VICAR'S LETTER FOR JUNE

It is part of a Vicar's job to be prophetic. I am as well qualified as the next person to have an opinion on politics and I rejoice in the freedom we have to discuss these things. The people who say you should never discuss politics or religion have been proved to do us a disservice. For the first time ever in our area of Leeds the BNP votes have outstripped the total votes for the other main parties. Fr Clive Barrett has provided us with a breakdown of the figures in this magazine and they make chilling reading.

Those who could not be bothered to turn out and vote have allowed an extremist right wing party to make some spectacular gains over a few years ago. Everyone with an ounce of brain knows that the BNP have no interest in community initiatives for their own sake – they simply employ a social conscience to mask a hidden agenda that would become clear if they got into power, and that day is not far off if people do not use their votes.

If the BNP ever get into power life will become a whole lot more difficult for the ordinary citizen. They have studied the rise and tactics used by European Right Wing parties to achieve success over the last 80 years or so. The BNP are making gains at a time when our nation is polarizing into regional groupings (Scotland, Wales etc)
These so called "independence" moves along with a slowly developing financial crisis will provide the BNP with a fertile ground of instability and resurgent nationalism to fertilize their aims for our future.

The present Government has an appalling record of failure to listen to its electorate – smugness and arrogance come over in many an interview and the recent debacle of the 10p tax rate comes on top of the Iraq War and locally the disgraceful way our City Council was treated by the then Transport Secretary Alastair Darling when they appealed for Supertram funding. I say beware of any political party that singles out people who live in your street and uses them as pawns in the game of creating fear and mistrust. Dark times ahead if the turn out next time is as poor as it was a few days ago.

Your friend and priest, Robin.