What a Liberal Democrat PM’s Christmas message might say

After the mild controversy about the PM’s Christmas Message, and Jeremy Corbyn’s lack of one, I wondered what a Lib Dem PM’s Christmas Message might look like. This is what I came up with:

Britain is a country of many nations, of many cultures and of many faiths. But I do believe that as we celebrate Christmas, a deep-lying common faith that unites us all rises to the fore. It is a faith that unites Christians and Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus, Theists and Atheists. It is a faith in us. A faith in our capacity to build a national community here, on this island nation we call home, in which we all belong, and of which we can all take immense pride.

As one year turns to the next, my government will continue to work tirelessly to help you build that Britain. We shall approach the New Year with the same belief as we have the previous; that by empowering individuals to fulfil their greatest hopes and dreams, we can leave behind the Britain where our freedom to be who we ought to be is shackled by poverty, ignorance or conformity. We pledge to work for all those who celebrate Christmas this year with tears of frustration in their eyes, for whom our system is not working. To all those families celebrating Christmas in temporary housing, or those sleepless parents who’ve worried if their low pay check would stretch far enough this month, or those who have been bullied this year for the person that they were born to be, we are in your corner, we pledge to be your government.

But the challenges we face are not limited to our shores, and in a world where the forces of chaos and of division wage war against tolerance and freedom everywhere, Britain must be a beacon of hope in a darkening world. I wish I could tell you another story, of the onward march of liberty throughout the world. But instead I must emphasise that our national mandate, to take a nation dividing itself along imaginary lines and turn it into a community of equals, is of the most unimaginable importance. But we cannot do that without hope.

So at this Christmas time, I urge Britons of all persuasions to find hope in the morals and values of the Christmas story. I believe that we can all, regardless of whether you do identify with the Christian faith or, like myself, do not, benefit at this uncertain moment in human history from taking heed of the humane morals of Jesus Christ, of searching for the love within ourselves and using that as our driving force towards a world of peace. And beyond the morals, we should take inspiration from the wider story of Christmas, that of a divine child born in a manger in Bethlehem, who would face the darkness in his world from his first day to his last, and never falter in seeking and cultivating the goodness in all humanity, with the purpose of building a world fit for the divine.

Merry Christmas to all.

* Guy Russo was the Parliamentary Candidate in Enfield North at the General Election and is an Ex-President of the Queen Mary University of London Liberal Democrats.

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