Strasbourg's Cockney Christian

David Hallam is a Member of the European Parliament representing Shropshire, Herefordshire and Wyre Forest. He is an active member of the Agriculture Committee and Budget Committee and on the delegation to Slovakia and Israel. He has been a Christian for many years and a member of the Labour party.

EN: Could you tell us about your background, and how you got involved with politic?

DH: As a teenager, I always read the paper, took a lively interest in current affairs and occasionally went to political meetings. In March 1966, I accepted Jesus as my Saviour, though like many Christians still struggle to work out his Lordship in my life.
As I studied my Bible, my interest in politics was developed, especially as I understood the Sermon on the Mount and the communitarian implications of Pentecost. I then moved politically to the left and joined the Labour party.

Conversion & university

EN: By the time you got to Sussex University in 1967, you were a Christian and part of the Christian Union there. Please explain a little more of how your Christian faith began.

DH: One day in 1953, there was a crisis at our home in Clapton, East London. I remember my father taking me, my brother and sister down to the afternoon Sunday school at Paragon Hall, a small Brethren Assembly. I loved going there, but didn't manage the move to Covenanters at the age of 13.
I then left Christianity and even described myself as an atheist. There was, however, one incident which impressed me. Just before Christmas, when I was 14 or 15, my mother (by then on her own) told us that Christmas would be hard as she had hardly any money. An hour or so later, there was a knock on the door and the Brethren brought us a great box of Christmas goodies. What struck me then was that there was no condescension, we were not patronised, just loved.
When I was 18, a new teacher came to our school and started telling us about Jesus. We were all given copies of a book called The Cross and the Switchblade. Lots of my colleagues became converts - I complained to the headmaster! I was invited to a local Church of England, at the opposite end of the road to the Brethren Assembly, for a series of meetings. After three weeks I felt God more. It was a very exhilarating experience, I remember feeling dizzy. I prayed. The feeling is best described in Charles Wesley's hymn And Can It Be.
My time at university was difficult for me. I spoke with a strong Cockney accent, had failed my eleven-plus and I felt very out of place. Everyone else - including my colleagues in the CU - seemed so posh. I found it difficult to settle into the university or a local church. Within the church, there was suspicion of my left-wing interpretation of the Scriptures and, at that time, most evangelicals were actively hostile to the Labour party. I now realise this reflected their social background rather than their faith, but it was very discouraging. It is only in the last five or so years that the position has changed.

EN: After university, what direction did your life take?

DH: I started working in local government and eventually moved to Birmingham. Meanwhile, I felt that the church could not cope with a working class socialist evangelical. But I want to stress that I am not displacing responsibility on the shoulders of other Christians, perhaps I was too easily ensnared by worldly temptations which clouded my judgement.
Meanwhile, my professional career flourished as I became a publicity officer in the welfare sector, paralleled with membership of the local council and a hopeless parliamentary candidature in 1979.
I had a huge blow just one year later, when I had the first of three redundancies in a period of two years. It reminded me how easy it was to fall flat on your face. One Sunday I went to morning service at a lively local Methodist church. It was almost out of the blue, and I just kept going. The church was multicultural, had a left-leaning membership and seemed to specialise in providing a home for people who found other churches difficult. I met my wife there, got married there and have seen all my three children dedicated there.

Thatcher, Kinnock & Blair

An equally hard knock came when Labour lost the 1983 General Election. I couldn't believe that the cynical individualism of the Thatcherite Conservative party would be given a second chance. That's when I decided to help Labour fight back - even if it meant fighting another hopeless seat in the 1984 Euro elections. I was selected for Shropshire and Staffordshire which had a 60,000 Tory majority. We had an inexpensive but high profile campaign and more than halved their majority. I went back in 1989 and the Tories scraped home with a tiny majority of just over 2,000 votes.

EN: What was it like politically with the Labour party through the long years of Thatcherism? What do you think of the modernisation of the party, begun by Neil Kinnock and carried forward by Tony Blair?

