Julian Mann: Is 'rock star political leadership' to blame for the collapse in party membership?

Julian Mann is vicar of the Parish Church of the Ascension, Oughtibridge, South Yorkshire.

Is there a link between professional politicians' attitude to public service and collapsing party membership?

There was much soul-searching in 1993 when Conservative Party membership fell below 500,000. Many Conservative activists, both politicians and volunteers, could remember the days in the early 1950s when there were nearly three million party members. The remnant of that generation of thriving involvement now belongs to a national political party with fewer than 180,000 members in 2013.

It is patronising to tell them that many of their peers joined the party in the austeer post-war period for the balls and dances because these elderly members remember the practical campaigning advantages of a base of active volunteers that was considerably larger than it is now.  It is even more patronising to accuse them of being stuck in the past because a shrinking volunteer base hardly augurs well for the future of the cause they have served unpaid for many decades. It is hardly progressive politics to haemorrhage members unless one harbours the thought that the modernised few are no longer the 'nasty party'.

The older generation of Conservative volunteers is entitled to ask: what is it about the current generation of professional politicians that is failing to inspire volunteer activists? That is not to claim that politicians are entirely to blame for early 21st century apathy and selfish disengagement - what one might call the 'whatever' attitude - in wider British society. But it is to raise the possibility that politicians with little sense of being public servants - what one might 'rock star politicians' - are morally unable to motivate volunteer activists.

Julian Mann: A Christian argument for cutting the higher rate of tax

Julian Mann is vicar of the Parish Church of the Ascension, Oughtibridge, South Yorkshire

The socialist cleric, avowedly old Labour, who led the seminar on faith and politics at our diocesan development day was rather taken back when I expressed support for the return of capital punishment. When I argued in favour of lowering the higher rate of tax, the consternation among this assembly of Anglicans was even greater.

Is there a Christian-based moral argument for cutting the higher rate of tax? I would like to try to advance one.

As an Anglican Christian deeply concerned about the morally corrosive effect of long-term unemployment, I would argue that there is an urgent need to encourage a culture of risk-taking and entrepeneurship in the United Kingdom in order to create jobs. If such an enterpeneurial culture allows some people to become as rich as former Prime Minister Tony Blair or former Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, then that is an expected outcome in a society where income is perceived as belonging in the first instance to the earner, with the state having the general right to levy taxes.

Julian Mann: Following Louise Mensch MP's example, anyone accepting an honour should affirm the criminalisation of drugs

Julian Mann is vicar of the Parish Church of the Ascension, Oughtibridge, South Yorkshire.

Every parent of teenagers in the United Kingdom should be thankful for the way in which Louise Mensch MP communicated her moral abhorrence of illegal drugs, fuelled by her past experience of taking them as a young person.

Appearing on BBC Question Time alongside John Lydon, who under the alias 'Johnny Rotten' was the lead singer of a 1970s punk rock band, the Conservative MP for Corby captured the moral high ground with her candour, denounced a soul-destroying activity against which the authorities should be taking more vigorous punitive action and thus performed a public service.

This went way beyond her reaction last year. Confronted by an investigative journalist claiming he had evidence of an occasion in a night club when she had taken illegal drugs in the 1990s, she admitted the incident was 'highly probable' and made a remark about youthful indiscretion. On Question Time she stated her sincere regret that she had 'messed with her brain' by taking Class A drugs and argued eloquently for their continuing criminalisation.  No Clintonesque slipperiness there.

It is no co-incidence that the drug culture in the UK mushroomed as our nation de-Christianised. The spiritual vacuum left by the ebbing tide of Christian faith has been filled with nasty, mind-destroying chemical substances. 

Julian Mann: Jesus and the GCSE generation

Julian Mann has been vicar of the Parish Church of the Ascension, Oughtibridge, South Yorkshire since 2000. Before getting ordained he was a reporter for Retail Week. He is married to Lisa and they have four teenage sons.

A survey of Christian knowledge in a local community has exposed disturbing ignorance of the basics in teenagers of the GCSE generation.

The 'Jesus Survey' is an idea that originates in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney as an unthreatening form of evangelism. It involves asking respondents a series of factual questions about Jesus with the offer of a copy of a canonical Gospel at the end of the interview.

I have adapted the survey for use in the South Yorkshire parish where I serve as an Anglican vicar and have been asking non church-going parishioners who they thought Jesus was historically, what his message was, whether it differed from that of other religious teachers such as Muhammed or Buddha and finally why they thought Jesus got killed.