In the News

Archbishop's call for voters to turn against apathy and hate

Tuesday 01 May 2007

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has taken out an advertisement in his local newspaper to call for the city's voters to use their votes on Thursday.

ballot box for voting

The quarter page advert in The Press, York, entitled "For God's Sake York, Use Your Vote" calls on voters to remember the price paid for democracy by those who died fighting for it and to be wary of those political parties "whose actions betray the lives of those who fought for freedom."

The Archbishop warns voters to use their vote to ensure they "do not sleepwalk into a wall of hate" which might be provided by political parties who "come with honeycombed words, promising a New England, and a land of milk and honey. In reality they offer us a diet of bile and discord, a desert of hopelessness and policies which stoke the ashes of Clifford's Tower."

The mention of the York Landmark of Clifford's Tower refers to Britain's worst anti-Semitic outrage which occurred in York on 16 March 1190 when 150 Jews lost their lives.

Dr Sentamu also warns of the dangers of a low turn out which may lead to extremist parties being voted in through apathy rather than through wide spread popular support.

The Archbishop's advert follows a similar advertisement placed by him as Bishop for Birmingham in a local newspaper in June 2004 ahead of local and European elections.

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