Lost in translation

Having only just started refereeing this past season, I’ve already run the line for a couple of cup finals, and today I finished my season refereeing an international game! Ok, that’s a little bit of an exaggeration. This time of year sees clubs heading off on tour having finished their league matches, and that includes teams from overseas heading here. So it was that I ended up refereeing a game between a local side and a side that had come over from France.

It was, in many ways, an enjoyable game:

Cornish Independents

So, following the elections yesterday the results are now mainly in. They make for an interesting picture: some expected big losses for the two parties in government (though this masks some (very) minor gains, in particular for the LibDems in their usual strongholds), including the loss of overall Council control for the Tories in a few places; the continuing apparent rise for the UK Independence Party; a mixed result for Labour, with a good growth in numbers of Councillors but only re-taking overall control of 2 Councils, they’d surely have hoped for even better – although the majority of Councils with elections were in the Tory dominated southern half of the country; small gains for the Green Party, which from the social media comments I’m picking up they seem to be spinning very positively but I would guess will bring some disappointment behind closed doors that they couldn’t make greater strides forwards, given the large number of voters who seem currently willing to abandon the more established parties.

The results nationally also seem to raise the usual question that British elections frequently throw up, given the way we do things. That’s the question of how we can have a system in which a party gets somewhere in the region of 23% per cent of the vote nationally higher than the Liberal Democrats, make what feel like big gains, and yet still end up with just 6.22% of the seats available. Now, these were local elections, the strength of the UKIP vote will have varied from Council to Council (the same as every party), and they weren’t standing a candidate in every Council ward (there wasn’t one in ours, for example), but you might still think that given their national popularity they might have managed even more seats than they did. Personally, I’m quite happy that UKIP didn’t make larger gains, or gain control Councils – although if they had maybe they’d have quickly shown the nation they’re a one-trick pony and we’d all be better off in the long-term!

But despite all this, it is the local side of politics that really interests me in this election, seeing as they are local ones. One of the most interesting things for me is the number of Independent Councillors we have on Cornwall Council (Cornwall is a Unitary Authority, so while it is thought of as a County the reality is that Council should always be referred to as Cornwall Council and never as the County Council – because it isn’t one!) The BBC say that in the 34 County and Unitary Councils that had elections today there are now 165 Independents. That’s an average of just under 5 per Council. In Cornwall we now have 37! (To make things even stranger, the Council’s official figures, as opposed to the BBC’s, give two kinds of independent – “Independents” and “Unspecified”, whatever that might mean!) This means there are more Independents (combining the Council’s two categories) in the Council chamber than there are of any single political party. (There are 123 seats on Cornwall Council, it is a big Council.) And far more Independents than there are from Independence parties, both of the UK variety, who have 6 seats, and the Cornish variety (Mebyon Kernow), who have 4.

And the very local picture also flagged up some of the negatives of local politics. Firstly, our own Cornwall Council ward only had two candidates, so after all my fuss about leaving the LibDems I ended up with the choice of giving my vote to them or the Tories – I think most folk can guess where it went, though reluctantly! Still, that was better than the Town Council elections. In Saltash only 1/4 of the electors were even required to go to the polls, since 3 of the 4 multi-member wards didn’t have enough people stand to require an election. We were amongst the 3 quarters of Saltash folk not given a choice over our representatives on the Town Council. Both situations are a symptom of the fact that feelings of disenfranchisement result not only in low turnouts (suggestions are that the turnout may be an historic low), but a reduced willingness to put oneself forward – which is problematic since the only way we will rescue ourselves from the presumed “all the same”-ness of party politics is to have more people put themselves forward.

So, while not necessarily bringing the excitement of a general election, these elections have brought plenty of interest for those, like me, who have a deep interest in politics and the analysis of election results, especially the intriguing specialty of Cornish politics. However, now, with the results of the voting known, comes the important part, as the true results of the elections show themselves in the work of Councillors and Councils over the coming months and years!

Shalom,

The Nomad

 

 

Midterms

It’s election day for 27 County Councils, 7 Unitary Authorities, 2 elected Mayoralties, and one Parliamentary constituency in England, as well as on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, and the Isles of Scilly. One of those UAs is Cornwall (local government structures can be complicated in the UK, especially in England, and while Cornwall looks like a county it is, administration-wise, a unitary authority). The decisions of electors today will make no direct impact on the current national government, so in that way the title of this post is a little disingenuous, but it will, rightly or wrongly, be seen as a comment on the government’s policy direction.

