I recently posted a one-hour video on my Facebook page, titled: “The Tide Is Turning – Andrew Bridgen” (see here), and one reaction especially stirred me to write what follows.

In recent months, I have engaged and disagreed with genuine Christians on several issues:

• The merits or otherwise of Tommy Robinson and the “Unite the Kingdom” rally that he led, along with his current “Put Christ back into Christmas” campaign.
• A reaction to the news of the announcement that the university in my city is to close and blaming it onto Brexit.
• My calling Ed Davey (leader of the LibDems) a fool for his letter writing concerning “unwanted” foreigners weighing in concerning the lies and inadequacies of the BBC.
• The action of a local evangelical church in my city in inviting a climate emergency advocate to speak at the church and then applauding the message he brought.
• The need to prop up the Zelenski regime in Ukraine concerning its war with Russia.
• Assorted spates over whether or not Donald Trump is up to good in the world.

Then on top of this there is Covid-19 and stuff around this, including the efficacy or not of “the Jab”, a subject that has awakened many, including myself, to the notion that there is a dastardly plot led by the cult/cabal, helped by its band of useful idiots, including people we look up to, to enslave us, only to be told by certain “nice” Christians that are in positions of leadership in the “church” that we are conspiracy theorists that ought to be ignored.

Which brings me onto Andrew Bridgen, one of the few heroes (imo) in the Westminster Parliament of recent years. Meta AI, that I find usually helpful but sadly sometimes skewed, informed me: “Andrew Bridgen, the former Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire, was expelled from the party in April 2023. This decision followed his comments comparing COVID-19 vaccinations to the Holocaust, which sparked widespread criticism. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the comparison as “utterly unacceptable””. Back to my video share, it began with his advocacy on behalf of and recent visit to Reiner Fuellmich, concerning whom Meta AI informs me “is a German lawyer and human rights activist currently serving a 3-year and 9-month prison sentence in Germany. He’s known for winning high-profile cases against corporations like Deutsche Bank and Volkswagen. Fuellmich gained international attention for his work on the Corona Investigative Committee, questioning the official COVID-19 narrative and advocating for accountability”, who I also see as yet another vilified hero who we should honour.

Which brings me to one comment to my Facebook share of the Bridgen interview. I braced myself that the person commenting, yet another “nice Christian” friend who I esteem highly but who often disagrees with my more contentious postings, suggested I check out a video, which was part of a series entitled “Moral Revolution – Rutger Bregman’s 2025 Reith Lectures”. About which, Meta AI tells me: “Bregman frames the series as a call for a “moral revolution” in a world he describes as an “age of immorality.” Drawing on historical examples – abolitionists, suffragettes, temperance activists – he argues that small, committed groups can spark transformative change when they combine moral ambition with concrete policy ideas”. My video was the third of the four talks: “History’s Moral Turnarounds– He highlights past moral revolutions (slavery abolition, women’s suffrage) as proof that deep‑seated change is possible when people act collectively with moral purpose” and contained a powerful punch.

I confess – I was arrested by some of the pertinent points being made. Moreover, I can well see that these are the very same points that my nice Christian friends, who take exception at my outrageous that don’t fit in with any official narrative views, might go along with, which got me thinking about my “finding common ground” mantra that in recent days has been severely tested as all parties, including yours truly, takes up some polarised position based on personal axioms, world view, life experience, theological stance and outright prejudice, making the “finding” all the more difficult and sadly bringing in of the “never the twain shall meet” syndrome.

I’m sure many real Christian friends would agree with me that “the Lord works in mysterious ways” (and maybe that He has a sense of humour too). One way this applies to me is, despite coming from an ultra-conservative theological background, I decided on an unlikely third and final career as a community activist around the turn of the millennium. I don’t want to roll out my credentials and activist CV but, despite a huge drop in salary and having to eat humble pie working with people “who have the power” imposing a different agenda to my own, I persisted in it. Looking back at my various involvements, I find these make me a lot more aware of and often enables me to share many concerns of detractor friends when it comes to issues around such things as mental health, homelessness, foreign immigrants, including asylum seekers, aspirations of those of no faith and of all faiths, including notably Muslim, and that of persons across the whole political spectrum, issues faced by LBGT+ folk, etc. and also, pertinently, the way “the system” works (or, as often is the case, doesn’t) in order to get things done. On a personal note, I don’t see myself as a modern-day prophet, which is just as well as most of the Christians I have associated with believed true prophets stopped when the New Testament was complete and, unlike Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel etc., heaven hasn’t said I’m one.

But I am a watchman on the wall, concerning which I am a poor example, taking up Jesus’ counsel to all of “watch and pray” and following the example of “the Children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times”, recognising there are numerous vacancies given the church hegemony has largely failed in this department. All of which brings me to the “why I won’t shut up” part of the title. If not me, then who? And if our great commission involves doing everything said or implied in Matthew 28:19-20, Matthew 22:37-40, Acts 1:8, Romans 10:14-15, Matthew 9:37, it comes part and parcel. In my dotage and failing health, I will try to play my part doing all what those texts suggest. While I daresay I will upset some and be excluded from certain Christian circles, I have long learned that the only person who I mustn’t offend is God Himself, who in His wisdom continues to give me grace to continue.