Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I have to confess that my mind, as well as my Twitter feed, has been filled with thoughts of the General Election this week. Why bother? After all some of my Cybernat friends in that warm internationalist way they espouse, have suggested in somewhat colourful terms that now I am a foreigner I should not bother with Scotland! The reason is that I care about my country and was distressed both at the low standard of debate in the campaign and the poor quality of choice available. It was so bad that for the first time in my life I did not vote in a General Election…The General Election – Final Week
But that was not because of apathy – almost precisely the opposite. I went to bed on Thursday evening dreading either a hung parliament or a Corbyn government – and was mightly thankful to wake up to the news that that was not to be the case (which is not say that I am jumping for joy at the prospect of a Johnson government). One of the advantages of being here was that I was able to watch the whole election as the results came through in the day. It was certainly a surprise. One lesson I have learned is how out of touch Twitter is – the impression from ‘the experts’ on Twitter was that Corbyn and co were on the cusp of a great moment….’it’s happening’ was his tweet – thinking that the queues for polling stations were a sign that the Momentum was with him. It was thankfully not to be.
Today I ‘happened’ to be on the rota to preach the final sermon in a series that St Thomas’s have been doing on Esther. I preached on Esther 9 and 10 about the joy of the Jewish people being delivered from an evil government which sought to destroy them. It seemed apposite!
The media reaction here is interesting. The likes of The Australian and The Telegraph see it as a vindication for conservative politics and a great opportunity for Australia. They want a trade deal pronto! On the other hand The Sydney Morning Herald could hardly contain its disappointment, and desperately sought to find a negative aspect to knock the result. So the Progressives like Peter Fitzsimmons, thank their lucky stars for Nicola Sturgeon. She tells them what they want to hear, and confirms their doom laden, miserable bias. Fitzsimmons, with as much knowledge of UK politics as he has of Christian theology, pontificates in todays Herald that there will be a second referendum as the Scots head back to Europe! For the reasons I explained in this article below – the fact is that the election has made Scottish Indy less, not more likely.
I was asked to write a follow up piece to an earlier article I had in Eternity magazine.
I attach the article at the end of this letter….You can get the original here.
I pray that the Lord will have mercy upon the UK, and especially upon my poor Scotland which I believe is about to enter a period of darkness which at least will have the advantage of making the light shine all the more brightly!
See you next week,
Yours in Christ
David.
PS. Before the article. I read this in the BCP this morning – it seems to me a suitable prayer for the Prime Minister. Would that it would be true of him! I hope that all Christians, whatever our political views, would pray this…
“O God, who provides for your people by your power, and rules over them in love; vouchsafe so to bless your Servant our Prime Minister, that under him this nation may be wisely governed, and your Church may serve you in all godly quietness; and grant that he being devoted to you with his whole heart, and persevering in good works unto the end, may, by your guidance, come to your everlasting kingdom; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirt, ever one God, world without end. Amen”
What does the UK Election mean?
Boris is back, Brexit bumps along … and beyond
The UK General Election is over. The results are in and, as promised, here is a wee summary of what the results mean.
For those who missed it – in a surprise outcome, Boris Johnson was returned as Conservative Prime Minister of the UK with a large majority of 78.
What does all this mean?
1. Brexit will happen
Johnson’s Brexit deal, already agreed with the EU, will now be passed and the UK will formally leave the EU at the end of January. It is an historic moment, but what kind of Brexit it will end up being is very much up in the air.
It could be what is termed Brexit In Name Only, (BINO) or a ‘no deal’ Brexit. I suspect it will be something in between.
2. Scotland leaving the UK is less likely
As a politically charged Scotsman working in Australia with ministry movement Third Space, the Scottish part of the election was always going to grab me. And the Scottish Nationalists did really well. The increased their seats by 13 to 48. So, surely, Scotland taking such a divergent path from the rest of the UK increases the likelihood of a breakaway? Although the London and Manchester based media delight in making such an analysis, it is a superficial and false one.
Scottish Independence is now less likely because of the following reasons:
a) The best possible result for the SNP would have been a hung parliament, where Labour would have been dependent on the Nationalists to form a government. The price would have been another referendum. That has now gone.
b) Boris Johnson will not give a ‘section 30’ order. That is a legal requirement from the UK government to grant another Independence referendum. He will refuse to do so, as the last independence referendum in 2014 was supposed to settle things for a generation. Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has already said she will abide by the law and not hold a referendum without it.
c) About 46% of Scots voted for Independence parties, 54% for the others. Support for Scottish Independence would need to be far higher if a referendum was to be won.
d) Scotland will be out of the EU if and when another Independence referendum come -s and will have to apply for membership as a new country if the vote was won. This makes independence even more of an economic risk: out of the UK would result in economic hardship; being out of the EU as well would make it worse.
For all these reasons the Nationalist government will huff and puff, march and petition, plead and shout, but it will all be to no avail – except to feed the sense of grievance and ensure the SNP keep its electoral stranglehold on Scotland (until the penny drops for the Scottish people).
3. A United Ireland is more likely
Although Scotland is less likely to break away; there could well be serious constitutional change as a result of this election. It is now more likely that Northern Ireland will become part of a United Ireland, because:
a) For the first time, there are more nationalist and non-unionist MPs than Unionists from Northern Ireland.
b) It is highly likely that any Brexit deal will now include different arrangements for Northern Ireland in order to prevent a ‘hard’ border in Northern Ireland. Now that the Conservative government, with its healthy majority, is not longer dependent on the Democratic Unionists (who lost two MPs), they no longer need to fear their reactions.
c) Above all, it’s the sheer demographics. Despite the rise of the Alliance Party, politics in Northern Ireland is still essentially tribal. The Catholic population is growing while the Unionist is declining (that was a major factor in their parliamentary leader Nigel Dodds losing his Belfast seat, an area subject to a changing demographic).
