Time for reflection

Every week in oor wee Parliament, the business begins with 'Time for Reflection'. A speaker is invited to give the parliamentarians something to think about, and until yesterday it has always been a religious/ spiritual worthy who has been invited to fill this slot.

Yesterday the speaker was the erstwhile MP Tony Benn. I've always admired Tony Benn (much more than the other former Labour MP 'TB'!) Benn strikes me as a man of principle, and while I don't always agree with what he says, he seems to speak from a sense of conviction. You can find his talk here. I was intrigued to find that he has connections with Irvine (where my dad was born, and I was brought up).

I liked the conclusion to his talk yesterday:

"We live at a time in history when the power of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons to destroy the human race is as never before, yet it is also a time when we have the resources, the technology, the know-how and the money to solve the problems of the human race. That is the most important choice that humanity has ever had to make, and it raises fundamental moral questions. If we are to make the right decisions, we would do well, I believe, to listen to the prophets, rather than the kings."

This was a good message to give our current crop of politicians - and the rest of us!

I wish we had more politicians like Tony Benn - sadly we don't.