As we mark Remembrance Sunday once again, let us not simply remember those soldiers who gave their lives in war, important though that is, especially to their loved ones. Let us also remember what they gave their lives for - and let us strive to make our politics worthy of their sacrifice.
I have just re-watched the film Amazing Grace, for the umpteenth time, and once again am challenged, inspired, motivated and broken by it. I have devoted my life over the past decade or more to the struggle for human rights in various countries - Burma, East Timor, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, The Maldives, China and North Korea are just some. I have been enormously privileged to see witness some extraordinary victories of freedom over oppression, in East Timor and the Maldives in particular, and have had the opportunity to make a small contribution to those struggles. Yet with Burma, Pakistan, and North Korea in particular there is so, so much more to do. Watching Amazing Grace, and at the same time remembering the sacrifice of our troops in wars against tyranny and for freedom - the First and Second World Wars, the Falklands, the first Gulf War, the second Iraq war and Afghanistan - I realise once again how little I have done, how much time and money I have squandered on trivialities, and how much others have given for the cause of liberty. I wept as I reflected on the state of my own heart and priorities as I rewatched Amazing Grace, and I resolved to redouble my efforts.
Our politics has been turned into a sordid affair. The ridiculous spectacle of MPs' expenses brings shame to Parliament. The idea that MPs in Britain could claim reimbursement for duck ponds and packets of biscuits, while MPs elected in Burma in 1990 have ended up in jail or exile, consigned to torture or poverty, is more shameful than I can express. The attempt by certain MPs to defend themselves in such ludicrous ways, comparing their homes to Balmoral and accusing the electorate of jealousy, or seemingly equating the backlash against them to the Holocaust, sullies the Parliament of titans like Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and, yes, William Wilberforce. Add to the MPs' expenses the grubby expansion of spin, deceit and petty personal abuse that has prevailed under Labour over the past twelve years, and we are in grave danger of betraying the people who have given their lives for our freedom and democracy.
This Remembrance Sunday, and just a few days after November 5th, when we mark Guy Fawkes' failed attempt to blow up Parliament, let us get back to what politics should really be about. Let us remember those who gave their lives to keep our country free from Nazism, communism and radical Islamism. Let us remember those who fought in Parliament two centuries ago to end the slave trade. And let us remember those around the world who are still struggling for the freedoms we take for granted and have recently cheapened. Let us resolve to restore to politics the values that should be cherished and guarded, not soiled and compromised. Let's return to a politics of Wilberforce, in memory of those who have paid the ultimate price for freedom.
