Seeing the issues through the smoke

And so the Calais saga continues and instead of constantly shouting at the radio - 'what about the industrial action?' - to the annoyance of my wife and anyone else within earshot, I thought I'd return to the story here.

Yes, there are a lot of migrants in Calais and yes, they are trying to get to UK (because despite our repeated warning that they will not be welcome here, they feel a bit of racist abuse is preferable to being blown up, shot at, rendered homeless by armed factions, or whatever horror they are fleeing|). And yes, we have got to address this issue which is taking on crisis proportions.

But the situation is exacerbated, inflamed, stoked up by the industrial dispute affecting the port of Calais. On 1 July the Channel Tunnel company closed My Ferry Link, a service it owned that operated three boats offering twelve or more sailings a day. One of those boats was a dedicated commercial vehicle carrier. 600 workers stood to lose their jobs in a region of France that already has 13% unemployment

On top of that another ferry operator, DFDS, who were prepared to take on the boats but not their workers, found itself drawn into the dispute. The upshot of this is that the my ferry link vessels are permanently docked in Calais (having been disabled by their redundant crews) and port staff have refused to handle DFDS boats (which are now mostly sailing to Dunkirk).

So there are fewer places available on the ships that are still running and fewer berths for those ships to dock at in Calais. Hence the delays. If you remove twelve or more crossings a day on the busiest route into France, it's quickly going to lead to tail-backs on either side of the channel. Those delays cause queues of stationary vehicles which become a target for people desperate to cross to England by any means they can find.

Channel Tunnel security has not been helped by the striking dock workers demonstrating in the mouth of the tunnel, causing damage, burning tyres, disrupting the operator's business.

So, I wonder if the BBC, other news organisations, and the press, could focus a little more on this story in a bid to put pressure on all those involved in the tangled industrial dispute to get that sorted out. If it is sorted out, the port of Calais could fully open, ferries could sail on time, and more commercial vehicles could get about their business rather than joining the longest car park on the M20 and disrupting the lives of people in Kent.

Settling the dispute is not the whole answer to what we're seeing. We have to do something more than wring our hands about the migrant situation and call for the army to be deployed. But settling the dispute would get the port open, the traffic moving,and would enable the operators to focus more on sorting out their security than assuaging the anger of tourists and truckers.

It would also mean that when we go to France in early September, we won't be held up.

Summers are for updating course material

Today I have been thinking about the New Testament theology unit I teach at Spurgeon's. I want to make some changes to its content (strictly within the agreed parameters, of course). So I have been reading papers on the atonement, the Holy Spirit and James.

I have decided that my students will get to read Michael Gorman's 'Effecting the new covenant: a (not so) new, new testament model for the atonement' because it's vintage Gorman - and he is a scholar they really need to be acquainted with; Peter David's 'God and the Human situation in the letter of James' because it's one of the few papers that deals with James on its own terms and not as a foil for Paul; but I can't decide on a new paper on the Holy Spirit. I am toying with a paper by Max Turner on Luke-Acts, but it is a quite specific rebuttal of the position adopted by Robert Menzies, rather than a general introduction to Luke's theology of the Holy Spirit, so I'm not sure about it. I think I'll need to keep looking - if anyone has any suggestions, they'd be gratefully received.

The rest of the unit will remain as it is. I'll just be tweaking some of the material to update it, revisiting the bibliography to make sure that it's up-to-date and revising the essay questions. Once that's done, I'm hoping to revise a paper gave at the post-grad seminar with a view to publication and then begin revisions on some on-line units that require a make-over. That should all keep me out of mischief through the summer.

The news from France...

So, last week we were in France. After a fabulous weekend in Amiens (one of our favourite cities on the planet), we went to Le Pas Opton, Spring Harvest's French base, for Dutch week. We had a great time with some wonderful Dutch believers.

We went to France through Calais - our usual route - but were being warned ahead of leaving that our journey would be a nightmare and that we might never get there! Well, we did. However, on the Friday we were sailing we set off extra early and went to Dover on the M2 rather than the M20 because operation stack was in operation on that road.

