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Thursday 9 April

Thursday 9 April

'Our willingness to come together as a nation like this has been has been dormant for too long'. I heard these words some days ago as I was drifting from the living room into my study. The speaker was a well-known politician of national stature. As I reflected on his words I recalled that it was only a few short months ago that the goings on in the House of Commons were rude and rowdy, intemperate and intolerant, with the norm being Honourable and Right Honourable Members delighting in trying to hack metaphorical lumps out of each other.

What a difference a pandemic makes!

Right across the political spectrum our MPs are vying with each other to make the most conciliatory noises. Conflict is out, co-operation is emphatically in. It is not quite a government of national unity, but across the whole country and across all parties we are making common cause to defeat the foe. Who knows, it could be a way of looking at our relationships which might survive the current awfulness ...

There is, of course, an appropriate prayer. It first saw the light of day at a seaside party political conference in the late nineteen nineties,

God of love and peace,
who through the meekness and
humility of your incarnate Son,
brought healing and reconciliation to the world
by His death on the cross:
grant to us your children
the grace of trust in place of suspicion,
a generous spirit over hardness of heart,
and a will to pursue the common good
in the service of one another;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Bob Munro