The Hermeneutic of Continuity

Earlier, I reported the good news that Evan Harris, the pro-abortion and pro-euthanasia campaigner, had lost his seat at Oxford West and Abingdon. The news gets even better. The seat was won by Nicola Blackwood who is a member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship . On Nicola's Facebook page , Mark Rayner posted this excellent comment: Nicola, it was good to meet you at hustings yesterday. I just want to emphasize that my vote is absolutely not an endorsement of David Cameron, but specifically of you. I trust you to uphold the pro-life, pro faith school, and socially caring economic views you expressed yesterday, some of which are in stark contrast with previous Tory policy. Good luck - I hope I can count on you to put principle before partisanship. Given the possible re-structuring of our political life and the disillusionment of many voters for politics based on party allegiance, we need to encourage newly elected MPs who have stood up for pro-life and pro-family values. A...

Well it has all been rather exciting. We are to have a hung Parliament with the Conservative party having won the most seats but not an overall majority. Contrary to the talk of a Liberal Democrat revival on the back of Nick Clegg's performance in the TV debates, it seems that the LibDems have actually won fewer seats than at the last election. In my own constituency of Old Bexley and Sidcup , where Ted Heath and Derek Conway have been our MPs since I came here in 1997, James Brokenshire (Con) has been elected. Worryingly, the BNP increased their share of the vote here, but Nick Griffin was soundly defeated in Barking, coming third. Interestingly, he said that with a "normal" turnout, the BNP would have taken the Council. Whether that is true or not, they may well have won more wards in the local election if there had been a smaller turnout. This is an important lesson for those who did not bother to vote. Twitter is buzzing after Nick Clegg's statement a short w...

The Telegraph's live blog for the General Election has this picture with an unintended instruction to voters: I have cast my vote at the polling centre at Days Lane Primary School. I do like the British system with its almost savagely short campaign, soberly printed Polling Station notices and the stubby pencils on bits of string. I'm not too keen on the new style plastic zip-up ballot boxes of recent years though: they make it look as though the votes are all going to be put in the freezer in preparation for a picnic. Have fun if you are staying up to watch the results coming in.

My polling cards arrived the other day with instructions to go down to the local primary school between the hours of 7am and 10pm on 6 May. I usually go early, hoping that it might be an indication of a Christian sense of co-responsibility for the common good. (Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church 2240 ) Apparently there is a debate on the television tonight featuring the leaders of the three main parties. Will Heaven at the Telegraph blogs is doing a live blog of the debate if you are interested. I'm off to the Church for Rosary and Benediction...

The Westminster2010 Declaration of Christian Conscience is modelled on the very successful Manhattan Declaration but an independent initiative for Great Britain. Launched on Easter Sunday, it already has well over 5000 signatures. It has been well-timed in that today the Prime Minister has just announced that the General Election will be held on 6 May. Here is the text of the Declaration: We the undersigned are Christians who believe that protecting human life, protecting marriage, and protecting freedom of conscience are foundational for creating and maintaining strong families, caring communities and a just society. In signing the Westminster 2010 Declaration of Christian Conscience we commit ourselves to worship, honour and obey God, to exercise social responsibility in working for the common good and to be subject to all governing authorities and obey them except when they require us to act unjustly. We call upon all parliamentary candidates to pledge that they will ‘resp...

A priest friend of mine has come up with the following questions to be put to candidates in advance of the General Election It is currently legal to abort certain handicapped babies up to birth, and to abort healthy babies up to 24 weeks of gestation. Would you vote for any restrictions upon this? If so, could you briefly suggest what type of restrictions. Ed Balls intends that Catholic schools be required to inform their children “how to access abortion” by virtue of the Children, Schools and Families Bill, if enacted. Do you agree with him? Would you vote against the legalization of euthanasia? Do you accept that faith schools have the right to teach as the truth matters of human sexuality and relationships according to the principles of their religion? There is a target to increase overseas aid to 0.7% of Gross Domestic Product by 2013. Do you think this is broadly correct, or should be more or less? One Labour candidate who, on abortion, took the Bill Clinton "safe lega...

In advance of the General Election, the leader of the Liberal Democrat Party in Great Britain, Nick Clegg, has detailed a series of proposals regarding homosexuality. The most disturbing of these is that he considers that "Faith Schools" should be required to teach that homosexuality is "normal and harmless". He also wants gay couples to have the right to describe themselves as married, rather than in civil partnerships. It is an indication of the lack of effective opposition from Churches, from other faith groups (who largely share our moral teaching concerning homosexual activity) and in particular from the Catholic Church, that the leader of one of our mainstream parties feels that it is a politically advantageous move to threaten the persecution of "Faith Schools" and the enforcement of regulations that could not be followed in conscience by many such schools. See also the post from John Smeaton .