We left extra time because we expected to hit traffic and had been warned that passport control takes longer than it used to. There was nothing on the M2/A2 so our journey took just over an hour. We sailed through passport control with no one manning any of the booths and so no one looking at our passports. We were so early we could not check in for half an hour. On disembarking in Calais we left the port in modest traffic with no disruption.

We expected the return to be worse. True passport control was slow - mainly because there were not enough lanes open - and the timetable was disrupted. But we were sailing within an hour of check-in, which is relatively normal. Admittedly, we were on a ferry that should have left an hour and half before we arrived in the port! Most travellers seemed cheerful enough, however.

So, today on the BBC news there were reports of chaos in Calais caused by an ocean of migrants forcing their way into Britain by any means they could find. This was not what we saw. In fact we didn't see any evidence of the migrant invasion at all on our trip. What the BBC failed to mention is that the main disruption in Calais is caused by an on-going industrial dispute between workers of the company My Ferry Link and the company's owners, the channel tunnel company (hence the disruption to the tunnel over recent days).

The only person who mentioned the industrial action was the man from the Freight Transport Association who thought strikes should be outlawed in the industry. Perhaps a better solution would be what the French government appear to be proposing at a meeting next Monday which is that they take control of My Ferry Link. This would ensure that capacity on the cross channel is not reduced (the dispute is over My Ferry Link's current owners shutting the company down and taking the boats out of the water, thus reducing available space and allowing prices to rise).

It is the industrial action that has given the migrants desperate to get to the UK a chance to risk making the crossing. The result has been a rise in the number of deaths in the water and on the tracks of the channel tunnel (the latest was the body of young man found on top of a train this morning). So part of the solution to the migrant issue would be to settle the industrial action swiftly and justly, increase the capacity of the carriers on the route (either under or over the sea).

There is talk of a big lorry park being built in Kent to free the M20 from becoming a car park from time to time. That sounds good. How about also building a reception centre on this side of the channel so that we could take our fair share of the migrants coming to the EU and not leaving them in the hands of people traffickers?

Whose money, whose decision?

The mantra since the Thatcher-Reagan years (I think based on Milton Friedman's model of the economy) is that the money the government spends is tax payers money. It isn't. Tax payers have paid it to government for them to spend, according to the programmes on which they were elected.

I expect my government to act justly with the money that it has been given stewardship of by the nation's tax payers. For this reason, I expect two things. The first is that everyone who owes tax will pay tax - whether that's individuals or corporations; they will not look for sophisticated ways of avoiding paying what government (elected by all of us - or in our current government's case by barely 25% of us, but that's another blog entirely!) has deemed people should pay.

The second is that I expect government to spend according to principles of justice and equity, fairness and what is in the interest of the well-being of the majority of citizens. I think this means that in moral terms, governments should make decisions ethically. For me that would mean that governments would take seriously what the bible says about money and community, about shared prosperity and the well-being of all. I appreciate others might take a different view, based on a different morality.

So Europe's tax payers are not bailing out Greece, as though Europe's leaders had gone round dragging Euros from reluctant citizens' wallets and purses. No, Europe's governments are using their money (that gathered in taxes which is now theirs to disperse) to do the right thing by Greece. At that very least, it means that Europe's leaders must explain why they have taken the decisions they have and not hide behind their taxpayers. We do not know what they want.

Curiously, we do know what the Greek taxpayers want because they expressed their view on this single issue and an overwhelming majority of them wanted something different from what they are being offered. The fact that Europe's leaders ignore the democratic will of the Greek people nails the lie that they have any interest in the tax payers of any country.

What they do, they do in their own interests and we the people should not be implicated in their ineptitude.

Debt and repentance

In the course of our studies in Luke at LPO this week we have had cause to mention debt (that's because Jesus talked quite a lot about it). It is, of course, impossible to raise the issue of debt without talking about Greece and the current bail-out plan and what Jesus' parable of the two debtors might have to say about it.

In after session conversations it has become that several Dutch guests are very hawkish on this issue. The Greeks need to pay back every Euro. There is recognition that maybe the Greek people are not to blame for previous government action, but in order to apply the teaching of Jesus, there needs to be repentance before there can be forgiveness.

