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GENERAL ELECTION 2005 – HOW WILL YOU VOTE?

  • The Lawyers Christian Fellowship has put together some facts and questions on some of the issues of particular concern to Christians, which you may find helpful in quizzing your local candidates during the current election campaign.
  • CFN would not by any means consider this to be an exhaustive list, as many key issues such as poverty, asylum seekers, education, crime and justice, the health service, the environment, debt relief and others are not included, but on the subjects covered these may prove helpful.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS

The government has recently failed in an attempt to introduce legislation to outlaw “incitement to religious hatred”, a measure which has the potential to curtail the freedom of speech of Christians. We are particularly concerned about the freedom to preach the Gospel. The current proposal within the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill has now been dropped but it is likely to be re-introduced at some time as the present Government is committed to it.

Ask your candidates:

  • Would you support proposals to criminalise “incitement to religious hatred” if they were introduced again?

THE SANCTITY OF LIFE

Abortion

According to the Office of National Statistics, approximately 180,000 abortions are performed each year in England and Wales under the Abortion Act 1967. Since the introduction of that Act, around six million abortions have been performed in Britain. The 1967 Act permits abortion up to birth on a seriously disabled baby. Abortions have taken place at later than 30 weeks gestation where the baby suffers from an abnormality that is no more serious than a cleft palate.

Ask your candidates:

  • Would you vote for the repeal of the Abortion Act 1967?
  • Would you vote in support of David Steel’s call for the upper time limit on all abortions to be lowered to 12 weeks?
  • Do you think that the law should allow the abortion of a disabled unborn baby on grounds such as cleft palate, up to birth?

Human Cloning

This is a critical issue about which Christians seem little informed. This issue goes to the heart of what it means to be ‘formed in the image of God’. We need to be awakened to the implications of making and experimenting on human life. We live in a world where it is becoming normal to talk of human cloning, baby selection and designer human beings.

Last year, the first UK human cloning licence was granted, authorising the creation, manipulation and destruction of human embryos under the guise of ‘therapeutic research’. Such research has yielded no success. Ethically accepted adult stem-cell research has been much more successful.

A second UK cloning licence was granted earlier this year, just weeks before the United Nations adopted a declaration calling for a worldwide ban. The UK Government said that it would ignore any attempt to curtail human cloning research.

Ask your candidates:

  • Would you support a call for a ban on all forms of human cloning?

Euthanasia

The House of Lords Select Committee considering the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, which would legalise physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, were divided on the issue of whether or not the law in this area should be changed. However they recommended that the issue be debated as early as possible after the election. Furthermore the Mental Capacity Bill, which has just completed its parliamentary stages, has potential to bring in euthanasia by the back door by creating a social and political climate where withdrawal of treatment (including withdrawal of fluids and nutrition) following an advance decision to refuse treatment is seen as beneficial to the patient.

Ask your candidates: 

  • Would you vote against legalising suicidally-motivated advance decisions and against the removal of food and fluid from a patient with the deliberate intention of killing the patient?
  • Do you support the Royal College of Nurses and the British Medical Association in their opposition to the introduction of Dutch-style euthanasia laws?

MARRIAGE, FAMILY AND CHILDREN

In recent years we have seen the erosion and diminishing of the heterosexual marriage relationship as the norm in society.

The Gender Recognition Act 2004 has given legal recognition to a transsexual’s “acquired gender”, effectively allowing two people of the same actual gender to get married ie: allowing gay marriages in fact.

The Civil Partnerships Act 2004 has allowed same sex couples to register their relationships as civil partnerships and to enjoy all the legal rights and benefits enjoyed by heterosexual married couples. These rights are not extended to heterosexuals living together or to people of the same sex who share a home for a long period, for example two sisters.

Heterosexual marriage and the traditional notion of the family have therefore been undermined by the elevation of homosexual unions to the same status as traditional marriage.

The law currently does little to encourage the marriage relationship, but independent statistics show children of married parents have better physical and emotional health, do better at school and are less prone to crime etc (Cost of Family Breakdown, Family Matters Institute report 2000).

Ask your candidates:

  • Do you believe that the marriage relationship should be given special status in society?
  • What policies would you like to see in place which would restore the marriage relationship to its correct place in society?
  • Do you believe that the traditional marriage relationship is the best environment in which to raise children?

PROSTITUTION

Wide-ranging reform to the prostitution laws is being considered by the government in the wake of the consultation paper Paying the Price, issued by the Home Office during 2004. Suggestions within the paper included decriminalisation of activities associated with prostitution within “managed zones of toleration” for prostitution, and the legalisation of brothels. It was reported several months ago that Liverpool City Council were voting on whether it should seek permission to open the country’s first official red light zone, should they become legal.

Ask your candidates:

  • Would you support moves to decriminalise activities associated with prostitution such as soliciting and kerb-crawling?
  • Would you support the legalisation of brothels?
  • Would you be keen to see a policy of “zero tolerance” implemented in relation to activities associated with prostitution such as soliciting and kerb-crawling?
  • Would you commit funding to help women escape from selling sex for their livelihoods?
  • What policies would you put into place which would reduce the trafficking of humans into this country as part of the sex trade?

GAMBLING

The government has been proposing sweeping deregulation of the gambling industry in Britain and the creation of regional “Super Casinos” while doing nothing to restrict the availability of gambling machines in public places to children.

Ask your candidates:

  • Would you support the legalisation of “Super Casinos” in Britain?
  • What polices would you put in place to protect young people from the influence of gambling?

DRINK AND DRUGS

More than 5 million people regularly use cannabis, 3.4 million take ecstasy and 2 million use amphetamines and cocaine (Observer, ICM poll, 21 April 2002). In recent years, Cannabis has been reclassified from a Class B drug to a Class C drug. The Lambeth experiment which preceded this change led to the Chief Superintendent, Brian Moore, stating that “the centre of Brixton is a 24-hour crack supermarket”.

The number of alcohol related deaths has more than doubled since 1980 (Health Statistics Quarterly, Spring 2003, ONS). Recent legislation has changed the law to allow drinking establishments to apply for a licence to remain open 24 hours a day.

Ask your candidates:

  • How would you encourage personal responsibility in the area of drink and drugs?
  • Would you support moves to reclassify cannabis as a Class B drug?
  • What policies would you put in place to protect vulnerable individuals from the corrupting influence of drink and drugs?

Lawyers’  Christian Fellowship Public Policy Team
http://www.lawcf.org

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