Do God and politics mix?
As the old saying goes, one should never talk about religion or politics at a dinner party. What about the two combined? Is that too toxic a mix to even begin to entertain at a dinner party, let alone in the public square?
It was Tony Blair’s ‘spin doctor’ Alistair Campbell who famously said, “We don’t do God”. Faith, according to Campbell, is a strictly private affair and God’s services are not required in our progressive modern culture. Others, however, disagree and say that faith has a positive role to play in the decisions we make both in public as well as in private.
So, do God and politics mix? Join Sir Stephen Timms, MP, as he gives his perspective on whether it is ever beneficial or constructive to mix the two.
Sir Stephen Timms, has been Labour Member of Parliament for East Ham since 1994, and Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee since 2020. He was a Minister in the Governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from 1998 to 2010, including serving in the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2006-7, and was Shadow Minister for Employment in 2010 to 2015. He studied Mathematics at Cambridge University, worked in the computing industry from 1978 to 1994 and was a member of Newham Council for ten years before his election to Parliament, including serving as Leader of the Council in 1990-94. He is one of the leaders of Plaistow Christian Fellowship, has been the Labour Party’s Faith Envoy since 2007, and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Faith and Society since 2012. He was knighted in 2022 for political and public service.
With over a billion pounds spent by government on anti-violence initiatives in the past decade, the lecture will discuss what has been achieved to make young people safer and suggest future directions for research and prevention.
Iain Brennan is a Professor of Criminology and a chartered research psychologist.
He is the University of Hull Institutional Lead for Open Research, Director of Research for the School of Criminology, Sociology & Policing and Chair of the University Research Concordat Steering Group. He is a founding member of the Humberside Police-Academic Partnership and its academic lead.
Iain’s research interests are in violence prevention including weapon-carrying and serious violence, domestic abuse and violence in night-time economies. He is particularly interested in evaluating interventions in these areas and has led many evaluation studies incorporating randomised controlled trials, quasi-experimental designs and process evaluations.
He is an adviser on violence prevention to local and national governmental and non-governmental organisations including Home Office, Youth Endowment Fund, College of Policing, National Police Chiefs’ Council and many police forces across the UK.
He has been a principal or co-investigator on research projects worth over £5m from funders including ESRC, Home Office, ADR-UK, NPCC, Jacobs Foundation and the European Commission. He is currently principal investigator on several research projects including a £1.5m evaluation of focused deterrence interventions on behalf of Youth Endowment Fund.
He is the author of over 40 journal articles, reports, chapters and books and is a member of the editorial board of British Journal of Criminology.
