For a better world, we must look beyond any promise of tax break

Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Saint Paul wrote those words in prison.

He must have been seeing many things that were far from wonderful or commendable. He must have been pretty fed up and depressed at times, but day by day he lifted up his soul to something higher.

I’m not writing this from prison, but I can still get fed up from time to time.

Perhaps it’s the relentless diet of ‘election fever’ that appears in the first half of every news programme, the first pages of our newspapers.

And to what effect? I talk to young people, eager to exercise their vote for the first time, yet struggling to find any political vision that really resonates with them, any picture of the nation and its future that really motivates them deep down.

One party might offer a few pounds off tuition fees, but can they be trusted?

Others reach out to this or that group in society, offering titbits that might swing a vote here or there, but it’s hardly inspiring, is it?

As the recent House of Bishops statement on the election put it, 'unless a political vision emerges which reaffirms the bonds which tie us together as a nation, as localities, as communities and as neighbours, we shall be left with the spectacle of politicians claiming more and more powers and yet achieving less and less that is worthwhile… Our country is hungry for a new approach to political life that will change the political weather as decisively as did the administrations of 1945 and 1979.

We need a new political story that will enable the people of Britain to articulate who they are, what they want to become and how they will work together to live virtuously as well as prosperously.’ It’s an excellent paper and well worth reading.

Visit churchofengland.org/media/2170230/whoismyneighbour-pages.pdf to see it in full.

It includes quotes from all sides of the political debate.

This one from a Conservative politician who lived in the Diocese of Oxford in Victorian times, Benjamin Disraeli: “We have become two nations between whom there is no mixing and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets.

“The rich and the poor.”

He could have been speaking about today, when the levels of inequality can feel painfully wide, not least in our own city of Oxford with all its intellectual and material wealth, and yet containing some of the most deprived parishes in the whole of the Thames Valley.

Political slogans and quickly made promises from any side will not heal the divisions that are growing.

But neither will cynicism and apathy.

I believe It is the duty of all of us, of any faith or no faith, who want a better world for ourselves, all in need, and all who come after us, to explore the options and to vote responsibly.

It may be have to be a vote for something less than a vision that inspires us, buts its still important.

This may be an election which confirms people in cynicism and despair and sows seeds of conflict, unrest and division. I profoundly hope not.

Or it could still be an election that begins to that sow the seeds from which a new narrative might emerge.

We need to pray for our politicians to have the depth and courage to speak with honesty and courage, to inspire a new generation.

It’s not easy for them, they feel they have to stay ‘on message’.

But let us like Saint Paul lift our minds to higher things.

Not to feel we can be bought off with promises of this or that tax break, but to say that this struggle for a better world will take sacrifice, endeavour and bravery.

The challenges we face are going to be huge.

It will take all that we’ve got.