Theresa May replaces David Cameron as Prime Minister and forms a new Government - but what will her leadership be like?
It used to be said that "a week is a long time in politics" – now political change is measured by the hour! The incredible changes that have taken place in the past three weeks since the Referendum have left the whole country breathless. The political landscape at Westminster has been turned upside-down. Only Jeremy Corbyn remains unchanged (at the time of writing!)!
It is really sad to see the tumultuous upheavals in the Labour Party at a time when we need to have a strong Opposition in order to make democracy work. Government should always be challenged when proposed legislation is under consideration. A strong and effective Opposition ensures such scrutiny for the good of the whole country. It ensures that we are not being ruled by a one-party system that favours those already in power.
Not Just the Privileged Few
The new Government being set up by Prime Minister Theresa May signals a wholesale change from David Cameron's Government, which was often accused of being a posh boys club. May's inaugural statement on reaching Downing Street said "The Government I lead will be driven not by the interests of the privileged few, but by yours."1 This was a brave statement for an incoming Tory Prime Minister, and sounded more like the sort of thing that Harold Wilson or Jim Callaghan would have said.
Theresa May's new Government signals a wholesale change from David Cameron's.
In the same speech she had signalled her intention of working for social equality.
That means fighting against the burning injustice that, if you're born poor, you will die on average 9 years earlier than others. If you're black, you're treated more harshly by the criminal justice system than if you're white. If you're a white, working-class boy, you're less likely than anybody else in Britain to go to university.
If you're at a state school, you're less likely to reach the top professions than if you're educated privately. If you're a woman, you will earn less than a man. If you suffer from mental health problems, there's not enough help to hand. If you're young, you'll find it harder than ever before to own your own home.2
It may be that Mrs May has been impacted by the biblical values that she would have heard many times in her childhood from her Anglican clergyman father. Biblical values always favour the poor and powerless because they are based upon the two central values of love and justice that are part of the nature of God. Of course, it's part of our human nature to prefer love to justice, but if we wish to be righteous in the eyes of God we have to embrace both: we cannot have one without the other.
Our new Prime Minister has signalled her concern for those who are not the favoured ones enjoying the fruit of prosperity and good health: those who need assistance to enable them to achieve their full potential and contribute to society. A society that cares for its weaker members in biblical terms is 'a just society'. That is the kind of society that God blesses with peace and prosperity.
Our new PM has signalled her concern for the poor and powerless in our society – has she been influenced by biblical values?
A Transformed Future?
The prophets in the Bible roundly condemned those who misused their power to oppress others and gain personal advantage. Amos berated those who "oppress the righteous and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts" he said that God would not even listen to their worship or their prayers. "Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never failing stream!" (Amos 5:12, 23-24).
If Theresa May has appointed men and women to her Cabinet who share a commitment to lead Britain out of the entanglement of EU laws and regulations – re-enacting those that are just and righteous, and discarding those that are not – the future for Britain could be totally transformed in the next decade. It could become a land of peace and prosperity in a world of inequality which would be a model for other nations.
The Seeds of Destruction
The new PM comes to power at what keen observers see as the most difficult and threatening time since the days of World War II. The tensions in Europe are growing daily with increasing social unrest in many nations within the European Union, where inequality and poverty are the daily lot of millions and the financial crisis and austerity policies are impacting unfairly upon the poor. Far right parties are vying for power – a recipe for revolution; while the banks in Italy, Portugal, Spain and France are struggling and Deutsche Bank in Germany is heavily exposed to all of them.
May comes to power at what is the most difficult and threatening time since the days of World War II.
You don't have to be a Marxist to see that Marx was right when he said that capitalism contains within itself the seeds of its own destruction – what he didn't say was that those seeds are greed and corruption. America is engulfed in election fever, faced with the choice between a 'corrupt' Democrat and a 'lunatic' Republican (that's how they describe each other!) so the future looks highly uncertain.
Both Europe and America, bastions of Western civilisation, are coming apart at the seams while the Islamic world continues to tear itself apart with increasing violence in the Middle East. Tensions are growing between Russia and the West: and in the Far East China's ambitions to take possession of all the islands in the South China Sea and North Korea's nuclear ambitions pose a very real threat of war.
Everything That Can Be Shaken...
If we add to all this political and social instability the effects of climate change, drought and famine, storms and floods, hurricanes and earthquakes – the only conclusion is that the world is highly unstable and the biblical prophecies are coming true. We are indeed seeing God shaking everything in the world of nature and among the nations. The prophecy of Haggai 2:6-7 is being fulfilled in our lifetime – "This is what the Lord Almighty says: in a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations".
Surely it is time for Christians to seek the Lord to discover why God is shaking everything and what he is saying to his people today. Maybe this is the time when Britain can truly become a nation used by God – a nation founded upon biblical values of love and justice and exercising a powerful influence for good in the highly unstable world that faces us.
Wise word for the week -
"History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely when they have exhausted all the alternatives." – Abba Eban (Israeli diplomat)3
References
1 Statement from the new Prime Minister Theresa May. Prime Minister's Office, 13 July 2016.
2 Ibid.
3 Quoted in The Week, 7 July 2016.