Bernard Ingham: Archbishop points the finger at wrong target when we need moral leadership

In launching his book, John Sentamu’s Faith Stories, he said an “unhealthy ‘me’ culture” which grew up in Margaret Thatcher’s 1980s is still “poisoning” life in Britain. He added: “There is such a thing as society and we all have our small part to play in making things better”.

Only the ignorant, the unprincipled left or the downright lazy still allege Thatcher said “there is no such thing as society” without regard to context.

In uttering those words she was, in fact, saying there is indeed a society: it is you and me but not some abstract state on whom people tend to cast their problems. “No Government”, she said, “can do anything except through people. And people must look to themselves first”.

I would have thought that any prelate worth his mitre would by now have preached a thousand sermons on Thatcher’s call to personal responsibility. Instead, the Archbishop of York follows where the unworthy have trod. It is dispiriting.

But then what isn’t in Britain today? Not that this country is necessarily worse than any other – indeed, it is probably still better than most – but it nonetheless saps the heart out of you.

Wherever we look – be it horsemeat, the NHS, care of the elderly, industry, finance, accountancy and ambulance-chasing lawyers – we find a shabby carelessness and woeful neglect of reputation. It is steadily draining public confidence in the very fabric of this nation.

All this chucking away of perfectly wholesome food is, of course, hysterical. I fully expect any day now the medics will tell us that we ought to feed horsemeat to our athletes to improve speed and stamina. After all, it does those gastronomes, the French, no harm at all.

But what is beyond the pale is trying to pass off horsemeat as beef, chicken, ham, veal or ostrich. That reveals the extent of fraud in our society and it has to be rooted out. But I have yet to hear a word of condemnation from the CBI, which is supposed to represent all that is best in British industry and commerce. Doesn’t it care?

I would put the same question to the CBI over tax avoidance. It is frankly pathetic for tax experts to come over all sanctimonious on TV about the Government needing to bung up loopholes. There is no doubt about what the Government intends: everybody should pay their dues.

The only problem is that accountants fiddle as a professional service. And have we heard from the various great institutions of the accountancy profession lecturing its members on their duty to the nation?

Have we heck. They are in the business of minimising the nation’s tax take. Like parasitical ambulance-chasing lawyers, they are anti-social. There is a lot of it about.

Which brings me to the NHS and the care of the elderly. You only have to read between the lines to know what is wrong. Like most public and indeed many private services, those providing them think they exist for their benefit and not for their customers or patients.

It is inconceivable that we 
would hear all the horror stories of what the elderly have to go through if a genuinely caring ethic existed.

This is, of course, a gross libel on many dutiful doctors, nurses and carers. But it is a legitimate question for NHS managers. What on earth do they think they are running? An undertakers’ benefit society?

I find it inexplicable that Sir David Nicholson, CEO of the NHS, remains in office after the Mid-Staffordshire Hospitals scandal, not to mention all the system’s other failings. With the best will in the world, he cannot bring about the necessary changes. If he won’t go of his own volition, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt should see him on his way this day or be damned.

What we now need more than ever in my lifetime is moral leadership.

Society is frankly going to the dogs. And it is going to the dogs because people in high places seem to know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

It is time the leaders, bosses 
and top managers of this nation rose to their responsibilities. Dammit, they’re paid enough.

It would also help if archbishops did their homework.