I've never been sure that this is how it works with Jesus. The Kingdom comes to us, wraps us up in its embrace, carries us off into a new adventure with God, so we repent (change our minds about our way of living and change our direction of travel so that we go the way Jesus is going).

But at a deeper and more thoroughly biblical level, I don't think that can have been what Jesus had in mind. He grew up in a biblical tradition of Jubilee where debts were written-off every seven years and after fifty years land and assets were restored to their original owners. So I think in declaring jubilee in Luke 4 ( since he uses a jubilee text from Isaiah 61 to launch his public ministry in his home town). Jesus was declaring  that debts would be written off and the poor get back what had been expropriated by others. Hence his declaration in Luke 6 that the poor are blessed and that the rich are not (something he might have learned from his mother given the content of her song in chapter 1).

Of course, this does not solve the Greek problem. But it does give an interesting theological angle to it that maybe the people of faith across the continent of Europe could be expressing at least as a way of generating a broader debate than that favoured by the bankers.

Oh and while we're at it, why are the bankers who helped previous Greek governments hide their debts and rich Greeks avoid paying anything into the Greek economy by way of taxes, not having to pay off some of the debts thereby incurred by the hapless Greeks? Actually, why aren't any of them in prison for fraud and false accounting?

Does the teaching of Luke's gospel have anything to say about this? I think it probably does....

Reflections on going Dutch

So I'm speaking at Dutch week at LPO and thought I'd post a reflection or two.

The first is that Kees Kraayenoord (our worship leader this week) is outstanding. He's written a couple of songs that I am definitely taking back to Bromley to teach to my lot. The songs are in English, I hasten to add! You can check him out here (though the site's in Dutch!)

The second is that I've had a good attentive audience for the Bible studies and a responsive lot in the evenings. I've had good productive conversations with people who want to take the material we're looking at in Luke's gospel really seriously - which is a huge encouragement to me.

The third is that the weather is fab - how could you not encounter God in such a place?

So, looking forward to day 3 in the Spring Harvest house....

More to follow...

A fresh master class in languid americana

From the moment a single acoustic guitar run heralds the arrival of at least for a little while, you just know that you're in safe hands. Bill Mallonee's new album, Lands and Peoples, continues where last year's Winnowing left off.

Languid, poignant, insightful, life-affirming and provocative, Mallonee's latest collection of 12 self-penned songs is pitch perfect. He and Mariah Rose play everything on songs that are arranged to reveal their depth and beauty.

He has a wonderful turn of phrase that takes the listener into the heart of the human condition without them really realising it until they're in so deep they have no option but to face it.

Faith seems to be hanging by a thread as Mallonee surveys a world overrun by the madness of greed and misfortune. But faith is hanging in there, woven into each track, a faith that is not afraid to name its opposite as a lived experience, a faith that looks reality full in the face and all-but asks 'is that the worst you've got?'

This is not a gospel album and yet it's full of God; he leaks out of the playing and the vocal, sits alongside you as you listen and whispers 'are you hearing this?'

I've said it before,but it bears repeating: Mallonee has hit a rich vein of form that stretches back over his last four albums - not that he was a slouch before this, you understand! These songs are the work of a mature master at the height of his powers. He deserves a huge audience, gathered in small numbers in a myriad intimate gatherings across the land, so we can soak up the wisdom and ask questions...

Oh that we could get him to Britain...

You check it out and buy it here. Go on, treat yourselves, you'll not be disappointed.

IMF living up to its reputation

So Christine Lagarde has endorsed George Osborne's economic policies.

This is a bit like being given sailing tips by the captain of the Titanic. Lagarde was the finance minister in president Sarkozy's lamentable French administration who had been a spectator as the world's economy was crashed into recession by out of control bankers. She spent much of 2008 Gallically shrugging but offering nothing useful while Brown and Obama attempted to right the ship.

Now she presides over the single tool IMF, an organisation that assumes austerity is the solution to every economic problem facing any country across the globe.

