For about a year now I’ve been helping out at an event called Real Hope at Sunbridge Road Mission. Every week there’s a free meal put on for all those that need it, with the ability to provide clothes, shoes, bedding and other necessitates when required. And every week a speaker come in and preaches, sings or gives a testimony. I’ve heard some incredible speakers over time, and the relationships the Real Hope staff have built up are amazing, but tonight really beat them all. At the end of his talk the speaker asked who wanted to turn their lives around by making a commitment to Christ, and between six and nine people (everyone seemed to count a different number) put their hands up.

It’d be really cool if anyone can spare some time to pray for these people—particularly one girl who I gave a Bible to and who was planning to check into a rehab tomorrow. Pray they will all overcome their various addictions and problems, and that they will get the discipleship they’re going to need. And pray that this girl (obviously can’t mention names online) will call the rehab and have no problems in getting there, and that she will read the Bible with God’s guidance.

A few thoughts on top-up fees:

• Firstly, according to Universities UK there is a funding gap of £8.7 billion between that which will be raised by top-up fees and that which is required because despite increased investment in the last couple of years, academics were still under-paid (Source: BBC). It seems clear to me that the only reason UUK would support a bill which they know can not solve their problem is because they believe they will later be able to remove the fee cap, either at committee stage in parliament, or fairly soon after it becomes law.
• Secondly, the argument that paying for higher education out of general taxation would be unfair is an entirely false one. No-one (with the possible exception of the Liberal Democrats, who have advocated a penny on income tax for education for as long as I can remember) is suggesting that there be an increase in basic rate of taxation to fund universities. Instead, the suggestion is that there be a higher top rate of income tax on any amount earned over £100,000 a year (66% of Labour party members’ preferred method of generating public sector funding, according to a survey for this morning’s Guardian). If we follow the logic that students go on to be rich and should therefore pay, then £100,000 seems a better threshold on which to proclaim someone rich than £15,000, don’t you think? The problem here, of course, is that it’s no longer the poor and the uneducated who would face the unfair burden, but the rich and the powerful and the people who had their education for free. People like Tony Blair, in fact. I don’t know the statistics for the number of people earning over £100,000 who hold degrees, but I suspect it’s close to 90%. And I suspect the majority of the remaining 10% employ or otherwise depend on people who hold degrees. It’s a fairly basic principle of taxation that you take from people who have benefited or will benefit in order to fund those who are benefiting.
• Thirdly, while it is true that the 50% in higher education target does seem to have been plucked from thin air, that is not cause to start closing universities. Everyone with the ability for a higher education ought to be able to get one, and get one without fear of a lifetime of debt. If that means 50%, it means 50%. If it means 100%, so be it. I’m not sure that would be practical just at the moment, but there was a time not long ago when people would have said the same of primary and secondary education. Some say times have changed and we can no longer expect the government to pay for higher education. We wouldn’t accept that argument for primary and secondary education, why should HE be any different? Our times are what we make them, and if we keep going this way we are moving backward, not forward. It’s also worth noting that William Edward Forster, largely responsible for getting education for all, was a Bradford MP.
• Fourthly, regarding the suggestion that education be funded from cuts to the defence budget; no-one is advocating losing the military—much as I might find the idea appealing. UBU submitted a motion to NUS conference which suggested reducing military spending to the European NATO average, saving £3.5 billion. We could save the best part of half a billion right away by ending government subsidies to the arms trade—an area which accounts for 3-4% of the British economy and yet is the second most heavily subsidised area after agriculture.

A few quick links:

1. The lent blog of Andii Bowsher—he’s been publicising it with messages to the bucu mailing list, which I’m sure is cheating. It could be called spam, or it could just be part of being a chaplain to the students. I’m not sure.
2. Neil Turner, who worked out who I am the other day. He’s, like, a proper blogger. I feel privileged.
3. Something about pink ear muffs, by Nina Carter-Brown. I’m not sure I really understand.

I’m off to Soundcheck very shortly. This is good, partly because it always is, and partly because it means I can’t post anything I shouldn’t about elections for at least four more days. If you can get to London on Monday, do come on the Day of Action against the arms trade. The SPEAK web site has all the details.

