It would be great to see political change in 2015

It would be very easy for you to fall into the trap of so many of the mainstream national newspapers, who espouse one political view or another and print only letters or articles that would find favour there. Not so The Clitheroe Advertiser, who have allowed me column inches despite the demographic of your readership, largely Tory and UKIP, and my personal disdain for their policies.

I hope you and all your readers (some of whom I hope I may have amused or interested during the past 12 months) had a happy Christmas and enjoy a prosperous New Year. It would be great to see a change in our country in 2015, where politicians of every stripe, pursue a course where they attempt to eradicate winners and losers and seek a better life for everyone.

Remembering that we remain a Christian country, I make no apology for inviting readers to remember the true meaning of Christmas, in all the hurly burly of materialism and winterville political correctness.

There will be stressed-out Mums and disillusioned teenagers, struggling Dads and lonely people, but there in a manger in Bethlehem, as John Betjeman so eloquently put it: “The maker of the stars and sea became a Child on earth for me”.

I exhort all who are feeling sick, lonely, afraid or have suffered a bereavement, like a dear friend of mine, to take their troubles to the Christmas Crib and there suspend their cynicism, maybe light a candle and, in the words of the desperate father in Mark’s Gospel, say: “I believe, help my unbelief”.

Try it, feel your burden lighten and connect to the truth.

Sean Gallagher,

Brockhall Village