John D Manwell's Blog

My grandmother who survived the bombing on Birkenhead in the 1940’s used to repeatedly tell us about my grandfather boiling snow in France in order to shave during the war. I thought of her story this Christmas morning when the water supply went off in our neighbourbood. As neighbours phoned one another to confirm that we were without one of our basic needs, people walking dogs did the unthinkable and spoke to strangers! The slight inconvenience of not being able to make a cup of tea and the possibility of having to go to friends to get some more water reminded me of the idea that the spirit of the Blitz has not completely left us.

It was the kids who suggested that we could collect snow and boil it if the water didn’t come on for a day. While all this was happening we received a call from a long term friend in Cote d’Ivoire where following the presidential elections, former president Laurent Gbago is clinging to power and the other candidate, Alassane Ouattara is also claiming victory and attempting to operate from a hotel. Our friend described conditions in Cote d’Ivoire, with banks completely closed and everyone forced to remain at home for their own safety. With the election result split and both presidential candidates claiming authority to rule, the nation is paralysed and violence is breaking out. It made our drinking water challenge seem a little embarrassing.

A short while later we received a text message from a friend in Nigeria telling us that several bombs had been detonated in Christian communities in the Jos region. This comes after years of attacks on Christian communities with little remission or support. What makes it all the more challenging is that the liberal expediency of the international media insists on calling this “communal conflict” which belies the inbalanced nature of the attacks. News later in the day let us know that at least 32 people had died today. Our friend poignantly commented, “No celebrations today.”

While we attempted to organise a Christmas dinner without running water, and to find out if Western Union could make a money transfer to Cote d’Ivoire on Christmas day, the knowledge that fellow Christians in Nigeria had lost family members today, seemed to highlight how much we live in a bubble in the developed world. Our society is caught in a debate about ‘austerity’ and public services while huge parts of the world face huge challenge to life and family. While contemplating the ‘spirit of the Blitz’ as people talked in the street it occurred to me that life goes on in the UK and the challenges we face at this point don’t mean regular threats to life.

What will it take our liberal and secular humanist society to realize that the peace and tranquility we enjoy is derived from Christian truth? If we abandon our Christian roots as a nation we will choose the society and governance that these other nations are suffering. That was what the spirit of the Blitz was about, the last time we had to seriously defend the life and culture of this nation.

John Manwell - Liverpool Walton

As I write this the House of Commons has put on display the photographs taken by the official election photographer. I was delighted to hear that the photograph of me with my symbolic shepherd’s rod has been chosen as one of the 25 exhibition photographs – one from each day of the official campaign! What a wonderful privilege, 25 photographs for the 25 days of the election campaign. How appropriate for Liverpool to be captured symbolically as the image for day 7!

Another significant coup for our campaign was that the BBC published, largely unaltered, a prophetic press release calling for the political leaders to repent of the way in which our country has been governed. (http://bit.ly/VolcanoRepentance ) The BBC election page kept the article on their front page for 3 days! I don’t think any other candidate achieved 3 day visibility on the BBC, apart from the three main party leaders. Interestingly the call to repentance was visible for the 3 days up to Gordon Brown’s humiliating public ‘repentance’ after calling Mrs Gillian Duffy a ‘bigot’. Who says there is no God?

One of the key goals of our election campaign was to remind everyone in the constituency that there is a God. Our election leaflet was intentionally a clear reminder that God cares about our nation and that our Christian heritage should not be thrown away. If we continue to absorb the secular lie that our Christian past is best forgotten, it will surely follow that our society will continue to decay and ultimately collapse. Great Britain has been leading the world in the abandonment of our national Christian identity. As we head for a crisis, we must reverse this trend. Our leaflet was very well received by those we spoke to and copies were delivered to all 55,000 households in the constituency! A real success.

The image chosen for the House of Commons official record of the election campaign seems far more significant than the number of votes we won. For the record, the image for the 7^th day of the election is a Christian campaigner, walking through a boarded up street, with Anfield football stadium dominating the skyline. The shepherd’s rod reminds us that the only hope for decaying Britain is the One True Shepherd who has been so faithful to this nation for over a thousand years.

The following three short video clips say something of my campaign for a fresh approach to politics in Liverpool.

http://bit.ly/JohnForWalton

http://bit.ly/FreshPolitics

http://bit.ly/LiverpoolGateway

The blogs below give more information about my views.

Please forward these links to as many people as you know.. … something new is happening in Walton!

http://bit.ly/JohnForWalton

http://bit.ly/FreshPolitics

http://bit.ly/LiverpoolGateway

What an interesting few days: The nation has the air space shut down because of a volcano in Iceland on the same day the main political leaders spoke on TV!

What a great reminder that God is the one who rules overall and the greatest efforts of man become insignificant against a single natural event. Maybe there are more profound as well as practical implications?

I held a meeting with interested supporters. The meeting resonated with passion, agreement that the time has come for change, and everyone must speak out. There were ideas about what is needed – ranging from a desire to get back to a sense of community, more police on the beat, and a need for politics that empowers young people and gives them hope. There was a real sense that if only the Christian community will speak out, break past traditions and allegiances, we will see a real response.

