they have had a reply from the Home Office

B3 – if they have refused to express support

 

If your MP has now become a Government minister, it is well worth congratulating them on that also. To our surprise, a number of Cabinet Ministers in the previous Government were very positive in their replies to constituents, so there is no reason why the same should not apply to the new ones. You might mention this to them, to encourage a positive response. If you have friends in the constituency of the new Home Secretary (Theresa May, Maidenhead) or Immigration Minister (Damien Green, Ashford), could you ask them particularly to write to them as their constituency MP.

 

If you have a new MP, then you should use letter C1. MP’s who have been helping us with our campaign have informed us that where new MP’s have been elected then previous files are closed. So where there are new MP’s I’m afraid we need to start again, on the ground.

 

If, as a Scot, you want to write to the new Scottish Secretary, Danny Alexander, you could use letter C2.

 

We are also printing up a new Postcard, addressed to Theresa May. Let us know if you would like some of these for your friends and contacts to use.

 

Please also send hard copies of all your letters to Rima’s named UKBA ‘case worker’:-

 

Liam Fenning,

Third Country Unit, UKBA

7^th Floor

Green Park House

29 Wellesley Road

Croydon

Surrey CR0 2AJ

 

A New Hope?

I've been out tonight, so missed the events in Westminster. I have mixed feelings. Gordon Brown's farewell speech was wonderful. His smile and words were genuine. A good man gone. Mandelson and Campbell are gone - hurrah (but who will be the new spindoctors?).

Cameron and Clegg seem to be forming a real alliance. The reason for this can only be that things are REALLY bad (worse than we've been told to date) and there needs to be a broad government to deal with it/take the blame for tough decisions. That's commendable. However, I foresee significant problems - Trident? That's a £100 billion deal isn't it? Wouldn't that go a long way to dealing with the deficit? I suspect some Lib Dems will not be pleased with that and many other things. Fixed term of five years? All that does is lock in the LibDems.

Labour will regroup. I hope some new blood gets to fill some of the leadership roles that will now appear. Next year's Scottish Parliament elections will see Labour and the Nats strengthened with the Lib Dems getting hammered senseless for aligning with the Tories. Scots can be very unforgiving when it comes to politics.

Praying for David Cameron/Nick Clegg and their families. None of them have an easy gig.

Laboural Democrats?

After some initial excitement at the possibility of a Liberal Democrat/Labour coalition, I've calmed down sufficiently to have a more sober judgement on what is happening.

If the leaderships of the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties manage to do a deal, I predict that it won't last. Tom Harris has already declared his clear opposition to any form of electoral reform and has indicated that many other Labour MPs will oppose it. Labour are in all probability in a fragile state following the loss of almost 100 seats. Many of their MPs want to be in opposition, if only so that they don't carry the blame for implementing the tough policies required to deal with the budget deficit. Also, the Liberal Democrats want tax reform - where is the £17 billion that it would take to raise everyone's tax allowance to £10,000 going to come from, when taxation is going to have to increase?

Much as it pains me to say it, sadly maybe the only way forward will be to allow the Tories to form a minority government, while the other parties regroup. I fear what the Tories might do, but they know they are in minority, and they might stuggle to get their more extreme measures through. There will be brakes on them.

As I've reflected on this evening's events, I've begun to feel that it might be time to give up power in a dignified way, and let's see what the party with the most seats and votes can do. They won't last long doing it.

A Prayer For These Days

O Lord, you give the rulers of your people wisdom, discernment and insight in order that they might govern with justice, compassion and righteousness.  As the leaders of our political parties negotiate the formation of the next government, we ask you so to move the hearts and wills of our leaders and people that in righteousness we may be led, and in righteousness may gladly follow; to the honour of your name, through Jesus Christ our Lord,  Amen

The Morning After

I don't want to prognosticate too much on what the next few days and weeks will bring. Let's just say that, given Labour's success in Scotland, any Conservative government, whether a minority or coalition, won't care too much about what happens in Scotland, as they can't lose many more seats. The danger is that cuts and experimentation (remember the Poll Tax?) will hit Scotland hard. The best we can hope for is that the Tories will form a government that will lead with humility, in the national interest and with some sensitivity to the fact that most people did not vote for them.

I was busy yesterday, so missed the following video until this morning. It makes me want to begin the campaign for a new leader of the Labour Party. This video should have been the final Labour broadcast of the election. At the very least, Tom Harris should be put in charge of communications for his party. It would be a lot more fun all round.

