It’s the Monday after the General Election and I had thought that today’s post could steer away from the political world. After all, we normally have a new government in place by now in the UK and the Monday papers would merely comment on who got what in the Cabinet.  Things are different this time, though – reflecting the confusion in the minds of the electorate. Of course, here in Wales, like Scotland, we’re getting used to parties having to work together to form a stable administration with the top-up system of proportional representation ensuring that one party will never get an overall majority in either country again.

The benefit of such a system is surely clear: it is fair – parties get the number of seats that reflects their popular vote. And it also produces stable governments – as can be seen here in the One Wales team of Labour and Plaid Cymru. It’s even possible to get stability with a minority government as we can see with the SNP in Scotland. It merely takes some willingness to compromise and cooperate – two characteristics that are sadly lacking in the UK parliament.

So why are the two big parties so unwilling to push some measure of PR through the House of Commons? Though there are individuals within both parties who are advocating change, it would appear that the majority will hold out against it for as long as they are able. Why? Simply because of power – having to cooperate with another party means your party will have less power. PR leads to no one having an overall majority – again a weakening of the parties’ power. And the appetite for power would appear to blind these parties to any sense of fairness and justice. It seems obvious to most of us outside the main parties or outside politics altogether that PR of some kind is the only fair way of choosing our representatives, but if you’re within the system that gives you so much power, then blindness to fairness seems to set in.

Is this appetite for power merely a characteristic of non-Christian politicians? No, sadly not. There are many Christians who engage with the political process merely to get their hands on power in order to restore the so-called Christian heritage of the UK. Here in Wales we had the Welsh Christian Party standing in many seats, including a candidate on Anglesey – and a thoroughly decent and honourable man he was. But their programme (much of which I do not disagree with) is based upon gaining power – or applying pressure on those with power – in order to change the moral condition of the country. But history teaches us very clearly that power is a corrupting influence – for those with faith as much for those without.

When God came in Jesus to sort out the mess we had made of his creation, he did so not by being all-powerful, but by becoming weak and powerless. The willingness to humbly serve – even to endure the cross – is surely a key value we as Christians need to find if we are to engage (as we should) in politics.

Ironically, it may be that because the appetite for power is so great within the Tory Party currently that their leadership may give a little ground on PR in order to secure government with the Lib Dems. The next few days will not only be fascinating – but potentially crucially important too.