Medway Messenger, 29th April 2005

The second-hand car dealer no longer exists. Visit their forecourts and you’ll see they only sell ‘pre-owned’ cars now. The language gets massaged, to make it sound more acceptable. It must be better to buy a pre-owned car than a second-hand one.

And the language is being massaged in this General Election campaign, too. People like me who used to be called ‘floating voters’ are now ‘golden voters’. There – doesn’t that sound better? The politicians love people like me. I am the kind of person they desperately want to persuade.

But I’m having a harder job than ever at this election in deciding where to place my cross. If I look at the three major parties I find each of them have policies consistent with my values, and other proposals deeply offensive to what I hold dear.

With Labour, I applaud Gordon Brown’s efforts on the international stage to eradicate debt in the developing world. But the Iraq War is a terrible stain on their reputation. The Conservatives seem to be the party most in tune with supporting the family – unless that family are asylum seekers. The Liberal Democrats appear to be the most honest about taxation, but their intention to relax laws on cannabis are dangerous. So who will I vote for?

To some extent I look at the personal qualities of the candidates standing in my constituency. But I have to remember that if elected they will be subject to the party whip and follow party policy. If they disobey that too often they’ll be out on their ear.

I have to take seriously the characters of the party leaders. They are dominant in formulating all these policies that I either love or loathe. What qualities are needed in a leader?

A critical issue for me is this: what are their motives for seeking power? I can’t be absolutely certain, given all the layers of spin and hype, but I want to know whether they want power for themselves or to serve others.

In asking this, I am motivated by the example of Jesus. The apostle Paul said of Jesus that although he was divine he didn’t want to exploit that. Rather, in coming as a human being he took the form of a servant.

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Copyright © David D Faulkner, 2006 except where other sources are attributed or noted as inspiration.