I liked this letter from veteran tax and poverty campaigner Rev Paul Nicolson in the Guardian this morning:
Owen Jones's tale of woe about rootless, soulless political parties (Opinion, 13 October) needs a comment about a national institution that should be providing roots and soul to political thinking: the Church of England, which, despite all its faults, I love. We are both part of the problem and could be part of the solution by our input to a debate about a political system that is not serving the needs of all UK citizens. We are locked into and are beneficiaries of the extreme free-market politics and economics that have infected a rootless and soulless parliament. It has required low- and middle-income households to carry the burden of austerity.
As a church we tinker with staffing food banks and credit unions when what is needed is noisy, sustained and effective lobbying, drawing the attention of comfortable households to the innocent suffering of a substantial minority of the UK population in hunger, substandard housing, unmanageable debts, rent and council tax arrears. Nowhere is that noisy lobbying more absent than in London, where the bishops and archdeacons of the diocese of London are all but silent in the face of the oppression of the poorest tenants by the state.
Rev Paul Nicolson
Taxpayers Against Poverty
So true.
And so typical of the Church Of England's attitude to Occupy as well.
Shame on it.
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for those wanting a little inspiration from the past, read about the Poplar rates rebellion of 1921-a time of austerity as well. In those days poor relief had to be funded by the ratepayers and poor boroughs got less in rates than more affluent boroughs. Poplar paid an equal wage for both men and women. They were supposed a precept to the London County Council and the Metropolitan Police plus the Asylums Board and Water Board. They refused to pass on that precept, arguing that the local need came first.
They were taken to court and went to prison for six weeks (according to Wikipedia)Unions collected money for the Councillors’ families and other boroughs threatened to do the same. A law was rushed through Parliament to equalise things but the workhouse system continued to 1929 and poor relief was reorganised by the implementation of the Beveridge report.
The councillors were people of principle. I know they exist today.
Amazing story
Google for “Clay Cross Councillors” for previous attempts to defy Tory legislation. Isolated and sold down the river by The Labour leadership, which is par for the course, they were ultimately bankrupted.
Thanks
I remember that one
Got a link for this? 🙂
I`d guess that having the C of E as an established church,with all that it implies(nudge nudge?) does not help. Just leave religion to the faithful,whose views I would always respect,if not always agree with – but that,by the way,also includes having only secular state schools as well,as in France.
The problem of a State Church, which is what the Church of England is, is that it is frequently hamstrung when it comes to challenging the power and misdeeds of the State to which it is beholden. The C of E challenged the Thatcher Government with its ‘Faith in the City’ Report of 1985, but the response (‘Marxist theology’, etc.) burned far too many fingers for there to be a similar challenge today. The Church as a whole has been getting its relations with the State wrong ever since the time of Constantine the Great. Disestablishment would set the Church of England free, and this particular Anglican wants to see it happen a.s.a.p.