9 July 2024

There were two commendable things about the General Election. The Government changed hands without incident. An immediate transfer of power is embedded into our constitution. The outgoing Prime Minister visits the King. The King accepts his resignation and then invites another to take his place.

It is all done so seamlessly and so mannerly. Everyone shakes hands. It is the King who facilitates this. He is above and beyond the politics and as such is best placed to moderate this change. For his own part, the King acknowledges the authority of another King, the King of Kings.

The second thing that is worth noticing is that we had for a short period of time, a man whose religious allegiance was to the Hindu religion in Downing Street and another whose allegiance was to Islam in Bute House. They were both devout.

Now we have a Presbyterian in Bute House. John Swinney is a member of the Kirk and has described himself in the past  as ‘a man of deep Christian faith’. We may not be members of his political party but we can admire his religious views and his allegiance to a higher authority.

In Downing Street, we now have a professed atheist who is married to a practising Jew. I am not sure whether this had any bearing on Keir Starmer’s views about the war in Gaza but it certainly cost the Labour Party some seats in the Election.

In an article in the Sunday Times, Damian Arnold informed us that Keir Starmer wrote to Britain’s faith groups last month. This included 50,000-plus Christian congregations. He promised to engage with them in government. This was reassuring.  But it was also to his advantage.

According to Arnold, ‘Christian churches and organisations contribute an estimated £55 billion a year in social and economic value to the UK  (according to National Churches Trust) including running food banks, supporting asylum seekers and even helping people to launch businesses.’  It's almost enough enough to inspire allegiance?

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