don't vote

Or if you do, don't let condescending hollywood actors decide for you.

things I relearnt this advent 1: pulling down the mighty

Everyone who knows me can speak of my Christmas-hatred. So it is surprising that I'm learning and relearning things this advent. Well it is to me anyway.

Last weekend we were in a church service which started off talking about God lifting up the weak, comforting the poor and pulling down the strong.

And then had songs about God having his way among us. In the midst of my charismatic-church nightmare, this disconnect seemed very stark. Is not God's way to break the strong, punish the self satisfied, take away the things from those who rob the poor?

Do we want him to do that among us? Are we ready for the pain we deserve? Will we respond in anger or will it force us into a greater appreciation and love for those in need?

What has this to do with Advent? Fantastically, all this is encapsulated in the Magnificat - Mary's song of joy. A particular bit of the bible which has been banned in some countries due to its radicalising effect.

Desmond Tutu in a recent BBC interview was talking about Christianity and politics. Others claimed that politics and religion should be kept separate, but Tutu said that the only people who said that were people who had comfortable lives and who had never needed religion to be political.

PMQ

Prime Minister's Questions are the weekly political bearpit in the British Parliament.

Today was Gordon 'Gordo' Brown's first attempt. He was rubbish.

reshuffling

According to my MP, he is going to send my recent communication to the Minister of State for the Middle East. Which seems a bit of a strange way of referring to Kim Howells, given that his responsibilities are not only the Middle East.

Kim appears to be one of the few unshuffled ministers. Still, in his ministerial team at the FCO, he has the awful Meg Munn who I met at the Co-op Congress 2006 and the unelected and unaccountable Mark Malloch Brown, who is as yet not even a member of the House of Lords.

Let us see if we get any more sense out of this crowd than we did from the last.