Who to Vote for?

Deacon Nick Donnelly of Protect the Pope offers some advice on who Catholics can vote for in the upcoming general election in a recent article which has been banned by a local paper because of its "political content". Deacon Nick explains:

The editor of the Barrow Evening Mail has banned my article on the General Election from their weekly Christian Comment section. He gave the following reason:

'It is highly politicised and as we are now in purdah (the period running up to an election during which newspapers must be extremely careful of what political content they publish), it is not appropriate for publication I'm afraid.'

Here's my banned article:

Every General Election I am faced with a dilemma as a Christian – which candidate and political party can I vote for in good conscience?

As a Christian I no longer trust the Labour party because of their actions against the Church when last in government. It was Tony Blair who destroyed the network of Catholic adoption agencies in this country by forcing them to place children with gay couples. As a consequence the Church had to cut her links with adoption agencies that ordinary Christians had built up over a hundred years.

How can I vote for a candidate who won’t protect babies from being aborted because they’re girls? Recently, the vast majority of Labour MPs, including Barrow’s John Woodcock, voted down legislation that would have ensured that babies are protected from sex-selection abortion.
I also can’t vote for the Liberal Democrats or Green party because they hold more extreme positions than Labour that are impossible for me to reconcile with my Christian Faith.

How can Christians trust David Cameron after his legalisation of same sex marriage which did not feature in either the 2010 manifesto or in the Coalition Agreement with the Liberal Democrats? And now Christian schools are being put into special measures by Ofsted for not adequately teaching LGBT rights and issues.

When it comes to the Conservative party I’m profoundly reluctant to vote for their candidate Simon Fell considering his party’s record on life issues and same-sex marriage. It was Margaret Thatcher’s government that legalised experimentation on embryonic human beings conceived through IVF. This original Tory legislation has led to the creation in the laboratory of animal-human hybrids and recent legalisation allowing the destruction of embryonic human beings as to be used as spare parts for siblings.

Some Christians tell me that they’re going to vote of UKIP as a protest vote but even that option is not open to me because of their policy of cutting the UK’s foreign aid budget by two-thirds. It would be gravely immoral to cut aid to some of the poorest and most vulnerable families and children in the world who depend on the UK for food, medicine and education.

I consider voting at a General Election to be a solemn and binding duty on every citizen because countless men and women have given their lives to protect our freedom as a democracy. But what do Christians do when all the political parties advocate a whole variety of policies that we consider immoral? I’m sure I’m not the only one to conclude that no political party at this General Election represents our moral world view as a Christians.

History tells us that new political movements emerge when groups of people find themselves politically marginalised or disenfranchised. Have we come to the point when Christians feel strongly enough to challenge the secular ruling establishment in this country?

Deacon Nick Donnelly, Our Lady of Furness, Duke St, Barrow.

Helena and The Paris Marathon

On Sunday our daughter Hélèna and her friend Marie ran the Paris Marathon - the first long distance run (apart from training) for both girls. They had a support team of six, including Hélèna's husband Sam. They went Eurostar to Paris on the Thursday and stayed in an apartment. It must have been rather grand as one of the neighbour's was the designer John Galliano and his partner.
They seemed to have a good time, ran a good race in 4hrs 50 mins 9secs and raised over £1200 for St John Ambulance. If anybody wants to sponsor them then: https://www.justgiving.com/marie-helena/

Near the apartment

Getting a drink

Mid-race hug form Noor

Still enough energy to wave!

The support crew

At the end

A well earned meal

Relaxing the day after

When does Lent End?

There are two days for the end of Lent. What most people mean by "When does Lent end?" is "When does the Lenten fast end?" The answer to that question is Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday), which is the 46th day since Ash Wednesday (if you include Ash Wednesday) but the 40th day of the 40-day Lenten fast. Liturgically, however, Lent ends two days earlier, on Holy Thursday—at least since 1969, when the General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, which govern the revised Roman calendar used in the celebration of the Novus Ordo Mass, were released. More specifically, paragraph 28 of the General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar states, "Lent runs from Ash Wednesday until the Mass of the Lord's Supper exclusive." In other words, liturgically speaking, Lent ends just before the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday evening, when the liturgical season of the Easter Triduum begins.

And so it spreads

It now seems that the child abuse scandal and cover up story is spreading from city to city. Sheffield appears to be the latest place where these horrors have been perpetrated.
Of course in London the scandal and cover up does not concern taxi drivers and other "night workers". In the capital city it seems to concern establishment figures and files going missing in the Civil Service. But of course there is no committee of MPs "roasting" those that are alleged to be part of the conspiracy.
The whole system appears to be one stinking rotten mess (or should that be rotten stinking mess?).

Why the British Public has given up on Politics

Several thousand young people in the north of England are groomed and sexually abused, hundreds if not thousands of people are being butchered by IS and other groups in the Middle East and Africa, Tony Blair pockets millions from consultancy work purely as a result of being prime minister (we won't mention Iraq), the Chilcott enquiry will report sometime in the 22 Century.
Meanwhile our MPs waste thousands of hours and probably millions of pounds om worrying about three stupid schoolgirls who went to join IS. Where is the sense of priorities and a sense of scale?

Caveat Emptor

It will soon be the next financial year and with it will come the new found "Pension Freedoms". No doubt the press will soon be full of stories of people who were duped and miss-sold something. With the exception of those who are not in 100% of their faculties why do people expect to be protected from their own stupidity? If something appears too good to be true then 99.999% of the time it is.

I suspect that many people will be better off if they buy an annuity - with all their faults and low rates of return. According to ageUK the  UK life expectancy estimates at the age of 65 (in reasonable health) are 86.1 for women and 83.6 for men (February 2015). So if you budget on living until 90 for women and 87 for men you are (statistically) going to be OK.

So for me that means my savings etc have to last another 20 years - a happy thought!

Brilliant New Diet - well sort of!

I have just come across this brilliant new diet which I am going to embark on from the 27 April until the 1st May. The brilliant part is that you can eat absolutely any type of food, steak, caviar, lobtser, truffles - you name it you can eat it. You can also drink the finest wines, champagnes - absolutely anything.
There is only one restriction - you budget for each day is £1.

If you are interested in this challenge remember that 1.2 billion people live on less than £1 a day, not just for food and drink but for everything - education, health, housing, travel - the works.
The Live Below the Line campaign does not attempt to replicate this - we couldn't do that and costs are greater in the UK than in poverty stricken countries. But by choosing to eat and drink on just £1 a day for 5 days, you will shine a light on the 1.2 billion people who live below the extreme poverty line and will gain a small insight and better understanding of the choices and challenges you face when restricted by income.

So if you are up for this challenge join by clicking here.

If you would like to sponsor me then click here