Political demise may be inevitable, but it isn’t a sign of end times

Is there is something of the end times about our government, asks George Pitcher? And if so, what does this say about God’s created order? 

For governing parties, there comes a time when the end is nigh, about which there’s a kind of inevitability. It happened with John Major’s jurisdiction in the 90s. For all his attempts to rally Tory nostalgia for a golden era and re-implement “family values” under his Back to Basics banner, the rising tide of sleaze signalled defeat was at hand. Even for the most competent prime minister, allegations that his Treasury chief secretary wore a Chelsea football strip to make love to his mistress is a sure sign that political death is imminent.

It was the same for Gordon Brown and Labour at the end of the Noughties. Even a very competent response to the global financial meltdown was no match for public perceptions of the malodorous miasma emanating from the MPs’ expenses scandal, despite it not being Brown’s fault.