A Matter That Concerns Us All

This was the title of a video we used to play at the museum in Wycombe: it was about 1935, and the Mayor was appealing for money to buy a new ambulance for the (privately-funded) hospital. It wasn't one of the most riveting visual experiences we had to offer visitors. 

On Thursday this week I was pursuing my church-visiting mission, sitting outside Ockham church with a sandwich for lunch and with the radio turned on, listening to the resignation statement of the Prime Minister. To my surprise, I found my eyes stinging with tears. This was certainly not for her, much as I might sympathise with anyone who finds themselves humiliated so publicly: it was more for shame at the disgrace and degradation of our public life, not just over recent weeks, but for quite some while. I also realised it was also coloured by fear at what might come next. The people in my parish, the people who we are thinking about helping with an after-school meals project or the visitors to the food bank, desperately need stability and good order, desperately need the generous condescension of the financial markets. Will another Tory leadership contest really provide it?

Although I try to keep this blog moderately anonymous, given that you realise Swanvale Halt is not a long way from Guildford it is probably no surprise that the MP for Southwest Surrey, the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt, is our local elected representative. Politically I know he will be up against the wall when the Revolution comes, but I rather warm to him on a personal level. I last met him in the parish when he was out with a volunteer litter-picking campaign: ‘you’re well out of it’, I failed to say to him, and little did I, or presumably he, know that in just a couple of weeks’ time he would be picking up other people’s trash in a far more globally-significant way.

What can we, the citizenry, do as the Conservative Party decides who to impose on us as, in some sense, our common representative? Notwithstanding their constitutional right to do so, it feels invidious that we must sit passively and watch while our fate is decided. If we have a Conservative MP I think we are probably entitled and maybe morally required to say something, especially if, as Mr Johnson’s backers are to be believed, their inboxes are full of emails saying ‘Bring Back Boris!’. So in the end, after faffing about like usual, I did get in touch with Mr Hunt, and tell him I thought his colleagues ought to have especial regard to the qualities the country might need in its new PM, and to the fact that the Conservative Party membership might feel differently. I popped a message on the church’s LiberFaciorum page encouraging them to contact him, too, not that I would ever dare to tell them what to say. It’s part of the church’s ‘community-building’ brief, including truth, discourse, and common responsibility for our future. 

I also took the opportunity to suggest to our new Chancellor that he might like to respond to a few questions for the parish newspaper, after the Halloween financial statement. If he still is Chancellor by then, that is.

PS. Well, how that's turned out is something of a relief. For the moment.