But even her economists - those in the organisation who actually understand how these things work - have given Osborne the thumbs down, arguing that he will not be able to balance the books if he sticks to his failed programme.

The FT agreed with those economists and this week even the Times has weighed in reminding people that it was the bankers who crashed the world economy and not the labour party.

Lagarde continues the IMF's proud tradition as summarised by Bruce Cockburn in his withering Call it Democracy:

Padded with power here they come
International loan sharks backed by the guns
Of market hungry military profiteers
Whose word is a swamp and whose brow is smeared
With the blood of the poor

Who rob life of its quality
Who render rage a necessity
By turning countries into labour camps
Modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom

Sinister cynical instrument
Who makes the gun into a sacrament --
The only response to the deification
Of tyranny by so-called "developed" nations'
Idolatry of ideology

North South East West
Kill the best and buy the rest
It's just spend a buck to make a buck
You don't really give a flying fuck
About the people in misery

IMF dirty MF
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there's one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt

See the paid-off local bottom feeders
Passing themselves off as leaders
Kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows
Open for business like a cheap bordello

And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy

See the loaded eyes of the children too
Trying to make the best of it the way kids do
One day you're going to rise from your habitual feast
To find yourself staring down the throat of the beast
They call the revolution

IMF dirty MF
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there's one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt

Enough said..?

El Mundo De La Igelsia Primitiva: historia social

Well, how exciting. The postman brought me a package this morning containing a book with the above title - in other my The World of the Early Church but in Spanish.

It is being jointly published in the US for Spanish speaking Americans by Lion and Libros Desafio. This is really exciting as the market among Spanish speaking Americans is quite big (it's the USA's second language after English).

So hopefully more people will get to read it and enjoy the experience.

So that's English, Dutch and Spanish - what next?

Of course, if I were to write the book now, I'd probably say some things differently. But having looked at the English version again, I think it still stands as a good summary of what NT scholars are saying about the historical and cultural context of the earliest Jesus followers.

If you haven't got your own copy yet then Manna books will sell you one (here). Or you can buy it from the beast (here) On the Amazon site there are a pleasing number of five star reviews from both the UK and US.

Great new English music

I was sent a link to some wonderful free music by the band Lex Lisbon - new to me but certainly worth checking out. And you can do that here.

11 strong tracks on the EP, get some scars, being given away for free - so go on, treat yourself. Their sound is an original and quirky mix of great harmonies, edgy guitars, sweeping keyboards and trumpet . The opening vocal on the title track grabs you by the ears and is followed by lovely chunky guitar and keys and a sweeping hook that you'll be humming all the way to the pub. Bullingdon Club sounds like they're channelling an English Bruce Springsteen, full of bluster and raw energy. The vocals on keep me wild are sublime and the hairs stand up on the back of your neck when the trumpet joins the mix.

There's lots to love here; this is definitely a band to keep an eye on. I look forward to catching them live sometime this year.

wisdom from unexpected places

Everyone has an opinion on the economy and its future. The trick is sorting the wheat from the chaff. I was surprised to read this in an interview in Saturday's Guardian with Crispin Odey, hedge fund king who manages £9bn of asset, who was giving his generally gloomy assessment of the weeks ahead,

'There is also a sense, Odey continues, that politics are moving faster than markets – as in Greece, where he sympathises with a country that no longer sees the point of continuing the “charade” of adding unpaid interest to an unpayable debt obligation. “It’s Leviticus. It’s the whole idea of jubilee,” he says. “Jubilee was every 50 years in Israel. All debts were written off because otherwise the financial economy strangled the real economy. God got it right.”'

You can read the whole interview here. It's striking not only for its gloomy tone but also for Odey's ability to take the long view of financial trends.

To hear a hedge fund manager calling for a jubilee and suggesting that 'God got it right' is as surprising as it is refreshing. It is not only right to point out that God's economics are better than ours, but also to assert that the financial economy strangles the real one. This is what's been happening for a generation; and we are still living in the fallout of when such arrangement crashes around our ears (as it did in 2008).

Truly wisdom is found in unexpected places!

