In the regular opinion polls that appear in the media about the conduct and effectiveness of politicians - whether at local or national level - the issue of trust is invariably mentioned by those responding. In recent years trust in politicians has declined markedly, the assumption being that anyone wishing to take up elected office is doing so merely in order to board a gravy train to lifelong comfort.
My own view is that most people who seek to become elected representatives at local, regional or national level do so because they are sincerely motivated to serve their communities, not because they are seeking to enrich themselves. Nor are most politicians addicted to scoring points off their opponents: the absurd posturing seen at Prime Minister's Question Time each week is not typical of the broadly constructive approach of politicians in the House of Commons to political difference, or of the way in which most elected representatives conduct their affairs in regional and local councils throughout the country. Politicians, like the rest of us, need to earn respect; but the bar should not be set so high that it is designed to trip all of them up and thus allow us unthinkingly, and gleefully, to decry their behaviour.

In the UK there are Christians active in all of the mainstream political parties, not least at St. Edmund's, and it is right for Christians to pray for all politicians irrespective of our own political convictions. In doing do we are not compromising our conscience but acting in accordance with the great generosity of spirit urged by Paul in his first letter to Timothy (which will be heard during our Eucharists in September) when he asked that 'petitions, prayers, requests and thanksgivings be offered to God for all people; for kings and all others who are in authority…'