I AM a political animal. In fact, sometimes those who comment on this blog have criticised me for so being.

But I make no apologies. Politics is important. It can make a huge difference and improve people’s lives for the better.

But recently I have become a bit jaded by political leadership. I believe we have seen it here in the UK and overseas; a desire to say what people want so that power can be preserved.

And we have seen it in the face of tragedy and controversy. Leaders going into places where violence has taken place but not able to show compassion.

So thank God for Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minster of New Zealand. If other leaders want to know what true leadership is, then they need look no further than this remarkable woman.

We have seen photo after photo of her hugging the families’ of victims from the New Zealand terrorist attack.

And these are no mere photo opportunities. You can tell that she feels the pain of this atrocity and demonstrates love and compassion to those who have had their lives turned upside down.

But in case you think that this is just some soft, ‘airy fairy’ leadership, she has also, in a short space of time, enacted legal restrictions on high powered guns.

Something, I might add, which other leaders have not only failed to do but not shown any desire to do.

Here is a model of strong compassionate leadership. Someone who actually leads – and surely this is what many countries are lacking.

I am reminded of Martin Luther King, who said that leadership does not search for consensus but moulds it.

It sets a different way of viewing the world and marks out a path for others to follow.

As a Christian minister, of course, the model of leadership I prize is that of Jesus.

Compassionate: weeping with people at their loss. Strong: facing even death so that others might be rescued. Restrained: putting aside his great power and being led like a lamb to slaughter.

So on Friday, we held our own two-minute silence to honour the victims of the New Zealand attack. And to, in some small way, stand on the right side of politics.

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