Jude Smith

George Galloway won using the somewhat unhelpful term of Bradford Spring. He now says that the Respect Party will run in all council seats in Bradford and other similar places (do they have that many people?). Meanwhile the EDL are going political ready for local elections. Its a moment for British Politics. For what its worth I'm not sure that this is all about the war. Bradford West has many local intricacies which may be about berardari (sp?), long memories of Blair's war.. but may also be about the burgeoning gap between national Labour and its Northern councils. The reality is that the council in Bradford has not been wholly truthful about what is going to happen with a major piece of regeneration in the City Centre. Bradford's roads are a mess. People cannot afford to insure their cars in parts of Bradford. And presiding over the ineptitude is a Labour Council. I don't wish to be personal, but the Labour lead of council could have been dragged straight ...

So: it is to be a minimum price. 40p per unit. In many respects I applaud the Government's attempt to tackle our national preoccupation with pickling ourselves in the name of fun. However, I am interested that this free market loving bunch of politicians, are stepping in as nanny state. Thats a side point in many respects, but does raise this issue of why the government attacks individuals but not corporates. It seems sensible to me that we have to tackle the issue at the point of manufacture. When my dad learned to drink the average alcohol amount in beer was about 3%. Its now 5%. Wine has gotten stronger, vodka is now the base of a whole host of things that are sugary. Why not tax the manufacture of anything outside of a sensible parameter? Beer can be up to 4%, then it gets whacked with a huge manufacturing tax. We have to make it unfeasible to make the alcohol that is killing us. Yes, lets encourage people to cut down, but why make the stuff.. Anyway- I...

In hindsight one might have seen it coming: a trip to meet the Pope, a week of events in native Wales next week.. Archbishop Rowan has stepped down. By the time he leaves we trust that a viable way forward to women Bishops might be in place. He will leave his successor to continue a difficult and perhaps unnecessary task of holding together a divergent communion. I will be sad that his intellect will not be in this role any more. Magdelene will be all the richer for his warmth. I must say I was pretty disappointed this morning when BBC Breakfast began to report on the varying degrees of 'lobbying' that the groups within the Church of England have 'already started'. Now clearly journalists dig around and get hold of bits and pieces of quotes- but rumour, conjecture and vying are an awful witness to what needs to be measured, considered and wise. The appointments process will be muddled by its inevitable mix up with government- please Lord let DC have more on his pla...

This morning I will preach on Jesus driving the traders out of the Temple. A much referred to passage in recent months- but I won't dwell on the implications for St Pauls. Because for me, at the heart of the passage is Jesus clearing the way that ALL can worship God, uninhibited by the traders, by the people who want to make a fast buck or who purely want to be exclusive. Jesus in that moment condemned the hypocrisy of selling access to the Divine. This morning I condemn the hypocrisy of trading access to the Divine in pursuit of political gain. It is my belief that David Cameron is playing with people of faith. He uses the word Christian to defend his vision of England but will sell people of faith out when it comes to marriage, public professions of faith and the right to dress according to our beliefs. He will allow free schools to bear the brunt of angry publicity as he quietly privatises education (and the Church of England should be ashamed that we have complied with this...

*Now with daft autocorrects fixed* There is a lot of stuff around about militant secularism just now. The banning of prayers in Bideford, the threat to chaplaincy in prison, there are plenty of other examples where faith is seen to be being pushed from the public sphere. We are told that this is a threat to people of faith. We are told that it is an affront to believers. That is sort of true, but for those of us who profess to follow Christ in Christian faith and practice, persecution is to be expected. Moreover, persecution seems to be a spawning ground for Christian faith. In places of persecution the church has thrived. So- I'm not sure I agree with David Lammy, Baroness Warsi and others who say the threat is to people of faith per se. But militant secularism is a threat to the glorious undecided. By the glorious undecided I mean the folks who don't belong to a faith community but do pray. The people who shop on a Sunday but would like a Christian minister to conduct ...

.. why so many of us (by us I mean well meaning Christian church going people) seem to want to do whatever we can to protect anyone before they are born (or even potentially viable).. But once you are born you are on your own. If you are poor we will blame your parents and let you wallow in poverty. These stats are from the Church Urban Fund. "There is also an apparent lack of awareness of poverty among the laity; only 37% of regular churchgoers think there is ‘quite a lot’ of child poverty in Britain, compared with 78% of clergy. This is in stark contrast to the latest UK poverty figures, which show that up to four million children – or nearly one in three – are living in poverty... "Possibly more surprising is the finding that churchgoers’ attitudes to poverty are little different to those of non-churchgoers. Churchgoers are no more aware of poverty and no more likely to attribute it to social injustice than non-churchgoers. In another question, only 36% of regular church...

Tall Skinny Kiwi posted about his take on Dorothy Day and what she would have brought to the blogosphere: His run down.. Purposes in writing [and blogging] from Dorothy Day: 1. to make known the experiences of the inarticulate 2. to spotlight the cracks in the social system 3. to disclose human suffering so that action might be taken to prevent and alleviate it 4. to discuss and clarify ideas about how to improve the social order 5. to argue on behalf of the ideas of anarchism, voluntary poverty, and pacifism in contrast to prevailing social and cultural preferences for institutionalized expressions of power, materialism and militarism. Dorothy Day is a bit of a role model for me: so I will take this on board and write in this manner.. I won't be short of material as I blog in a recession only parallel to the 1930's. Will get down to some proper writing soon: but for now I need to go clear some snow.