4. Politics in the UK could be changed forever
There is something going on throughout the Western World.
The old politics of Right and Left is being replaced by a new politics which seems to have a different axis – the progressive/traditional divide? The haves and the have not’s?
Whatever it is, it is as much classed based as the old politics – only this time it is the wealthy and the ‘educated’ middle classes who are far more likely to vote for the ‘Left’ (witness the number of rich and famous celebrities who, in the last days of the election, made heartfelt pleas for the plebs to vote for their man).
The working class and the poor are more likely to vote for the traditional Conservative parties. This was seen in the UK election where the Northern and Midlands “wall” was well breached by the Tories.
Seats which had never voted Conservative moved from the red to the blue.
It remains to be seen whether this is anything more than a temporary phenomena – but it does appear to be part of a wider pattern.
Where to from here?
In the immediate wake of the UK election, I’m struck by how these are confusing times. While we may be able to see something of the social and political patterns emerging, we do not know what will happen.
Just as there are storms and fires in the natural world, so there is “climate change” in the political world.
For the non-Christian who sees what is going on, it must be a nightmare.
The Christian at least has the consolation of knowing that ultimately all our times are in His hands.
David Robertson is a Scottish Pastor who has moved to Sydney to become the Director of Third Space, a new evangelism initiative of City Bible Forum.
Letter from Australia 19 – Fires, Farewells and Festive Outreach
As a Northern Irish guy now living in Scotland, I genuinely am concerned with the route many Scots want to take – break up the union through independence, stick with the EU and hey presto, everything is going to be amazing.
On Friday I made a very innocent comment on line within a forum regarding Scotland’s path, what I got in return was several hours of absolute hatred and unnerving rhetoric of so called Scottish Nationalism.
I grew up in Belfast during the troubles and listened to political hot heads on both sides of the divide. What worries me is how the SNP sound so much like Sinn Fein. They are driven by a nationalist Republican agenda. What also worries me is their anything goes liberal thinking within moral issues. Scotland will be a country that will welcome all – whatever or who ever you want to be, you can be that person in Scotland.
Many may disagree with me on this point, but I cannot get away from the thinking that the UK is under Gods judgement. We are living in a Post Truth society, one which denies the very essence of God. The saddest thing is that this is creeping into some of our churches.
Let us all feel the burden of what is happening around us – no longer can we go into our churches, close the doors and pretend our nation isn’t getting darker by the day. As Gods people we have such a responsibility to pray and intercede like maybe never before. So, if our politics are in disarray, we have an amazing opportunity to not only come to the nation in word only but in the power and demonstration of Gods Holy Spirit. One of the worlds most needy mission field is now outside your front door. Brothers and Sisters- let’s go.
I agree with you Nigel Johnston, thanks for your comment.
And thank you too David, well said, and thank you also for all your pre election comment, I found it very helpful while being under the gathering clouds in Scotland.
You are so right ! Before the election, with politics in such a sorry mess and leaders so morally bankrupt that there was really no real choice, my prayer simply was ‘ Let Thy will be done.’
I had to vote though and subsequently decided to follow my son’s advice: ‘You simply have to pinch your nose hard and vote for X , because they are the only party serious about Brexit ‘ ( I had vowed never to vote for X again when they had brought in Same Sex Marriage.)
Although Governments (and churches!)in this world can never be perfect, we must not neglect to pray for them, as Scripture tells us to do.
‘ with God, nothing is impossible.’
“Whatever it is, it is as much classed based as the old politics – only this time it is the wealthy and the ‘educated’ middle classes who are far more likely to vote for the ‘Left’ (witness the number of rich and famous celebrities who, in the last days of the election, made heartfelt pleas for the plebs to vote for their man).
The working class and the poor are more likely to vote for the traditional Conservative parties.”
This has been the case in Australia for many years. The working class felt betrayed by the Australian Labor Party who, under prime ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, introduced Thatcherism (rebranded as “Economic Rationalism” here), plunged the nation into a devastating recession in the 1990s and also introduced the cult of political correctness here.
As a result, the conservative Liberal Party, under John Howard, swept to power, due to the support of blue collar workers. The working class people who allegiance switched to conservatism became known as “Howard’s Battlers” and have never really left the conservatives since, despite the Iraq War, etc:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battler_(underdog)#Use_in_political_rhetoric
If you Google the term, “Howard’s battlers”, you will find many, many articles discussing the phenomenon.
I hope you are right, David, about Scottish independence now being less likely. Because the day that Scotland votes to break up the UK will be the day I move to England!
Even tho I’m a Christian, it is sometimes tempting to look too long at the huge mess the world is is, and forget that our God is in control. Thank you that your posts always re-emphasize that glorious truth.
It is quite clear from your posts that your insight/grasp of politics and its machinations is far, far greater than religion,
I truly believe you missed your calling , David.
”But there’s still time to change the road you’re on.”
You should consider it …
There was one constituency in the entire country, David,
where antisemitism in the Labour Party was bound to be a bigger issue than Brexit and that was Finchley and Golders Green. In the event Luciana Berger failed to win as a Liberal Democrat and the result gets lumped in with the general rejection of the remain-at-all-costs message. However, the hidden story is of how many votes were taken away from the Labour candidate who was pushed back into third place in a seat Labour recently held for thirteen years.
In the event the Labour leadership is right to blame Brexit for the extent of their defeat but simple common sense should have told them that with Jeremy Corbyn as leader, they would have to vigorously condemn antisemitism simply because his permission to be antisemitic has been assumed by many members of Momentum.
Yours,
John/.