A cautionary tale about someone's son

I've been pondering this story for a couple of days. It's been a bit stressful in our shelter but we had a good meeting with a senior council official on Wednesday - a pin-prick of light in a dark few days. I then read this story in the Guardian which reminded why I do this and keep shouting about the needs of those we serve through our little project.Then I got an email telling the story I am about to relate.

It concerns a guest of our shelter last year. He was a difficult person but had the prospect of getting his life together after a career as an alcoholic. The email I got was in response to a request for information as to his whereabouts. It told me he was back in prison, due to be released soonish, but he would get no support from the probation service because his sentence wasn't long enough, he'd get no support from the drug and alcohol service because they'd tried once, and the social worker who sent me the email was in the throes of securing an injunction to stop him returning to the one place that might give him sanctuary.

I confess I heard the sound of running water as I read it and pictured people queueing to wash their hands of this man.

Now the social worker might think he's doing the right thing in obtaining the injunction; the relationship between our former guest and the person said social worker is trying to protect is complicated and messy.But I wonder what the prospects are of a man coming out of prison with an alcohol problem, who hasn't worked for quite a long time and has nowhere to live.

It set me thinking about how the safety net we think exists for people like this is in tatters. Lots of hard-pressed people are trying to hold the line in a system that is chronically underfunded and under-staffed. But more than that, a system that is under-appreciated by tax payers - that's us. When I tell stories like this to members of my congregation they are deeply shocked that there is no help available for my friend. However low someone has fallen, there is a feeling that they should be helped to get back on their feet.

This man is someone's son, someone's brother, our neighbour, part of the community in which we live. Yet he's invisible to most of us and will probably be back in prison before the year's end, having committed a more serious offence because the only place offering bed and board is HMP wherever.

What's to be done?

A footnote to the previous post

My old economics teacher at school, George Stanlake, used to tell us that economics was the science of how resources are allocated in a society. That's true. But what you will notice about that definition is that it is very political (I suspect that was George's point, though I never saw it at the time!).

Economics has never been a pure science. It has always been as much a political tool as it is a method for understanding resource allocation.

Is this the reason why Christians have always disagreed on how the economy works, since economics is a footnote to the political stance that shapes the way we each see the world?

Discuss

Distinctive voices on the economy

There was a flurry of conversation on twitter this morning among baptists about the economy. It arose in the wake of an excellent piece by Maurice Glassman in this week's Church Times (You can read that here). The question was asked whether baptists have anything to contribute to this debate.

Leaving aside the 'me-too' aspect of this, there is a fundamental question about whether any section of the church has a view of these matters. People talk about Catholic Social Teaching (capital letters and all), pointing to a centuries' long tradition of thought and reflection in this field. It might be churlish of me to point out that social teaching is different from, though it might include, economic thinking. But defining terms is quite important here. By economics I think we are talking about the way money is managed by individuals, companies and governments; how work is organised and rewarded; how manufacturing and trading take place; and, in our system, how capital relates to labour and the financial sector to the 'real' economy.

Anglicans published a book last month edited by John Sentamu and called On Rack or Sand? Firm Foundations for Britain's Future. It contains some very good, though-provoking essays that could help churches inform their discussion of issues in the run-up to the election this year. In the book there's a good essay by Andrew Sentance, former member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee, who is currently economic adviser to PWC (the accountants who are today getting something of a drubbing from the Commons Public Accounts Committee!).

My feeling about his essay is that it reflects the views of Andrew Sentance (and there's nothing wrong with that) rather than the views of a 'tradition' that stretches back down the centuries. In particular he talks of three key principles that should guide our thinking: sustainable growth, shared prosperity and responsible business. In this, he is in the mainstream of economists in general and what he says invites careful thought - whatever our faith position - but makes no real claim to be distinctly Anglican or Christian.

It was suggested on twitter than we look for a baptist voice in this area. It was pointed out that we probably wouldn't have much to contribute. And there's some truth in that. But maybe a group of baptist economic thinkers would bring something distinctive to their thinking about  the economy derived from their distinctive theology of people and community. But pressed to say what that is, I would find myself floundering.