I say rightly or wrongly because really local elections should be more about the local government than the national one. Yet, of course, politics and political structures are more complex than that. Local governments can’t do much without the national laws that give them that authority, national governments face a much more difficult challenge in introducing policies if the organisations required to carry out the majority of policies in a local setting are run by people of opposing political outlooks. So, the elections today do matter – they matter to the local people who are directly affected by the operations of their local authority, and they matter to those in national government as they give comment on the view on the ground of national policies – as they say, the only polls that matter are the ones at the ballot box!

Yet, in some places today, in areas where the local authority is up for election, there will be no polling stations, because there is only one candidate! In others it will feel like voting is irrelevant even if it is an option, because one party always wins despite never appealing to anything like 50% of the voters. And this second problem is magnified in some places across whole local authorities. That’s why the Electoral Reform Society is campaigning not just in regards to the reform of national elections but also local ones. I can only say to folk that if they live in such areas, you can do something about it – you can join a political party of your choosing and encourage them to put candidates in areas that they don’t currently do so, you can stand yourself next time with or without party support (Cornwall Council has a number of Independents on it), and you can join the ERS’s campaign for better local election systems.

And if you do have an election in your area today? Well, make sure you get out there and vote! Or, if you really feel strongly about politicians not being worth a vote then go and spoil your paper – if everyone who didn’t vote did this instead then we’d know the population wasn’t apathetic but simply unhappy with the political choices (or lack of choices) available to it. Voting is one of the ways we play a part in society. It is a vital part of being a democracy. Churchill may have been right when he suggested democracy was the worst form of government apart from all the rest, but it’s the one that creates an opportunity to change the system from within. To do that, though, you need to participate – by nothing more, and nothing less, than walking into a little booth and putting a X (or a scribble if you wish to spoil your ballot) on a slip of paper and putting that piece of paper in a box.

And having said all that, I will be walking the long way to my meeting this morning in order to go and put my graphite where my mouth is, and vote. And who am I voting for now I’m not a member of a political party? That’s between me and the voting booth!

Whether your voting today or not, travel well.

Shalom,

The Nomad

Accepting mortality, offering hope

Today being a Wednesday I have mainly been at home attempting to undertake some study, followed by playing some badminton this evening. However, I took some time this morning to do a funeral visit because in the work I do flexibility is necessary, and some things have to take priority over others. While no funeral visit is something I would describe as definitively “happy” this was one of the better ones, with some very positive aspects.

Firstly, it was in Saltash, and in my part of Saltash (not that Saltash is all that big), so I was able to walk there. This may not seem like a major deal, but given the lovely weather we’ve got at the moment it meant I could place the visit in the context of the wonder of God’s creation, of which both living and dying are a part. Funerals, and the conversations before them, must be conducted with an awareness both of our own mortality (thus an empathy for those who have died and those who are bereaved) and our hope and confidence in the risen Christ who has defeated death (thus a strength to be leant on those who are in the midst of grief). Walking to the meeting in the sunshine managed to put me in touch with these two senses.

Secondly,

Nothing more to say

My mind has gone blank. There’s plenty out there I could comment on, but I’m not sure what to say. So, here are the words of a couple of friends, one who’s taking on the “Live below the line” challenge, and another who has already given her thoughts on his actions. So,

Design for life

I’m starting to get a headache because I’ve been staring at a computer screen for most of the day. I don’t do that very much nowadays! But today my previous life and my current life over-lapped significantly. Once upon a time, before candidating for ordained ministry, I worked in education, not as a lecturer but as a business administrator. Much of that career was spent in the area of marketing and communications. Today I was back in that environment as I was working on a postcard to put through people’s letterbox if I call to visit and they’re not in. It wasn’t as easy as it sounds!

Out of Time

In case people hadn’t noticed, my post titles are often song titles or plays on song titles. My previous post title was in reference to U2′s “11 o’clock tick tock”. I thought about making up my missed post on Friday by posting a video of U2 in concert. In the end, though, I’m using REM. I’ve liked REM quite a long time, even though they didn’t make my Desert Island Discs choices, and love this video, as well as actually liking the song, which may seem odd for a Minister, but actually I find it quite a therapeutic song to listen to, especially when my faith is challenging me, when the black dog is looming large, and when I know that, in the end, my faith isn’t about religion, but about simply trusting in God.