God's Country

Part Sixty-Eight

February 2020

'But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.'

James 1:22

"Good evening from Westminster and a very warm welcome to another special edition of Question Time." Ken Carson said to camera before swivelling round in his chair to face the audience. The familiar music blared out, before the studio manager counted him into his introductions. "In the aftermath of a landslide election victory for a new Christian party and the apparent demise of the big three political movements, tonight's programme is dedicated to the changing political landscape and your opinions of it. Our guests are major figures from all sides of the argument...Prime Minister Charles Buckingham, self proclaimed leader of the new Social Democrats Benjamin Cartwright, Nerys Baxter, the new leader of the Liberal Democrats, Jeremy Keegan, the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party and Adam Blackstone, leader of the Unite union and a member of the Labour National Executive Committee. Our first question comes from Sam Lowden in the audience."

"Does the recent election result suggest a Christian revolution is coming?" Miss Lowden, a young rather pretty woman in the front row, said as the microphone boom swung above her head, holding her card as an aid memoire. Charles Buckingham smiled, wondering if Alistair Forbes had some sort of crystal ball. Maybe he wrote the cards and handed them out to photogenic people in the audience.

"Ben Cartwright?" Carson turned to Cartwright and smiled, his glasses perched on the end of his nose.

"Not as such, no...I think we all understand the Christian Democrats position and they are right...Christian values have always been part of the DNA of this country and they have cleverly used that to position themselves as defenders of the British way of life."

"So you think it is a confidence trick?" Carson asked, his own smile apparently glued in place.

"Not entirely no...I mean, I respect Charles Buckingham and I do not think he is personally trying to trick anyone. But it is all about confidence. I think they have played on the lack of confidence the public had in the old parties. The revolution has been about regaining public trust...getting them to believe in something...in their politicians...again, and the election result would suggest that Charles did a pretty good job. I think this election result is more a revolution against the old politics than anything Charles has done. So it is not a Christian revolution as such...I am not sure God is any more important to the people of this country than he was before Charles and his friends appeared on the scene."

"Adam Blackstone?"

"I actually do think it is a confidence trick...the CDP have directly targeted a section of the population with crowd pleasing titbits to disguise their real motives. What we are seeing in this government is a disgustingly concerted attack on civil liberties, Human Rights, sexual equality, employment rights and basic lifestyle choices justified by supposed social ills lifted straight from the pages of the Daily Mail. They wrap it all up in nice little platitudes and the rest of us are forced to swallow it until we can make these idiots see sense..."

"I think you will find those idiots are the electorate," Charles Buckingham sighed, shaking his head and sitting back in his seat with a smile on his face. "I wouldn't expect the leader of Unite to understand the meaning of democracy as you have spent the last twenty years trying to ignore the idea of a free vote."

"Is that it, Nerys Baxter? Are the Christian Democrats simply more trustworthy?" Carson turned to the leader of the Liberal Democrats, keen to keep the discussion flowing around the table.

"I do think that politicians have lost a lot of public respect in the last twenty years or so Ken. Deservedly so...and I agree with Ben that our new Prime Minister has gained a lot of personal respect in his dealings with the public...and indeed with me. I don't think it is a revolution as such...I just think the CDP rose at the perfect time to offer the electorate an alternative. The problem was that none of the existing parties took them seriously enough and came up with any proper alternatives to their 'new' policies. Then when the snap election was called, the Conservatives imploded and there was just no time for Labour to react properly. I would prefer to call it a circumstantial revolution, and it will never, ever happen again, I am sure."