DH: In the early 1980s, the party plunged into a poisonous civil war.
I knew we had to update our image but I have found many of the policy changes very painful.
How does someone who believes he was saved by a Christ who turned up on a donkey and told his followers to turn the other cheek, accept that Britain needs nuclear weapons? It is a question I used to ask those anti-Labour evangelicals in the 1960s and 1970s.

EN: In 1994, you were elected to the European Parliament. What do you remember of the election campaign and what did it feel like to win?

DH: The Labour Party had re-selected me for Shropshire and Staffordshire, and I was expected to win. Just six months before the election the boundaries were re-drawn. I lost several good Labour areas and took on solid Tory areas.

Campaign and baby

Just as we began the campaign, we were told that my wife might be carrying a Downs Syndrome baby, due a day or two after polling day. We were also broke, as a big contract had come to an end. (I was by this time self-employed.) We prayed but the Lord didn't say anything. I wanted an Angel to turn up and say: 'David, you've got enough problems, resign as a candidate.' However, both my wife and I heard and felt nothing. That's not quite true - while praying one day about my car (oh yes, the gearbox had gone on that as well and I didn't have any money to repair it), the Lord reminded me of an insurance policy that I had taken up more than 20 years earlier. Three hours later, the man from the 'Pru' gave me a cheque for £3,000.
Because of our pain about our baby, I asked the Lord specifically to help me handle questions about abortion. In previous campaigns, I had been challenged by both sides in this emotionally-charged debate.
During the campaign not one person made any enquiry about abortion. I was out campaigning, smiling, shaking hands in what I was told was a 'hopeless' seat, and then going home and crying my heart out about the baby.
Only once did I crack in public. I was approached in a shopping centre by a woman with an obvious Downs Syndrome child. I talked gently with her and then just cracked up. I hid it well and my 'minders' were none the wiser.
At the time, I felt confident I was going to win.
When it happened, I felt amazingly released, everything had fitted together, it had seemed obvious all the time.
Owen was born a few days later. No problems, no Down's Syndrome and even if he were, we would have loved him to pieces - victory or no victory!

Human rights issues

EN: In Strasbourg, you take a particular interest in human rights issues, as Sir Fred Catherwood did when he was there. Tell us the kind of things you do.

DH: Human rights is a very important concept for Christians. For the gospel to be preached and accepted, we must try to ensure freedom of expression for all. I have taken up a number of individual cases both with the governments concerned and with the Parliament.
I am briefed by Amnesty Inter-national and Christian Solidarity International as well as various pressure groups. It is important to be discerning because we are not always told the full story, that is why organisations such as Amnesty International and Christian Solidarity International are so important. Remember that many people have axes to grind and want to show a particular government in a bad light.
I prefer to have a constituency link where possible, as I just do not have the time to become a sort of universal human rights policeman.
One other role I took over from Sir Fred Catherwood was to chair the Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast. This meets monthly in Strasbourg and always ends with us saying the Lord's Prayer in our own languages. Those few moments are some of the most blessed moments in the Parliament for me.

Suffering Christians

EN: We are often concerned with suffering of Christians, and indeed religious persecution generally in other countries. How can you help if Christians want to do something?

DH: That is a difficult one, and I am not certain that I am the person who can best answer.
I am always impressed when I hear from people who have got real links with a persecuted church or imprisoned person, especially if it pre-dates the trouble. That gives a credibility to their approach, not just to me, but to ambassadors, governments, our own foreign office and the media. It also means that people are more aware of the nuances of each culture and local sensitivities. They are less likely to say or do anything in the UK which may make the situation of persecuted people worse.

Political politeness

At all times be polite! I have seen several letters from Christians to my colleagues which have been quite rude. This does not help, especially when writing to an Ambassador whose grasp of English may be wobbly and may unintentionally be offended.
Possibly our churches should seek out twin churches throughout the developing world and create links. A generation ago these links would exist through the missionary societies with members giving a lifetime of service.
And of course we must pray and we need to ask God to lead us where we can be most helpful and effective. Part of that prayer must be to thank God that in our own country we enjoy religious freedom, and we must pray to protect that freedom and also respect the freedom of others with whom we may profoundly disagree.