Should I Vote for Ruth Whitfield – Conservative?

Unfortunately Ruth Whitfield is unable to meet with me. However, she has very helpfully outlined her views on some of the issues I asked about in my original email. Let me give you a flavour of what she said.

Ruth started off by giving me a little of her own faith background. She said, “I am a member of the Church of Scotland and my Christian faith is very important to me. I know that as a Member of Parliament I would be asked to vote on a number of issues of conscience, on which you can be assured that I would be guided by my faith.”

I think that this is encouraging. It is right that the candidates’ Christian faith should strongly impact how they vote. I suppose my concern is that the political parties tend not to be giving ‘free votes’ on all the issues of conscience that should concern a Christian. I’d really like to know the candidates response should she be faced with a choice of pleasing the party whip or standing for Christian concerns.

In relation to the Westminster Declaration 2010 Ruth said, “It is impossible to condense all of them (issues of Christian faith) into a Declaration; questions would inevitably be raised as to why some issues were included and others not, and our faith should not be simply a check list. Also the proximity of the General Election may imply a blurring of lines between the party political and the personal which I am sure you would not wish to see. So I hope you will forgive me for not signing the Westminster Declaration at this time.”

Whilst I didn’t ask Ruth to sign the Declaration, her response is instructive. I would agree that the Christian faith cannot be reduced to checklists, but it seems to me that the Westminster Declaration 2010 is an irreducible minimum, it seems to represent the absolute basics and there is much I would wish to add to it was I writing it. Indeed some Christians don’t want to sign it because it doesn’t say enough! So it seems a little coy, not to want to sign it. I also feel that I really do want to see the blurring of lines between the party political and the personal! It is a living, breathing, thinking, feeling person that we will be electing and I want them to be personal people in the political process. I don’t want them to be able separate how they think and feel from how they vote!

I was extremely heartened by Ruth’s comments on the place of Christianity in UK society. She said, “Our Christian heritage is integral to the United Kingdom; it is not possible to understand our history or society without knowledge of it, nor to appreciate today’s society without respecting its values. If elected I hope to play my part in asserting these values which mean so much to you and me, which will certainly include freedom of speech, freedom of worship and freedom to associate.”

On the basis of this statement, I’ve email Ruth back to ask if she would be prepared to make the pledge that if elected she will, “respect, uphold and protect the right of Christians to hold and express Christian beliefs and act according to Christian conscience”. I’ll let you know what the response is!

Well there you go our first response from a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Airdrie and Shotts! I’d like to take this opportunity to offer my sincere thanks to Ruth Whitfield for taking the time to respond to my email and for sharing with me her thoughts on some of the matters that are important to me in the run up to this general election.

I’m meeting the Lib Dem candidate tomorrow morning and still trying to sort out a date with the SNP candidate. Despite sending emails I’ve had no contact from the Labour candidate, so if any of you see her out and about, tell her I’d like a chat with her. That’s all folks!