No Cant From Cantuar

The last Budget attempted to bankrupt the Church of England.

The Coalition's two flagship legislative proposals are to force churches to perform same-sex "marriages" and to remove the Lords Spiritual from Parliament; such is the latter that no wonder the dear old C of E sees a better option in whatever will succeed the EU, already having very close relations with the historically state-sponsored Protestant churches in Northern Europe, and more than cordial ones with the Orthodox further east for whom it really did do a lot of work during the Cold War, as well as with the sort of people who become Catholic bishops on the Continent, exactly the sort of people who become Anglican bishops in England.

Imagining that it would support drafting in volunteers in place of paid workers with employment rights only serves to prove that David Cameron has never read a word of his church's extensive literature on these matters.

And then, there is the C of E's very heavy involvement in schools.

All in all, how nice was Rowan Williams expected to be about the Coalition? The wonder is that he has managed to be quite so restrained in his condemnation of it.