Party Manifesto of the Christian Democratic Party

The Christian People’s Alliance is the most effective United Kingdom branch of the Christian Democratic Party, which exists in many countries in Europe. Our party is founded upon Christian principles and the belief that these principles can be applied in everyday life and politics to benefit mankind, the world, and future generations (Principles). We believe that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the “central human event[s],” and that God’s love and forgiveness can help us as a society to overcome the “old patterns of human failure in life and politics” (Principles). We believe it is important to put others above ourselves and to work toward comprehensive programs for the reconciliation of different races, peoples, and countries (Principles). The Christian Democratic Party desires to provide for the most basic needs of every person; we believe all people are unique and incredibly special children of God for whom Jesus Christ died. Catering to the very wealthy before providing for the poor is wrong and we will fight this practice (Principles). The Christian People’s Alliance believes that the principles God gives us through the Bible and the teachings of Christ are valid and applicable to today’s society and, if adhered to, could provide effective, compassionate, and viable governments and countries.

We, the Christian People’s Alliance, are extremely concerned with the welfare of our members. Many of them are approaching the age at which they will be forced to retire and begin to subsist entirely on the pensions they have saved throughout their lifetimes as vital, important workers in the economy. God has commanded us to be diligent, to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to give to God what is God’s. This means we should be just and honest in all our monetary programs. We do not believe that it is fair for citizens to have contributed to a system which will not be able to pay them when they need the money (Cohen). We believe that the current pension system is unacceptable: the system employs means-testing, which designates the amount of pension a citizen receives according to how much he earned per year as a worker. This is unfair to the valuable working class citizens as it is disproportionately beneficial to those with lower incomes. We advocate personal savings accounts, rather than investing in governmental pension schemes (Howard). We want to “increase the basic state pension in line with earnings to reverse pensioners’ reliance on means testing” (Howard). We generally oppose the state pension as a whole and instead promote personal saving or, at the very least, investment in a private pension organization. We prefer to increase the benefits for opting out of the state pension and want to decrease the Second State Pension’s system of high percentages for lower incomes.

The Christian Democratic Party supports the "funding of programs for immigrants and asylum to become proficient in the language and understand the culture and engage with the communities"(“Faith”). The party believes it is important to teach immigrants and their children the language of the people of the United Kingdom. We would like to have programs which are intended to impart Christian values of freedom and tolerance of diversity. To be a part of the United Kingdom society, one needs to understand its values. Freedom and tolerance are parts of the United Kingdom society. The party believes "it is important for reasons of social solidarity and community adhesion" (“Faith”). The Christian Democratic Party feels that immigrants who do not adopt the values are not likely to contribute positively to the United Kingdom and should not be encouraged to stay. The party feels that social security benefits to them should be conditional. Christian Democratic Party's view is that if a "guest worker is paying taxes for at least 12 months he should get benefits. These benefits should not be given for a longer period of time than which the immigrants have been paying income taxes. At the time in which [that period of time] extends past the time the immigrant pays income taxes, his country of origin should be responsible for welfare" (sic) (“Faith”). The Christian Democratic Party believes that the process of asylum applications needs to be concluded within six months. "Asylum seekers should not be allowed to stay in the country for more then six months while the application is being processed" (“Faith”). We feel the United Kingdom should have a "repatriation agreement with third countries" (“Faith”) to ensure a swift and safe way home for those whose applications have been turned down. The party feels that asylum seekers are allowed to stay in the country too long while the application process is in progress.

Our party feels very strongly about protecting the precious planet that God has entrusted to our care. We believe that doing this requires that we be wise stewards of the environment and the fossil fuels in this world. The Christian Democratic Party will keep the gasoline tax at the current rate of seventy-five percent (Bloomberg 1). A gasoline tax of seventy-five percent will reduce the number of drivers in the United Kingdom, which will ultimately slow the process of global warming by limiting the amount of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere. The revenue that is generated from the gasoline tax will be used to fund public transportation, which will in turn lower the number of individual cars on the roads. The revenue generated from the tax will also be appropriated to the construction and maintenance of those same roads and highways. The Christian Democratic Party will allow tax incentives for owners of hydrogen fuel cell cars and hybrid cars because these types of cars have the lowers greenhouse gas emission rates.

