Comment on elections

The European Parliament elections was a humbling experience for Labour. People disillusioned in the wake of the expenses scandal, disgusted at the lack of morality in politics and genuine astonishment at Gordon Brown's apparent presence on another planet in assessing his own position as prime minister were all factors in Labour's worst result for a generation and for a low turnout across the board. Both in the county council and European elections, you had parties winning seats with less votes than they achieved last time out.

Unfortunately for us pro-life Christians, the last thing on the electorate's mind was concern about the European Union's promotion of abortion and reproductive healthcare both in this continent and beyond or the decline in Christian values in Europe. That is except a small (but sizable) minority who made a point by voting for the Christian Party, including me.

While Labour came third in the election, the Christian Party came eighth. They received a total of 249,493 votes - 1.6 per cent of votes cast. They fielded candidates in all regions in Britain, the first time a Christian party had done this.

The party, a coalition of the Christian People's Alliance and the Christian Party, promised in its manifesto to oppose moves to impose abortionism on newer member states. They say: "Easy access to abortion in Britain has led to increased exploitation of women, not their 'liberation'. Abortion violates the dignity and integrity of women. It leaves a trail of anger, guilt, resentment, depression and loss of self-respect. Whenever we act or speak, we pledge to do so without judging or condemning any individual, especially not any woman who has been involved in abortion."

They add: "Our aim is to end the intentional conception of human embryos, including cloning and by IVF, so that they may be killed for their parts. There are other ways of finding stem cells for medical research that are not morally and ethically questionable."

Whatever your views on whether Christians should form their own political movement, you can't deny that for Catholics this manifesto is appealing. I'm not telling people how to vote. I'm not saying I accept everything approach they make to every issue. They were pretty obsessed with helping to keep the British National Party out of London (something that they have claimed to have done) as opposed to fully focussing on putting their policies out there. But you've got to admit, no party since the Pro-Life Alliance stood a few years ago has a positive, pro-life message.

It is encouraging, therefore, to learn that 1.6 per cent of the electorate who bothered to vote in the UK this time around put their cross next to a Christian party. This sends a small, but strong message to those vehement secularists who want to see Christians and Christian values out of public life and their religious practices confined to privacy.

The most noticeable headline has been the concerning news about two European Parliament seats being won by the British National Party. Moves towards European integration after the end of the Second World War were made for the precise reason of uniting against extremist nationalism that had resulted in the extermination of six million people executed by the Nazis. The first move to unite the continent in friendliness was by the setting up of the European Coal and Steel Community which was followed by the creation of the European Economic Community in 1957.

Now, the European Union has power to make laws and has a directly elected parliament. Last week, a neo-Nazi party won two seats in that legislature. The original intention behind those who sought European integration has been quite clearly contradicted. This surely puts a large question mark over the future of the European Union as we know it?