I read this morning that discussions between the Home Office and senior police officers regarding cuts to the police service are to take place today. Actually, the discussion is over potentially losing about 28,000 uniformed officers and it comes fast on the back of yesterday's comments about the police having an overtime culture and how the government was going to act to reduce costs by imposing 'pay cuts which would save about £500m.
Now this is not policy nor going to be implemented (at the moment) but again we are seeing a government who is seeking to cut back public spending to compensate for the gross overspend that each and every member of Great Britain has made because of their support of the British Banking system. Obviously the nation is going to have to accept that cuts will need to be made to compensate for their massive spend in this area - perhaps they should have been more prudent! The cuts are not just going to happen in the police, we will also, without doubt, see more constrictions of defence budgets and even today I am reading of the need to decide whether we have a 'homeland defence' force rather than a military that goes anywhere and everywhere. The reality is that we will be seeing defence cuts after the budget, and this is merely the beginning.
Think of an area and you'll see it affected and cut back in the coming months and years as the nation struggles to overcome the profligate and ill-thought spending of it's people. As I type, the counter on the blog page tells me that my share (and this means your too) is £24,080 and rising! As I said only recently, "You can't have your cake and eat it," and if you try this is where you'll find yourself.
In a week where the government are being portrayed as duplicitious and little more than a puppet of the other nations (well one actually) and where the things that matter are slowly being eroded I ask you to consider what is before you and start to plan as the hustings approach. We need a government who will be elected because they have policies and views, not because they're 'not labour' for this is how Bliar got himself elected. Labour took office because they weren't Conservatives and they never had a real manifesto for anything, and didn't need it, especially as they had such a strong majority. Gordon Brown, who I consider to have been probably the best number two in british politics failed to ask for the nation's approval when he came to the top job, he merely took over and, again, acted without the nations mandate.
As Christians we have a duty to vote and to vote thoughtfully. We need to understand what the parties are offering and we need to understand what out candidates believe too. I don't vote by party names but by the beliefs and responses that my local candidate gives me over issues that matter (healthcare, social intervention and care, policing, defence and the like).
I have already heard fellow Christians saying that they either won't vote or will spoil their papers. This is not what we're called to do as Christian - we need to vote for those who will uphold Biblical values even though they are obviously (well there's the Christian People's Alliance but they failed to inform the churches at the last election here and most avoided them because they assumed they were 'nutters') not Christian per se.
Are you thinking and praying about who will run the nation next?
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