It’s tempting to be fatalistic at a time like this: ‘whatever will be, will be’. Our problems are so many, we might think there’s little or nothing we can do about them. We feel in the grip of forces beyond our control. This is why we need to tell ourselves and each other: nothing which is wrong or unjust is inevitable. There is always something we can do about it, however helpless we might feel.

We’re all in this together – more so than ever before. We live in a globalised world, and we share many common challenges. So why not join forces to tackle the problems we face? However large or insoluble they appear, they can’t be insoluble if they’re the result of wrongdoing or injustice.

On the international scene, there’s so much the nations of the world can do more effectively if they do it together: help the devastated countries of Lebanon and Yemen, work for a greener planet, find a vaccine for covid19….The list could go on.

As for our own country, three problems stand out. None is insoluble or inevitable. First, our democracy urgently needs repair. Neither our two-party system nor our voting system is working well. If the state, not the vested interests of big business and unions, funds political parties, the Liberal Democrats and Greens could have the ‘leg up’ they ought to have. If we changed the voting system from ‘first past the post’, more MPs than at present would be elected by a majority, not a minority, of the voters.

Second, local councils have been denuded of both responsibilities and funding – one reason why our country hasn’t coped well with this pandemic. Instead of entrenched majorities in faraway places, we need local councils which help us all feel we belong, that we count, and can change things.

Third, our housing market is not working for everyone. Some people are acquiring more land and property year by year, whilst others are on endless housing lists, go in fear of eviction, or are not even housed at all. Instead of giving more incentives to those who already have, we need social housing and more attractive rents for the ‘have nots’.

I write as a Christian minister, convinced that the reality of God is the ultimate assurance that whatever is wrong in our world is not inevitable. Let’s join forces and challenge the injustices.