Last year, I wrote a booklet for Grove Books on Paul and Poverty reflecting on the apostle's distinctive ideas about issues that we would now call 'economic'. In particular, as a baptist who teaches New Testament to theological students, I would want to emphasise Paul's focus on equality among the people of God as an example to the wider society. Now, Andrew Sentance talks about growing inequality in the UK being a major issue facing our society today. He's dead right. But mechanisms for creating greater equality, beyond changes to the tax system, are largely lacking in his prescriptions for policy.

Is there room for a baptist reader in this area? The answer is probably 'yes'. But are there any baptists who could contribute to it? This brings us to the number of books that have been written by Christians of all hues about the economy over the past twenty or thirty years. It would be true to say that pretty much all of them reflect the view of the author rather than the tradition within which that author notionally sits.

I was going to come up with an exhaustive list but cannot think of too many at present. But here's a handful: Brian Griffiths wrote a trenchant defence of free markets from a Christian perspective (he was Margaret Thatcher's favourite economist); E. Philip Davis reflected on the economic crash  without talking about the jubilee which stands at the heart of a biblical understanding God dealing with debt (a fundamental cause of the crash); Jim Wallis weighed in with his astute analysis of the culture that gave rise to the crash; Peter Selby offered incisive reflections on the role of money in our culture. All these offer trenchant views but it's hard to fit any of them into a recognisable strand of Christian tradition; rather they each draw from the Bible and theology, as well as their understanding of economics (whatever strand of that 'science' they are wedded to) and create a unique view.

So, are there any Baptists out there working in the field of economics in universities, city institutions, think tanks or any other field of endeavour who are up for doing some baptist thinking on the economy? It would be really interesting to know...

An unexpected and lovely surprise...

Yesterday I discovered that the Churchman (an Anglican theological journal) had run a review of my book, The World of the Early Church. This was a surprise to me as my publisher had not mentioned it. Today I found the review and very nice it is too.

So, thank you to Matthew Crawford of Durham University for such a positive review of my book. I really appreciate it. If anyone knows Matthew, please pass on my thanks...

If you want to read the review it's in Churchman 127 issue 3 2013. Then, having been urged to consult my book, and having had your appetite for it whetted by Matthew Crawford, you could buy it from Wordery or Waterstones or any good bookseller for something less than the £20 cover price.

Thank you...

Particle physics, politics and our breakfast at our shelter....

So the morning I hd a conversation that at times I struggled to keep up. It was with a particle physicist, a man who is mid-way through a PhD and who has been involved in developing and building proton beam machines for use in cancer treatments (little wonder I was getting lost!)

We were actually talking about CERN and the large hadron collider and what it might reveal when it starts up again in the spring, having undergone a refit. Some of this conversation ran away from me as well!

I was having this chat over breakfast in our winter night shelter, for this guy is a guest of ours, one of the growing number of homeless in my apparently prosperous bit of London. He is not a drug user or alcoholic (he drinks less than I do); he is not the victim of a break down of relationship that's left an angry, wounded partner in the family home. It's unclear what he's the victim of. Yes, he is vulnerable to depression, but this seems to be a consequence rather than cause of his current situation.

He is looking for work, a job that would use his skills. But he is constantly being told that he is too well qualified. In a country that desperately needs investment in the kind of ground-breaking medical technology he has been involved in developing, it seems that society would rather pay him to be idle or push him into some useless zero-hours contract job.

If you remember the Aysha King story last summer, the little boy taken to Prague to have proton beam therapy, my friend's story is even more maddening. He has been working on such technology in South Africa but not here.

It's a small story that illustrates the insanity of our current way of running things. He's homeless because there's a chronic shortage of affordable homes across the country, but certainly in London. He finds himself in a system that doesn't understand his skills and therefore can't find room for them and yet which, at the same time, bemoans the fact that we are lagging our competitors in cutting edge technology; that we are apparently unable to turn pure science into innovation and hence economic growth.

We fell into our conversation because we shared the experience of having studied at Manchester University. Back in 1977-78 I was part of a social science research council funded MSc programme that had been founded a decade earlier to answer the question 'why can't Britain innovate?' It struck me that I was having the same conversation with my guest as we had had in our seminar rooms almost forty years ago; and nothing has changed.

