Virtual Methodist

I used to be a supporter of Gordon Brown. I've been left-leaning in my political sensitivities for decades, and while I supported the "modernisation" of the Labour Party under the leadership of Blair, I was always deeply suspicious of his grinning spin. Whilst I appreciated that he claimed a Christian moral compass, I believed that it deviated because of his proximity to the bigger, brasher version used by George W. Bush. I believed that in Brown, you still had a profound sense of Christian (Presbyterian) morality, leading to his interventions on global debt etc., but that it was more substantive and less about surface impressions... that is, that what you saw was what you got. Sadly, over the past months I am more and more convinced that he's just the same as Blair (and Cameron), just not as good at the game. Almost since he took over as PM he has been flailing around like a drowning man. Some of the circumstances, such as the global recession and the wars in Iraq/Af...

So Super Gordon has "saved the world". Has ever a slip of the tongue been so swiftly and cruelly pounced on? Instead of saying that his government had "saved the banks and led the world" on tackling the downturn, Gordon Brown managed to leave out a few words leading to howls of derision from the House of Commons and the accusation from David Cameron that he was "so busy talking about saving the world, he's forgotten about the businesses in the country that he's supposed to be governing." A great soundbite… But a colleague of mine , who is generally relatively apolitical in his posts, rightly pointed out in a letter to Mr Cameron that “saving the world” is not such a bad aspiration, and that whilst we should look out for the disadvantaged in the UK, we must also remember those who are infinitely poorer throughout the developing world. But whilst I will never cease to advocate and work for social justice at home and abroad, believing that it is integ...

Apparently, for members of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, last Friday was St. Boris's Day. So I suppose it is appropriate that Friday was the day that Boris Johnson took over as Mayor of London for the next 4 years… Just the person you want representing your city when the Olympics come to town! But that is the democratic choice of the people of London… Mind you, with a choice between "Red Ken" and "Bumbling Boris" who would you choose? Certainly, one of the things that worked in Boris’s favour is the groundswell of opinion against Gordon Brown’s Labour Government… A combination of the 10p tax-band botch-up, the credit crunch and the colossal hike in petrol prices has conspired to make Gordon Brown the most unpopular Prime Minister since Neville Chamberlain… Some of that unpopularity may well be the product of media hype, but at least the British population have the opportunity to express their feelings at the ballot box. Think of the people of Zimbabwe… A full m...