Highlighting the needy, with Anthony Bernard.

Exmouth Journal: Exmouth Community Food Larder manager Anthony Bernard.Exmouth Community Food Larder manager Anthony Bernard. (Image: Archant)

A reader asked if my imagined Heavenly Host is steering global events.

There is no evidence, but some things do work out against the odds.

This raised the question as to what each of us would be calling for if we were allowed in the committee's back row alongside Gabriel and his trumpet.

This picturing of the Heavenly Host, like unruly images of Parliament, is not intended to be upsetting on Earth or Above, but helps a human mind describe things.

Now we have just two candidates for Tory leader and PM we can also think what we want to promote.

Having watched a candidate persevering on TV against an interviewer trying to assert his own perception, is the media trying to steer events?

Do you remember the James Bond film in which Carver attempts world domination through manipulating news?

Democracy delivers power to the majority; the media prints stories to maximise sales.

Archangel Gabriel, at the back of the committee, does not respond to any majority; if the trumpet blasts it will be to assert what is right and what is needed.

An American bumper sticker observed "this life is only a test, if this were your real life you would have had better instructions."

What instructions do we hear, whether Christian, Moslem, Hindu, Budhist or humanist? The most urgent problems concern minorities, not the voting majority.

The rich and powerful like to have their own way, whether newspaper moguls, union bosses financial wizards or politicians!! We have Care in the Community needing better support while railway workers, whose unions are feeling strong, strike for additional pay.

My dream is that railway workers go on strike in support of the NHS and care sector, returning trains to normal only when those lower down the food chain are better paid.

My nightmare is that the NHS and care sector themselves go on strike, leaving it to friends and relatives to tend patients with food, bed-pans and other needs.

That would be no worse than many impoverished countries where doctors just provide medication and carry out minor surgery.

The problem is the strong look after themselves, the weak get left behind.

So what do we wish for? What would we encourage Gabriel to shout about?

An end to Russian aggression in Ukraine would be high on our list; controlling greed in the housing sector would help local issues plus more money to enhance recruitment to the NHS and community care.

Global warming must be important; if that continues unchecked all other issues become insignificant.

Energy consuming developed economies push climate in the wrong direction, economic failure would be a disaster now, but global warming is a worse disaster for the future of our children and grandchildren.

Maybe Gabriel is already trumpeting these points, but Archangel Michael reminds us yet again that The Creator's ways are not human ways, as reported in Isaiah chapter 55.

It is down to us earthlings, as the humanists have been pointing out all along.

So what do we want from our next Prime Minister? There is a big majority in Parliament, whereas our chums in France, Germany, Italy and the USA all have fractured and muddled politics. Competing economic theories will not avoid the worldwide reality that living is becoming more expensive, while life itself is becoming much too cheap in countries with war and famine.

We need to set the tone, with strong leadership on Global Warming, worldwide values and human equalities