This statement will probably not win me many favours since the latest fad among budding politicians is to attack age-old values and question their relevance in today’s society. By such values, I am referring to those of the family, of the unborn child and of social justice. To this effect, as an MEP candidate, I full endorse the Catholic manifesto drawn up by our bishops within the context of the upcoming EP elections. I am reproducing such a manifesto, based on eight points, below:

1. To respect human life from conception to natural death as integral to all European Union legislation, programmes and policies;

2. To support the family founded on marriage – as understood between one man and one woman – as the basic unit of society;

3. To advance the social rights of workers providing them with working conditions which respect their health, safety and dignity;

4. To endorse economic governance based on ethical values in order to achieve sustainable human development within the European Union and at global level;

5. To promote justice in relationships of the European Union with developing countries through financial assistance and innovative partnerships;

6. To demonstrate solidarity by shaping policies that help the weakest and poorest in our societies (in particular people with disabilities);

7. To protect creation by fighting climate change and encouraging a moderate lifestyle;

8. To promote peace in the world through coordinated and coherent external EU-policy.

Despite the current groundswell in favour of divorce, the mature leader had to uphold immutable values and principles and not pander to the masses by joining the divorce bandwagon. Families had to be buttressed in concrete ways, not through empty talk, and one way of doing this was to incentivise more young people planning to start a family. Whilst one should seek to address the realities of new ‘social realities’, these should never be placed on an even par with the ‘traditional’ family model. Some values are immutable over time – their relevance to society does not vary with the season or whim.

Alan Deidun

Gudja