But why bother standing?

As I write this blog, one of our neighbours is anxiously awaiting the vote count at the Burscough Wellbeing and Leisure Hub. This is her first foray into local politics, and I called round last week simply to thank her for standing as our local councillor.

For to stand for public office today is to raise your head well above the parapet. It can mean facing abuse, hostility, and even the threat of physical violence. As Security Minister Dan Jarvis has warned, harassment and intimidation of candidates is not just unpleasant politics; it is “a direct attack on our democracy.”

So why bother standing?

Each summer at the New Wine conference, Andy Flannagan, the then Director of Christians on the Left, would turn up to give a seminar. An Irishman, he had formerly been a hospital doctor before becoming involved in justice campaigning and politics — strangely enough, through his songwriting.

However, his aim was not to persuade us all to become socialists, but to encourage us to become politically involved: to join the party we had last voted for, and then get involved..

His point was that if we actually turned up for regular party meetings and read the notes — both of which are apparently something of a rarity — we would soon find ourselves being nominated for public office. For the sad reality is that nowadays few people join political parties, and very few are active in any meaningful way.

As it happens, one year Andy read out a letter from someone who had attended his seminar the previous year. She had been inspired to join her political party and had just been elected to her County Council — hilariously, not as a member of the Labour Party, but as a Tory. We all laughed.

However, the basic truth remains: we need people of integrity to lead our government and councils. What counts above all is character, and then competence and clarity of vision.

So what about charisma — that elusive extra ingredient that seems to set some people apart?

I am currently reading an excellent biography of Clem Attlee: Citizen Clem by John Bew. Now, it is possible that you have never heard of Clem Attlee, and yet he is probably the most significant peacetime Prime Minister we have ever had.

Attlee, a barrister, served as Churchill’s Deputy Prime Minister during the Second World War and then, following Labour’s landslide election victory in 1945, unexpectedly replaced Winston Churchill as Prime Minister.

Over the next six years, his government created much of the modern welfare state. Its achievements included the founding of the National Health Service in 1948, the major expansion of social security, large-scale house building, the nationalisation of key industries, and the implementation of the Beveridge Report’s vision of protection “from cradle to grave.”

Attlee also presided over a changing world. His government granted independence to India and Pakistan in 1947, managed the early post-war economic crisis, supported the creation of NATO, and began Britain’s adjustment from empire to a different international role.

It was a huge legacy — and yet Attlee lacked obvious personal presence. He was often belittled and frequently underrated. Even so, his period of office changed Britain culturally as well as politically.

Attlee’s reputation has grown with time. He was not a charismatic leader in the obvious sense. He was modest, dry, disciplined and, above all, a team player who gave talented colleagues wide scope.

Here, he personified the quote attributed to his contemporary, President Harry S. Truman, with whom he had an excellent relationship: “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit.”

Attlee was driven by a deep seriousness about the needs of ordinary people. This — and not personal ambition — was what drove him, despite all the knocks and setbacks of political life.

As a result, Attlee’s government changed Britain profoundly. His life is a reminder that leadership does not always depend on glamour. Sometimes it rests on character, competence and clarity of purpose. An example to us all.

And surely this speaks deeply to us as Christians. Jesus never called his disciples to seek status, applause or personal advancement. He called them to serve. “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,” he said. That is a very different model of leadership from the one our culture often celebrates.

The Christian calling is not to withdraw from public life in order to keep ourselves unstained by the world, but to enter it with humility, courage and grace.

Politics will always be imperfect, because people are imperfect. But councils, parliaments and public bodies still matter, because the decisions made there affect housing, health, education, transport, safety and the care of the vulnerable.

So perhaps we should pray not only for “better politicians” in some vague general sense, but for more people of character to step forward — people willing to listen, to learn, to serve and, when necessary, to take the knocks.

My neighbour may or may not be elected today. But she has already done something important. She has cared enough to stand.

And for that, whatever the result, she deserves our thanks and hopefully a seat on the West Lancashire Borough Council.