I left feeling sad and mad at the waste of so promising and so clever a man languishing in our shelter because he has neither a job or a home.

New government, anyone? Fresh thinking on how we organise ourselves, about how we utilise all the skills and talents of all our people to create a better society for all of us?

register to be part of a momentous year

I've been sent a copy of Andy Flannagan's new book Those who show up by the lovely people at Muddy Pearl, who are publishing it. I've promised to blog a few thoughts as I work my way through it.

But I thought I'd preface those comments by saying how important it is that people register to vote in the forthcoming general election. This particularly applies to people younger than me who might not see anything on a ballot paper worth getting out of bed for. I have to say I sympathise with them.

And I'm not writing this because Andy's book is yet another appeal to people get involved in the political process by voting. Indeed, he kicks off by suggesting that the book will be urging its readers to consider putting their names on the ballot paper so others can vote for them. I'll return to this when I've read beyond pxii.

But I do want to return to the issue of registering to vote. This is probably the most important election for a generation. It will determine the shape of our country for many years to come.

I have just returned from having coffee with a bright, energetic, capable friend who has given the best part of 20 years to working in local government in a bid to improve the lives of ordinary people. He is severely disillusioned and between jobs. In one sense he is an example of someone who has been broken on the wheel of a malfunctioning political system. But his passion for the process is undimmed; his desire to see justice and equity at the heart of decision-making at all levels in the country fires everything he is and does.

I'm sure there are lots of people like him all over the country. All of us need to be registered to vote in May and get out - and encourage our friends to get out - and cast our vote. We cannot have another government that is elected by 30% of the 60% or so who turn out. On any way of doing maths that is an underwhelming minority. The current government wants to change strike ballots to mean that workers can only withdraw their labour if more than 50% of their workplace votes in favour. This from a government with a mandate of considerably less than 40% of the electorate. Pots and kettles, hey?

Such things make people cynical. But what we need to do is seize the debate back from the cynics and start talking about the kind of society we want to live in, what we want to see our taxes used for (as no party if offering to abolish taxation, we'll be paying it anyway, so it might as well be for something we support!). Our debates, however, shouldn't begin with what things cost; they should begin with whether they are desirable and how they would work and how they would benefit ordinary people. We can cost things later.

And yes, some cynics will respond by saying that this will result in all sorts of uncosted pledges being made. Well, maybe. Both major parties already have a list of uncosted pledges up their sleeves, so let's add to them. If we do, we will see the quality of the conversation rising. The election will become a genuine battle of ideas rather than a race to the lowest common denominator, where parties  pledge the lowest spending for the maximum benefit of that party's natural constituency.

When that happens, it's little wonder people are cynical. So, let's hear ideas being debated, visions of the world we want to live in being sung to the rafters. And let's turn up at meetings, urging those on the platform to take our ideas seriously, debate with us, respond to our ideas, argue with them; and let's do this courteously and kindly, recognising the humanity of our opponents and the common good that we are all working to achieve.

day 19 and the year's first great album emerges

Well, let's hope it's the harbinger of a vintage year for music, for three week's into January we have the first storming release of the year. Two year's after the King is Dead, the Decembrerists have returned with What a terrible world. What a beautiful world, 14 wonderful, lyrically playful songs.

Colin Molloy's song writing is on cracking form here. He opens with a witty reflection on stardom and fandom which contains the great lines: 'we're aware that you cut your hair in the style that our drummer wore in the last video, but with fame came a mounting claim for the evermore...So when your bridal processional is a televised confessional to the benefits of Axe Shampoo, you know we did it for you.' Eat your heart out Taylor Swift!

It's uphill from there, every song putting a smile on the listener's face and a spring in their step.

Great stuff. And the title is a seminar in itself. So, grab a beer and crank up the turntable...

Two albums that I missed

As I was flicking through a play list just after Christmas, I realised that in my post-infection state, I had left out two of 2014's overlooked masterpieces. So my festive 15 is swelling to 17 (maths never was my strong suit!)

