My 16 year old son Danny is really into politics. He and some friends have started a youtube channel Politics Simplified which aims to explain political processes and ideas to young people.
Here is one of their videos about the First Past the Post voting system:
Recently, they also went to Parliament to interview the long-serving and highly respected Labour MP, Stephen Timms, who represents East Ham, one of the most deprived parts of London.
Timms is a committed Christian. In light of some of the difficulties that the Christian politician Tim Farron had, Danny asked Timms if his faith has made it easier or harder to be a politician. As part of his reply Timms said:
“I believe that religious faith is a very good starting point for politics because it’s the source of exactly the values we need to make politics work; responsibility, solidarity, patience, persistence, compassion, truthfulness. Without these politics does not work and one reason politics has struggled in recent years is because these values have been eroded.
So where can we renew these values from? Well, the best source we have is the churches, and the mosques, the temples and the synagogues. I would like more people with a clear starting point of a religious faith getting involved, getting stuck into the debates and arguments and influencing the way things happen. So its not been a drawback for me being a committed Christian, probably in some ways the reverse.’
Watch their interview with Stephen Timms MP here:
Grace + Truth 
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