John Edward Cooper’s Notes
Thursday 31st March 1966
1966 In the NOTES section is a note for one day this week (I can’t remember on which day Physics or Chemistry Practical was): The diary-entry proper for today is as follows: Mock Election: There was a General Election today, which returned Harold Wilson and the Labour (not Conservative) Party to power. It may have been during the run-up to this General Election that Jones recruited Chris to go canvassing with him, door to door. It’s hard to imagine, Chris going round, canvassing for Labour! Jones could get you to do anything! The area that they covered was all of Fleetwood Road South up to perhaps the boundary between Thornton and Carleton. They called at some houses beyond Norcross Lane and New Lane, anyway. And they met my Dad on the corner of Beechwood Drive. My house, presumably, was on the list, but having met my Dad out on the road, they didn’t visit; Jones just questioned him on the spot. “Ah!” Chris thought. “Now what political view will he express to Jones, being a Christian?” There seemed, in Pentecostal circles, to be a bit of a taboo about political involvement, so that is why Chris was interested in what my Dad would have to say. My Dad said something to the effect that he thought the only good thing that could happen was for no party to do very well. “I think we ought to get rid of the lot and start again”, he said. “That’s what we need. I think we could do with them all being slung out and starting right from scratch.” Jones was probably undeterred: “So, Mr. Cooper, can we depend on your vote?”! But my Dad wouldn’t commit himself. I remember one occasion, at Fleetwood Grammar School, when Jones suggested to me that it was impossible to be a Christian without holding socialist views. I can’t remember his precise words: “You know, Coops, I don’t think it’s conceivable that a Christian can be anything but a socialist.” |
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]