The NHS has just published its first ever Long Term Workforce Plan, against a backdrop of huge waiting times for A&E and operations, more than 112 thousand vacancies across the NHS in England and pay strikes by multiple branches of the workforce.
It's a welcome aim to ensure that more staff are trained and retained to meet the increasing needs of an ageing population, and following the huge demands placed on the health service by the Covid pandemic.
A lack of long term planning by governments of all colours is one reason why our public services are creaking at the seams. Politicians tend to look to the next day's headlines, or the next general election, seeking quick fixes that will boost poll ratings rather than setting out strategies that might not reveal their benefits for another ten or twenty years.
It is especially difficult to justify longer term projects in the light of high inflation, a strain on personal finances and a possible recession ahead. Meanwhile private companies focus on their profit margins. We have seen this most recently with Thames Water prioritizing dividends to shareholders rather than longer term renovations to its leaky and inadequate network, and resulting in the discharge of vast amounts of sewage into our seas, rivers and lakes.
But wise leaders build for beyond their time. They do not always expect to see the outcome of their endeavours. I'm always impressed by the vision of those who built our great cathedrals. Many took decades and even centuries to build, using hundreds of craftsmen and workers, who passed their trade from one generation to the next. Milan cathedral took 577 years to complete – between 1388 and 1965!
Cathedrals were built for the glory of God, as a form of worship by Christians in past ages. Christians today should also be seeking to reflect the glory of God in the way that we steward the resources we are given. So today I want us to think about how we might pray for governments and private companies to conduct their stewardship responsibilities in ways that will benefit future generations.
Examples might include the creation of a sustainable system of social care, after governments over the last two decades have each marked it as 'too difficult' and left it for their successors to pick up. Do we really have to reach crisis point before decisions are made?
Or let's consider climate change. The costs of cutting carbon emissions, switching to clean energy, and seeking to keep the earth's temperature below a tipping point of no return, have been dodged and fudged by politicians across the globe. Yet we are seeing more and more extreme weather events as a result.
Almost every area of public policy would benefit from longer term planning. In the education system, do we want to prepare our young people to be good citizens or simply to pass exams? In energy policy, will we ever grasp the nettle of harnessing our vast reserves of tidal energy? As more and more people are displaced from their homes across the globe due to war, persecution and the changing climate, when will we be brave enough to sit down with other governments to devise a long term plan to manage and re-settle them?
We need leaders who are prepared to look for solutions to these problems, rather than constantly reacting to the symptoms, applying sticking plasters and hoping that something will turn up.
The polls tell us that people are increasingly losing hope in any politicians to fix the issues that are besetting us. After years of Brexit divisions, followed by the pandemic and the current cost of living crisis, we need to offer optimism and hope for a weary generation. And as Christians we can draw on the vast wisdom and strength that God promises those who call on him. He calls us to work with him towards the time when he will set all things right.
We've all heard of the acronym NIMBY, but perhaps the blight of political leadership is NIMTO: Mot in My Term of Office! So let's pray for God to raise up a generation of leaders for such a time as this – for those who are not affected by "NIMTO"-ism – but who are prepared to look at the details and hold conversations about the complexity and the costs, and who are able to sell the long term benefits to a population that is losing faith in everything.
Let's finish by making 2 Chronicles 7:14 our prayer for this week: "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Tim Farron has been the Member of Parliament for Westmorland and Lonsdale since 2005, and served as the Leader of the Liberal Democrat Party from 2015 to 2017.Tim is also the host of Premier's 'A Mucky Business' podcast. His new book A Mucky Business: Why Christians should get involved in politics is published in November.
