Since I last wrote, all of us in the UK have lived through perhaps the most intriguing election of my lifetime. I don't know about you, but it's given me serious pause for thought. Here are a few strands - maybe some will resonate with you too. (They speak to me of the vital coalition each of us can nurture, between head and heart.)

First, the choice at the polls brought up gut feelings of 'tribal loyalty'. The "I could never vote for that party" response. (I suspect this is less intense for many younger people.) It's interesting to confront that in myself. In other things - most obviously in religion - I'm passionate about getting beyond the tribal assumptions: "my tradition is best and has answers the others couldn't have". In football, despite being a bit of a Wolves fan (confession time!), I hope what I really appreciate is good soccer whichever team produces it. So how far are my political instincts still tribal?

Once the votes were cast I observed the strategy dilemmas for all three major parties with total fascination. And found myself applauding the outcome, this experiment of coalition. Ah, the joys of optimism! I found a sense of hope that this uniquely balanced poll result - and the negotiations it forced on the parties - really will jolt us into reform of the whole political system. Then I remembered how I'd had high hopes of Tony Blair as a radical reformer too! How to strike the right balance as a citizen between hope, realism and cynicism?

Looking back on the New Labour years, my disillusion was not just that Tony Blair squandered the chances to make bold changes when he had a stonking majority and shedloads of good will. It was the endless drift towards a political culture where the only answers to anything were a) pass a few more hasty laws and/or b) pull the economic levers to corral us all into desirable behaviour for reasons of financial self-interest. Whether the coalition's talk of a Big Society will bring us policies with a more genuine understanding of communities and their well-being, we'll have to wait and see. Or not just wait, but play our part?

Finally, much of the coalition negotiation was down to two very local MPs, Oliver Letwin (our member for West Dorset) and David Laws... who has already resigned from government over questionable expenses claims. It seems a shame that the secrecy he chose about his sexuality was in part at least to spare his Roman Catholic parents' feelings. The same day that David Laws resigned, Archbishop Rowan was rapping the knuckles of American Anglicans for their election of a lesbian bishop. Oh for the day when Christian churches are focussed less on the diversity of individuals' ways of loving and more on the terrible inequalities and injustices that scar our world - on what I'd call 'the Jesus priorities'.

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