 The CPA is supportive of the view that the British people should have the final say in whether the United Kingdom joins the single European currency.  Furthermore, the CPA believes there is no economic case for rushing this decision, and that as a nation, we need to demonstrate wisdom in the care of our economy (“Faith”).  The current disparity in the outlook for growth, the strength of domestic demand, short term interest rates and currency movements tell us that there is not yet evidence of convergence in the business cycles of the UK and the EU. The lack of flexibility in the labor market of the EU compared to that of the UK, the difference in long-term lending and savings attitudes, and the economic imbalance caused by the abandonment of the Growth and Stability Pact indicate that there is not yet a framework for common structural and economic policy-making decisions (“Faith”). However, if the currency referendum were to be held today, the CPA would fundamentally have to oppose it. The Euro was founded on the agreement of each member state keeping its budget deficit within 3% of its GDP and, since France and Germany are ripping off the continent with their deficits, adopting the Euro would be a fundamental forfeit of not only our sovereignty, but the selling of our souls as well.

As a party which promotes Christian values, emphasizing those of the family, we believe that homosexual marriage is unbiblical and, therefore, wrong. We believe God tells us that marriage should take place only between one man and one woman; anything outside of the dictums of this sacred ordinance cannot in truth call itself marriage in the Biblical manner. We believe that the acceptance and tolerance of homosexual marriage could undermine and potentially destroy the family unit, which we believe is one of the most important and sacred creations of God, vital to the psychological and emotional health of children as they are raised (Principles). We oppose the legalization of homosexual marriage on the grounds that we seek to protect “the family against exploitation by employers, commercialism, media pressures and sex industries” (Principles). The passive acceptance of the legalization of homosexual marriage amounts to nothing less than the promotion of it; desiring to promote only the values of God and Jesus Christ, we cannot condone this obvious denial of those same values.

As Christian Democrats, we believe that Iran should be disarmed. We believe that this should be handled in a diplomatic way and that war should not stem from this. The Christian Democrats see the Iranian Nuclear Proliferation as a bad thing. “We will work towards a substantial end to commercial arms production and trading, especially in Europe and the United States. Arms cause wars, military dictatorship, death, injury, and acute hardship and we want to reserve these efforts” (Principles). Therefore, the Christian Democrats do not want Iran to have nuclear weapons, and will use any means short of war to refrain from this.

These many different beliefs together create the fabric of what the Christian Democratic Party of the United Kingdom hopes to accomplish through participation in government. We hope to make the lives of the people in the world better by our actions. “The need to provide food, water, medicine, and economic support for the world’s poor is a high priority, a higher priority than our own affluence” (Principles). We believe that policy decisions should be considered and made with this in mind. The Christian People’s Alliance believes that governments are accountable to the people they govern and that absolute control of the lives of citizens by government defies their intrinsic rights given by God and ignores the ideals of loving our neighbors (Principles). We are a party with a Christian vision, given by God and based in His word; we hope to make the United Kingdom a country with this vision, rooted in those God-given values.

Works Cited

Bloomberg.Com. “Norway, Netherlands, U.K. Have Europe’s Most Expensive

Gasoline.” 30 December 2004. 20 February 2005. http://www.bloomberg.

com/apps/news?pid=7100001&refer=europe&sid=aQoXusAQa.

Christian People’s Alliance Principles Page. Ed. Doug Gibbons. Christian People’s

Alliance of the UK. 16 March 2005. <http://www.cpalliance.net/cpaprinci

ples.asp>.

Cohen, Norma. “A Bloody Mess.” The American Prospect: Online Edition. 11 January

2005. 1 March 2005. <http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&nam e=ViewWeb&articleId=8997>.

“Faith in Europe-EU Manifesto 2004.” Christian People’s Alliance. Ed. Doug Gibbons.

Christian People’s Alliance of the UK. 16 March 2005. <http://www.cpallia nce.net/p olicieslist.asp >.

Howard, Michael. “Michael Howard’s Introduction.” Action for Older People:

Conservative Manifesto 2005. 2005. The Conservative Party of the United

Kingdom. 2 March 2005. <http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=policy.l isting.page>.