In the car, I found School of Language's second outing Old Fears. School of Language is the side project of the other Field Music maestro, David Brewis. Like his brother, Peter (are they twins?), him of the wonderful Frozen by Sight (who were magnificent at St Giles on the Friday before Christmas), David is full of great tunes, wonderful hooks, quirky time signatures and intriguing lyrical invention. This second School of Language album (of whom the only member is David Brewis) is very different from the first but equally wonderful.

And then, I forgot to include the Pearlfishers Open up Your Colouring Book. This is a ravishing aural treat, 16 songs by Glasgow's David Scott. Again, he writes great pop tunes, pens absorbing lyrics and wraps it all up in wonderful arrangements. He is a hidden treasure who should be getting much more acclaim than he does. The album, was launched without trace in April, greeted by barely a murmur in the music press. There's no justice! It follows hard on the heels of 2007's sublime Up with the Larks, one of my all time favourite albums and a regular soundtrack to long car journeys in the sunshine. If you have not spent an hour with the Pearlfishers, please do because you'll feel so much better for it.

These are both worthy additions to your playlists/CD/album collections

a festive fifteen...

It's that time of year when I traditionally tell everyone what new music I've been listening to this year. I do it more as a reminder to myself of what I've spent my money on than an example of exemplary musical taste. But some of you might be interested.

So, in no particular order (except my top 5), here are the albums I enjoyed enough to buy this year.

Robert Plant and the Shape Shifters Lullaby and Ceaseless Road; unexpected from the Led Zep vocalist.

the Hold Steady Teeth Dreams: good, honest, quirky American rock - though I have no idea where they come from!

Nick Mulvey's gorgeous First Mind.

Kate Tempest Everybody Down in which she showed herself to be as adept at rap as she is at poetry for the page.

Deacon Blue's A New House - not as good as 2012's The Hipsters but still a cut above the average.

David Gray's Mutineers not one I expected to like but did, possibly because production was by Lamb's Andy Barlow who bought an unexpected vibe to Gray's usual oeuvre.

Duologue Never Get Lost, their follow-up to the outstanding Song and Dance which delivers a very pleasing electronic groove.

Elbow produced their best record since Leaders of the Free World in the lovely, moving The Take Off and Landing of Everything.

Paul Smith (of Maximo Park) and Peter Brewis (of Field Music) collaborated on the quirky, gorgeous travelogue that is Frozen By Sight (really looking forward to seeing them at St Giles Church on 19 December - our Christmas treat).

U2 Songs of Innocence. Ok, I know there was a lot of fuss about it being delivered free to everyone with an iTunes account; yes, it was a tad gauche but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth especially when it turned out to be the best U2 album for quite a long time. Bono and the Edge produced some of their best lyrics and the band set them to some great melodies. Not having to pay for it was a lovely bonus!

And so to my top 5 (I loved the other 10 but these stood out for various reasons):

Jackson Browne Standing in the Breach in which the old trooper and songsmith to the revolution produced a set of ten songs that not only engage with all the important issues of the day in an intelligent and provocative way, but also offered a back catalogue of Browne's many musical styles. Great stuff.

Damon Albarn Everyday Robots the first solo album from the Blur front man. A minimalist, staccato feast of great tunes and affecting lyrics in which he pondered his history and our lives splendidly.

Lamb Backspace Unwind: a barnstorming return by the trip hop pioneers. Andy Barlow's production is quite wonderful and Lou Rhodes' voice has never sounded better - if there's a better female singer around, I've yet to hear her.

Bill Mallonee Winnowing in which the veteran singer-songwriter produces yet another career defining set of songs - just as he did last year and the year before. His ear for melody and his turn of phrase show no signs of dimming on a set of songs that probe faith in a post-everything world. Quite stunning.

Ben Watt Hendra: this probably edges my album of the year. A fabulous collection of songs reflecting on aging, memory, loss of parents and making sense of the world around us. Barely a note out of place in the second solo outing of one half of Everything but the Girl. He also produced a great biography of his parents, Romany and Tom - one of my books of the year.

Each would make a great stocking filler for a loved one or a sneaky seasonal treat for yourself.