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Archbishop of Canterbury Condemns Frightening Coalition
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by liamssoft | June 9, 2011 at 02:33 am
387 views | 31 Recommendations | 4 comments
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June 9 2011
In the most outspoken political intervention by an Archbishop of Canterbury for a generation, Dr Rowan Williams warned that the UK public is gripped by “fear” over the Government’s reforms to education, the NHS and the benefits system and accused David Cameron and Nick Clegg of forcing through “radical policies for which no one voted”.
In his piece, Williams says that his aim is to stimulate "a livelier debate" and to challenge the left to develop its own "big idea" as an alternative to the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.
- VIDEO 1 Archbishop Criticises government policies BBC TV
- VIDEO 2 Archbishop Criticizes government policies SKY TV
- VIDEO 3 Iain Duncan Smith defends government policies SKY TV
- VIDEO 4 Iain Duncan Smith defends government policies BBC TV
- VIDEO 5 Bishop of Leicester defends Rowan Williams BBC TV
The Archbishop of Canterbury's sustained attack on the Coalition has been defended by Lord Norman Tebbit, the former Conservative minister, who said many of its policies had not been voted for.
Defending the Archbishop's right to intervene in matters of government policy, Lord Tebbit said Dr Williams's comments had highlighted a "problem of coalition."
He told BBC - Radio 4 - The Today Programme: "No one would dispute the right of the Archbishop to make comments of a political kind in this area, it is part of his job.
"He is quite right that there are policies of the coalition for which nobody seemed to vote and policies for which people voted that are not being carried through by the coalition, but that is a problem of coalition."
9th June 2011
In extracts of the archbishop's article in the New Statesman magazine, Dr Rowan Williams raised concerns about the coalition's undemocratic policies on health, education and welfare reforms. He said there was "indignation" due to a lack of "proper public argument".
A Downing Street spokesman said: "This government was elected to tackle Britain's deep-rooted problems."
9th June 2011
Prime minister David Cameron said Rowan Williams the archbishop of Canterbury is entirely free to express political views. I have never been one to say that the Church should fight shy of making political interventions.
"But what I would say is that I profoundly disagree with many of the views that he has expressed, particularly on issues like debt, welfare and education."
Vince Cable, the business secretary, said he was "baffled" by Williams' comments. We are rethinking the reforms.
Iain Duncan Smith MP, said the archbishop should have been more balanced in his comments.
Former prime minister Tony Blair said senior clergy attacking government policy was nothing new.
Andy Burnham, shadow education secretary said, most people share William's concerns about the government's pursuit of cutting too far and too fast, subjecting the NHS to a reckless top-down reorganization and launching an unprecedented attack on young people by scrapping EMA and trebling tuition fees, policies for which it has no mandate.
Gary Streeter, Conservative MP for South West Devon and chair of the all-party Christians in parliament group, said: "I think the people are with us on this and the archbishop, sadly and unusually for him, has ill-judged his attack."Tory backbencher Roger Gale said: "For him, as an unelected member of the upper house to criticise the coalition government as undemocratic and not elected is unacceptable. I would have wished him to get behind and encourage the "big society" not to dismiss this as a stale cost-cutting exercise.
The Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, argues that religion already does the big society's job – and does it better.
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at 08:06 on June 9th, 2011
I never thought I would hear myself say this, but I reluctantly have to agree with the Archbishop of Canterbury saying the Government is NOT delivering many things it promised us it would. For example, Mr Cameron.................... I did NOT vote to have half the high street closing down I did NOT vote to have 500,000 civil servants made redundant I did NOT vote to have the NHS part privatised I did NOT vote for mass demonstrations every weekend condemning your policies I did NOT vote to have student fees trebled to £9000 I did NOT vote for soft sentences for criminals I did NOT vote for reducing sentences for criminals I did NOT vote to have VAT increased TO 20% I did NOT vote to have the forest sold off I did NOT vote to have my taxes dished out to every ungrateful country in the world. I did NOT vote for the continuing abuses of the ludicrously cretinous Human Rights Act I did NOT vote for even more of our sovereignty to be handed to Europe. I did NOT vote for continuing Mass immigration And those are just for starters! .
at 09:49 on June 9th, 2011
IDS and others insinuating that benefit dependency is largely self-inflicted is not the reality. Over five million people are forced to claim out-of-work and in-work benefits because they have an unproductive economy that does not produce enough jobs and delivers poor wages that have to be topped up through tax-credits and other rebates.The Prime Minister has been right from the start on the need to rebalance the economy away from services and towards manufacturing and production. IDS needs to understand that benefit dependency will not end until we have addressed its causes at macroeconomic level. In the meantime if IDS is really serious about taking the long-term unemployed off the dole he should use the three billion pounds he plans to pay to agencies and instead use it to set up a rotating community work programme which could replace dole for the long-term unemployed.Following Labour's lead and paying three billion pounds to agencies who won't be able to find jobs(just like under the New Deal) is madness, when a waged Community Programme
at 17:58 on June 10th, 2011
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