What does the UKIP factor tell us?
The three main parties are losing the confidence of the people. In a recent entry in his blog Douglas Carswell said: “We are governed by tiny cliques, each competing to sit on the sofa in Downing Street - and none of them much in tune with the country over which they preside.”
For Douglas Carswell to win Clacton with a majority of over 12,000 and some 60 per cent of the vote, and for UKIP to come within 600 or so votes of victory at Heywood and Middleton, shows that the party can challenge both the Conservatives and Labour in seats that they previously saw as safe.
For UKIP to win its first MP is a breakthrough moment in modern political history. His victory can truthfully be called historic: the main parties are losing the confidence of voters.
We are living with a political and media class (reflected even in the leadership of our State church) that has become used to power, assuming that it knows what is best for the people. The rise of UKIP has, therefore, caught it unaware; it finds itself perplexed about the rise of UKIP. It can hardly fathom it because it had become so comfortable.
Whatever we feel about UKIP we see that what it demonstrates is the fact that a whole swathe of people feel disconnected and unrepresented by the existing political elite. Furthermore, there is nothing to distinguish between the party hierarchies. They are all peddling a secular, liberal atheistic agenda which is destructive to our nation.
At Christian Concern we reach 80000 supporters (and many more thousands who believe what we believe).The Conservative Party has fewer than 100,000 members - two movements that differ very little in size.
At Christian Concern we believe passionately in the protection of life, the natural family, free speech and all Truth that is found supremely in Jesus Christ. All of this is under attack by our current political elite.
But here is the choice that faces UKIP – will it connect with and represent those who are concerned for social institutions and social fabric beyond the individual and the State – or will it become another individualist libertarian party parading in a different uniform? That is its test.
Douglas Carswell’s voting record shows support for the natural family and protections for those who believe in it. Douglas Carswell's first memories were of Uganda under the rule of the brutal dictator Idi Amin. “If you grow up in a country where arbitrary rule leads to the total ruin of society, the suppression of free markets leads to the collapse of living standards, of course you're going to grow up a libertarian,” he has said.
At Christian Concern we believe that the answer is not in libertarianism but in a political system based on the beauty and order of God's perfect instructions for living found in His living word. This is good for all and has served our nation well.
How are Christians going to find their voice in the changing political landscape? We have numbers and networks; we have the reason for living and the way in which to live perfectly prescribed.
How shall we call a nation back to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? How now shall we live?
By Andrea Williams
