‘....these short reflections represent the prickly interface between faith and politics from the perspective of a Christian believer. Publisher I am an avid listener to the Radio 4 ‘Thought for the Day’ at 10 to 8am. With the thoughts fresh in my mind, I can start a new day. The opportunity to read some of these reflections some time after the events that have prompted the thoughts is a reminder of those past news items and a fresh chance to meditate on John Bell’s words with the advantage of hindsight. Two-minutes-forty-seconds is all that is allowed to get this thought across to the listening public, a feat no-one manages better than the author of these pieces. For the last four years John Bell has been offering his perspective on many subjects and at the end of the book is an Appendix with a semi-autobiographical reflection transcribed from a lecture given in Bristol on 30th November 2006 entitled Politics, passion and the human soul