I presented three video statements.  There are now available on-line. – Please forward these links to as many people as you know.. … something new is happening in Walton!

http://bit.ly/JohnForWalton

http://bit.ly/FreshPolitics

http://bit.ly/LiverpoolGateway

I am dismayed at the widespread view that there is no real cause for alarm! It seems that most people are convinced that the economy is on the up, and that the state of our society is wobbly, but not facing a calamity.

I have realized over the years that people believe what they want to believe and do what they want to do. The British people desperately want to believe that everything is going to be OK. We have got completely used to the idea that the government is the solution and that everyone is a victim of circumstance. We have stopped believing that we are each able to make a difference.  While we continue to abdicate responsibility and leave the main political party machines to quibble over policies the real threat comes closer.

Two matters are pressing in on this nation, which should have ‘emergency status’: We have to rediscover our Christian Democratic roots and we must re-energise the nation with personal political passion.

I don’t mind arguing with people about the merits of Christian Democracy. I understand that is an argument that needs to be presented, and clearly most people don’t yet see this issue. I do think that we must sound a national alarm about the need to vote and get involved. If we don’t stimulate increasing voter engagement we are staring down a tunnel without a democracy at the end.

I am personally convinced that the re-awakening of awareness  of Christian Democracy will lead to a return to a national re-invigoration of politics in general.

Our democracy is in danger of slipping away. The British electorate are disillusioned with politicians and in every election a greater proportion of the people choose not to vote. One of the greatest services we can do for this nation as Christians in the election process is to encourage people to vote.

Please exhort your friends, work colleagues, and neighbours to make a decision to vote in the election – whoever they choose to vote for – the main thing is that we vote. The spiritual implications are huge. The extremist parties WILL benefit if a large number of people do not vote: Even a small percentage for the far right party will be portrayed as ‘success’ and a sign of growing credibility. If people choose not to vote because they feel frustrated with politics in general, we hand a gift to the extremist forces working against our country.

Let us not allow our democracy to slide away. God has given us the privilege of democracy and participating in choosing our leaders. If we despise this gift, we will offend God, and our society will slide into ever more rapid decline.

We’ve all observed the person who dashes onto the platform after the doors have closed. He appears flustered and frustrated, and we feel a mixture of sympathy and mild irritation, wondering why he did not arrive in time. As the British electoral train leaves the station, we are observing that the leaders of the three main parties have missed the train. This is not simply a matter of missed opportunity or being late, with some catching up to arrange, but rather a fundamental failure. The main political parties have missed what this election train is about, and it is now too late.

Gordon Brown, presiding over the last gasps of the Labour experiment with our society has missed the point of what is happening. The great secular endeavour has failed. This nation has centuries old Christian roots and values. The wholehearted attempt to remove the Christian pillars from our society has brought the temple down. Last minute appeals to earthy values such as “hard working families” will not recover the situation. Our government has offended the culture and basis of our nation, and the assault on the institution of family is an offence to God.

David Cameron has compromised and lost the initiative. At the heart of conservatism is the principle of holding to our national heritage. This is more than superficial patriotism, but what made our nation great. It is clear to anyone reviewing our history, that our embracing of Christian truth coincided with unparalleled influence and success for centuries. The national abandonment of our faith has likewise corresponded with collapse at home and abroad. More than ever in our history, we need to call the nation back to clear Christian distinctiveness, but David Cameron has dithered. In the desperate search for expediency he has blended some notions from our past with the toxic political correct deceptions. His increasing lack of clarity on the family and Christian uniqueness has thrown away his God given lead. He has referred to ‘Broken Britain’ but is holding back on the real truth as to why we are broken. He has instead, re-energised the secular lie. We are broken as a nation because we abandoned absolute truth, and our politicians have become too frightened to permit real debate.

Nick Clegg on behalf of the pro-European Liberal movement might start to notice that the British people are not voting for erosion of our sovereignty. The likely vote for UKIP will steal the Liberal Democrat’s base as the natural home for protest votes. Our national identity is intrinsically linked to the Christian faith and this nerve has been touched. The level of frustration amongst the people of our country at not being given a referendum on the European conspiracy is beginning to boil.

As the fog begins to lift from our secular humanist gloom, the awful reality is starting to hurt the established political parties: The train has already left, and it is too late. What we now see is the awakening of fresh politics across the nation. For years, community activitists and people with genuine convictions have been at work. Many of these will have hardly realised how things might develop, and suddenly the new landscape is visible: The rise of the British people has begun. The desperation of our moral decline combined with the hopelessness of a godless worldview has come to the end of the line. The soul of our nation is at stake, and as we stare towards a national emergency in economic and social terms, we must return to our roots.

We must return to the Judeo-Christian truth that created our civil liberty. Our survival depends on freedom to believe in the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and permission for people of all faiths to speak freely of their unique claims. Our society rests on stable family values, and it is vital that we at least give permission to those who want to argue for the pre-eminence of the traditional family. Our economy will only recover when we return to the normality of integrity and trust that springs from absolute truth and the purifying fear of God in our choices.