Ealing North
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Steve Pound MP Ealing North |
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The meaning of Easter March 2003 John Mortimer QC is something of a British institution. I revere him for creating “Rumpole of the Bailey” but beg to differ with his support for blood sports. Last week he said that giving up chocolate was not the way to celebrate the death of a great religious leader. Leaving aside the small point that the celebration of Easter relates to the Resurrection, rather than the suffering that precedes it, I happen to think that an Easter penance is a good thing. As usual I have to confess to a little hypocrisy in this matter. I always give up alcohol for Lent. Have done since I was twelve years old. My intention at age twelve was more to encourage my father – with no success – to do the same. However there is the immutable fact that St.Patrick’s Day falls on March 17th. and this is nearly always in the middle of the period of Lenten observance. However, as the penitential period is forty days and forty nights and as the time between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday is forty-two days there is an opportunity for what we euphemistically call a “pit stop” on St.Patrick’s Day. To make a small sacrifice during Lent is, of course, as nothing when weighed against the sacrifice of Christ but it is an important gesture. It also concentrates the mind a little and I like to think that a little less time spent in drinking and a little more in prayer can be no bad thing. Muslims fast during Ramadan, Jains fast for eight days a year and there are fast days throughout the Hindu and Sikh calendar. On Saturday I was speaking at the Sacriston Working Mens’ Club in Chester-le-Street, Co.Durham. This is an area of breathtaking beauty but one that saw an entire community destroyed by the end of mining and steel working. I can’t remember meeting such proud and decent people before. Although their community had the heart ripped out they have retained the strength and solidarity that sustained them during the strike. I was presented with an engraved miner’s lamp and I will treasure this for life. Although presented by a Durham miner the actual lamp was made at the Cambrian Lamp Works in Aberdare. Mrs. P. who hails from the rain sodden valleys of South Wales, hails this as another example of Welsh technical genius but I note that the safety lamp was actually invented by Dr.William Clanny of Sunderland and popularised by Sir Humphry Davy. Visiting the heartland of Sunderland FC supporters so shortly after Fulham had taken three points off them was always going to be difficult. Explaining that I wouldn’t take a pint or twelve with them was nearly impossible. Apparently I was a “soft southerner”, and I leave it to the reader to imagine some of the other comments that greeted the man who asked for a soft drink at the Working Mens’ Club. I felt like Alan Ladd asking for a sarsaparilla in that western saloon, but he had his six-guns to protect him. Oddly enough the derision made me all the more determined to maintain my Lenten observance. I do hope that other people give something up for Lent. More importantly, I hope that they think about the reasons for doing so. Easter is not about chocolate. It is far more important than that. |
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| Disclaimer | Copyright | Designed by Bassam Mahfouz. Promoted by Julian Bell, The Labour Party, Ruskin Hall, 16 Church Road, W3 8PP on behalf of Steve Pound MP |