Election Day Is Coming

On the night of the 1997 General Election, friends gathered at St Silas' rectory, anticipating with excitement that "Things can only get better". I was a Labour Party member in those days, following in the footsteps of my father's lifelong trade union membership. I remember sitting through the night until it was clear that the Tories were finally gone, and that we had a Labour Prime Minister at last. A few short years later I was disillusioned, mainly because I perceived that Labour had jerked so far to the right as to be virtually indistinguishable from the Tory opposition. Wars and scandals have done nothing to alter that perception.

I was reminded by several encounters with people today of some of the social needs in our city - addiction, homelessness and loneliness. The Church will have to step up to the plate to help fill the gaps left by the cuts that are coming.

Tomorrow I will vote at 7am, then join some friends for Bible study in Starbucks. Meetings will follow for much of the day, and I won't dwell too much on what might be happening in the nation. In the evening, I'm off to Edinburgh to see Florence & the Machine (4th time in a year!), so again I'll be pleasantly distracted.

When I get back  to Glasgow at about 1130pm, I've invited some people round to join us. I guess it will only be the very keen who might turn up. I'm calling it "The Things Can Only Get Worse Party", for it seems clear that we all face difficult times ahead, whoever gets to serve us in Government.

Who am I voting for? That would be telling.........

Which Party?

The script of the presentation we are using as part of the service this morning (courtesy of Beat Attitude).

Four parties, each with a dramatic manifesto.

1. THE SMARTIE PARTY
2. THE PARTY PARTY
3. THE ARTY PARTY
4. THE FRESH STARTY PARTY

THE SMARTIE PARTY - "Only the smartie party has the answer".

What we stand for:  Our manifesto can be summarised in three words. Education, Education and…Smarties.

1.    You're worried about street crime?  Instead of sending teenage thugs to prisons with high re-offender rates, we'll send them to new intensive reading facilities, where they won't be allowed access to such harmful influences such as x-boxes, buckfast, glee or facebook.  Instead, the violent offenders will be given a strict regimen of Barbara Cartland novels and the vandals will be forced to read, and answer questions on our impenetrable nine-thousand page manifesto.

2.    We will close down all hospitals and instead teach people how to keep themselves fit, and, if necessary, how to operate on themselves.

3.    Our election promise is that we will provide every child, adult and teenager with one free packet of smarties once we are elected.

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THE PARTY PARTY - "Funky dudes raaaaawk"

What we stand for:  Wooooooohooooooo!  We will make it our mission to ensure that everyone in the country lightens up a bit, like, you know?

1.    The country is in the middle of a great depression.  We think that is because everyone is talking about finances, jobs, cuts, mp expenses scandals…We're getting depressed even thinking about it. We propose that everyone just has a big party to forget all about it.

2.    Foreign Policy.  Our problems overseas springs from the fact that we're shooting at each other all the time.  Our three-pronged approach to foreign policy is:

a) ‘chillax’
b) take a big slice of "calm down" cake
c) go out for a big picnic or something

If everyone just did this maybe other people wouldn't be trying to blow us up all the time?

3.     We are strong royalists and believe that every person in the country should have two birthdays, just like the queen.  Then, instead of working, we could just spend our birthday money on things like crisps and dips.

4.    We propose the return of the 3 day weekend.

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THE ARTY PARTY - "Beauty, Joy and Peace"

What we stand for -  increased funding to the arts.

 

1.    Art is worth paying for. Museums shouldn't just be free, they should pay people to visit them. Every visitor to (e.g) Kelvingrove will be paid five pounds to look at beautiful paintings and sculptures for an hour, thus enriching their souls and inspiring them to seek better things.

2.    School children will get the option to drop maths, english, chemistry and physics, and instead just have one big long enjoyable art class. We will also banish exams. When it comes to grades, we believe there is no "F" in "Art"

3.    MP's will be allowed to claim expenses for expensive pieces of fine art, because these will enlighten their spirits and help them to lead more effectively.

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THE FRESH STARTY PARTY - "A healthy dose of reality"

What we stand for:  doing the best with what we've got.

The Fresh Starty Party recognises that everyone is a bit rubbish, even us. Our manifesto promise is this:

1.    No impossible manifesto promises.

2.    Saying sorry when we make a mistake.

3.    Working hard for what we think is right.

We can't offer you anything ludicrously exciting like the other parties because we, like them, probably can't deliver it. But we'll try and do our best. Is that OK?