Father, you know that I’m facing a hard few weeks. I’m sure that the choices I have taken recently have been the right ones. Keep me full of faith, and don’t let me regret choosing the path to which you have called me. I’ve told everyone I’ll be fine but I know that’s only in your strength, for I am nothing. Help me get my job done. Don’t ever let me be concerned about my legacy. Above all don’t let me for one moment lose site of you, or spend less time with you in what will undoubtedly be a busy time.

The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.

Acts 5 (NIV)

For a couple of days a few weeks ago (some time in late January) I was considering re-naming this blog twenty-something single Christian. I drafted a post expressing something of what I was feeling at the time. It was never published, partly because I re-read it and was horrified by my bitter, self-indulgent whinging, and partly because it was really badly written. Now though, it seems that yet more of my friends could soon be pairing off, and the temptation to break from what I wrote before Christmas is ever greater.

It’s hard to keep your heart in the right place when it seems everyone you know is encouraging you to put it elsewhere. Apparently if I don’t I’ll always be thinking what if? It’s probably true—they weren’t far off last time. In the perfect world of my dreams, however, my ideal woman is the one with whom I have a joint calling. And I’d rather think what if? in one year than what if I’d stuck with that calling to Bradford? in ten.

I’ve been reading Manifesto for a Revolution by Alex Robertson; a look at the doctrine of the Kingdom of God and what it means, mainly through the parables of Matthew 13. So far I’ve found some parts wonderfully exciting, and others quite challenging. I’ve been trying to keep a list of all the questions it throws up as I read, partly so I’ll know whether they’ve been answered when I get to the end, and partly because I’d really quite like to talk/pray some of them through with other people. The biggest one at the point where I am now revolves around the Council of Nicaea, the conversion of Constantine, and the composition and inerrancy of scripture. Typing conversion of Constantine into Google led me to an interesting article on church history, but didn’t really provide any answers. I guess I should just try and finish the book.

I’m trying to fill in an application form for a programme called Transform:City. It describes itself as equipping God’s people in transforming Bradford and Leeds. The information pack that I’ve been given talks about equipping trainees to fulfil their part in God's plans, obviously with a specifically Bradford and Leeds focus. Given the vision God has given me for Bradford, and given how unprepared I often feel for that, it seems pretty much an ideal way of spending next year. It’s also run and supported by a bunch people for whom I have a very great deal of respect. I know I need to step out in faith and start living the life, but this seems the kind of guidance on setting out that I’ve spend the last two years looking for. The verse I posted on January 25^th is particularly relevant.

First of all, though, I need to get through this form. I’d expected something quite simple. My details, and maybe a couple of questions on why I wanted to do it. Instead, there are a whole stack of questions like what do you think God might be calling you to in the long term?, describe your relationship with God at the moment and please mark any level of involvement in alcohol, drugs, pornography, homosexual and heterosexual activity or the occult. I want to be honest, but I think it’s going to take a few drafts before I dare put a pen near the actual form.

Life is Beautiful. But it’s also cruel. And just when you think it’s all going well it shoots you in the back. Vicious—but the beauty always comes out top in the end.

Last week I was trying to figure out some of the key places to take my parents on tour of Bradford. I didn’t really know where to go as there’s not much to see. The old Wool Exchange was about the only place that sprang immediately to mind; a beautiful building, and a symbol of Bradford’s past riches, now a bookshop with a built in Starbucks. Once we were actually walking round the town, though, there was always something else to see. Bradford’s no longer just some place I studied. It’s been my life for three and a half years and God’s got plans for me here. Yet still I hardly know the place.

For three years I’ve thought that all the interesting parts of Bradford were demolished long ago; that the fact there are really only two shopping streets is a result of a history of bad planning decisions. While this is undoubtedly partially true, I realised on Saturday that there are plenty of curious back streets and interesting alleyways still standing. Between all the leisure arcades and pound stores there’s even the occasional interesting shop. With a little effort Bradford could be a great place to live.

Richard has re-built the Ian Hislop for Director General site as a Wiki. Head over to the With Us page and add your support. If you’ve not used a Wiki before, just click the EditText link at the bottom of the page and add your name/link in the same format as everyone else.