Two cheers for the Church of England

I am writing this in a personal capacity, although for several years I have been chair of the friends of the local parish church.  As well as raising funds for the fabric of the Church, as an iconic building in the townscape (larger than many cathedrals), we have been seeking to promote its wider use as a community asset, e.g., there is a café run by Ukranian refugees (not my work). We even showed Life of Brian in the church.

I was baptised in the Church of England and attended a CoE primary school.   This was of enormous benefit to my intellectual development as I had to wrestle with complex theological ideas at the age of seven or eight.  After we had been told we could attend Catholic services if we were on holiday abroad (none of us could afford that then), it was not received well when I suggested that the main quarrel with the Roman Catholic church appeared to be that the Pope was in Rome not Canterbury and was Italian not English.

I was never confirmed and I am not in communion with the CoE and have refused to be blessed.  I have had some interesting theological discussions with the vicar, but I remain an agnostic liberal Erastian (supporter of an Established Church).   I think that many of the ethical principles listed in the New Testament are good ones.   Katja Hoyer seems to take a similar stance in her most recent blog: https://www.katjahoyer.uk/p/whats-left-of-christianity

On the specific issue of safeguarding, the parish church has been trying for months without success to secure a replacement voluntary safeguarding role and it is now going to become part of a new paid post.

The impression I have formed is that the bureaucracy of the CoE is rigid and dysfunctional, not least at diocese level.   I also think that the Bishop of Newcastle has been badly treated by her fellow bishops.

Within my town each of the churches of the CoE offers a different menu: one is Pentecostalist (having been visited by the Holy Spirit); two are hand clapping evangelical; one appears to tolerate speaking in tongues; one reserves the sacrament, has Benediction and is under the aegis of a 'flying Bishop'.  A member of the PCC kindly invited me to his house to try and explain the theological stance of the parish church and 'English Catholic's is the nearest label I can provide.

Given such variety, it is difficult to maintain an established Church, although the legislation required to disestablish it would be complex. (See: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8886/ As far as I can tell, Wills has little enthusiasm for the role of Supreme Governor.   The position of bishops in the House of Lords is best dealt with as part of a wider reform.

There also some interesting questions about who would take responsibility for maintaining the fabric of cathedrals and architecturally valuable churches.

One of the advantages of an Established Church is that its services are available to all citizens regardless of their religious standing.   I have paid up front for my funeral and asked a friend who is a lay preacher to conduct it according to CoE rites.   The timing should be ok.

Reforming the Lords

Lords reform is a hardy perennial - I can remember the failed attempt in the 1960s defeated by an unholy coalition of the left and right.   However, it is useful to have a review of the options by leading expert Meg Russell: https://constitution-unit.com/2020/02/23/lords-reform-is-back-on-the-agenda-what-are-the-options/

What does need to bear in mind is that an elected Lords would have much greater legitimacy and the risk of legislative deadlock would increase.   There is something to be said for a moderating and scrutiny chamber, although not on its present basis.

Will the Lords block the internal market bill?

Will the House of Lords block the Government's controversial Internal Market Bill?   Meg Russell of UCL's Constitution Unit is the leading expert on the upper house and gives an authoritative view here: https://constitution-unit.com/2020/09/13/will-the-lords-block-the-uk-internal-market-bill/ 

From what I hear, some on the right are getting ready to portray the Lords as an undemocratic body standing in the way of the will of the people.  

Their Lordships House

House of Lords reform has suddenly become a hot topic again with some of the press complaining about an increase in expenses whilst overlooking the fact that the chamber sat more often after the 2017 election. Meg Russell is our leading expert on the House of Lords and it is good to see a review from her of the various ideas that have been put forward: Reform is back on the agenda

Some of the ideas put forward have been simply bonkers, although there was an interesting idea in a letter to The Times that when new government ministers are made lords they should cease to be voting members after their often short tenures.

It should also be remembered that there are advantages in having a second chamber that doesn't have too much legitimacy or power if we want to avoid legislative gridlock.

Getting a new Parliament up and running

A useful guide from the Constitution Unit written by two former Clerks of the House: What happens after the election

Again no progress on reforming the Lords

Brexit, climate change, knife crime, there are lots of pressing issues apart from House of Lords reform. Indeed, this is one reason why it never gets anywhere. It is always going to be low down the political agenda. However, it looks as if we are moving backwards, even in terms of the relatively limited but necessary objective of capping and reducing its size: Two steps forward, two steps back

By-elections in the Lords

An interesting piece by Sir David Beamish, a former Lords clerk, on the anomaly of by-elections for hereditary peers to be voting members of the House of Lords: Hereditary peers

Attempts to get rid of the by-elections and let the hereditary peers gradually die away have been blocked by members of the Lords putting forward amendments so that the bills run out of time. Of course, attempts at Lords reform by successive governments have also failed.

I may have unwittingly played a small part in setting up this system. In the late 1990s I was teaching a course with Lord Skidelsky who was then a Conservative front bencher. He asked me if I knew anything about the old system of Scottish representative (elected) peers and I recommended a book on the subject.

AV and PR

The Elections, Parties and Opinion Polls (EPOP) group organised a panel on the AV referendum at the Political Studies Assocciation (PSA) conference this week. Although it occupied the graveyard slot in the conference it attracted a good attendance and provoked some lively discussion. But perhaps that says something about the geekiness of political scientists as one can hardly imagine that outside on a warm afternoon in West London people were discussing AV as they sipped a coffee or enjoyed an early pint before the holiday weekend.

It was agreed that the debate had often been simplistic, misleading and irrelevant, but then, as someone remarked, that is true of many political debates. It looks likely that the referendum will be defeated on a low turnout (especially in London where there are no other elections).

British people are relatively conservative and tend to favour the status quo. They have been told that AV would be complicated and expensive, although, of course, any form of democracy costs money. The poll evidence suggests that older voters are more opposed and they are more likely to turn out and vote.

Given that AV is really a modified form of first-past-the post, what would be the consequences of either a win or a defeat for PR? Some think that a win would not be what some have called a slippery slope to PR, but would end the debate. Voters would be coralled into two voting camps, leading to less representation of the diversity of the electorate. What seems more likely is that a defeat would end the PR debate as a live item for some time to come. But it has always been a debate among the political class anyway.

What seems certain is that variants of PR will remain where they are embedded in 'secondary elections' for the devolved assemblies, the European Parliament and the London assembly and mayoral elections. The defeat of the referedum might give an impetus to Lords reform as a sop to Nick Clegg. A largely elected upper house would use some form of PR, although when this prospect was mentioned a life peer in the audience went slighty green around the gills.

Tradition and modernity

That mixture is always present in British politics. I was in the House of Lords yesterday and an official resplendent in his scarlet uniform swept past on a motability scooter, doffing his top hat to my companion and saying, 'Good day, my lord'. But in the restaurant they were serving iced coffee. I had tea and crumpets which were excellent.