Church of England needs to get back to basics rather than fussing about flags: Sarah Todd

Time to find some new phrases. Those learnt over the years in the stable and farmyard – agricultural and to the point - are unsuitable for such an esteemed publication.

Casting the net, it is perhaps interesting to note that the first known uses of lily-livered are in William Shakespeare’s works, referring to the medieval belief that a person who had no blood in their liver - that it was pale like the flower - would have no courage and therefore be a coward.

So cowardly could be used in future, along with spineless and gutless. Yellow-bellied does the trick quite well, along with the old playground term of somebody being a chicken. As an aside, imagine today’s caff-hearted (liking this one) teachers trying to deal with the custard-calling of our childhoods.

Now, engaging the brain, is this not where bonkers Britian (hands up, this one has been used a lot recently) has been going wrong.

For far too long our country has shied away from (warning, another one coming up) calling a spade a spade.

The Cambridge Dictionary definition of this phrase is - take note everybody who has the honour of holding a taxpayer-financed job from the Prime Minister down – ‘to say the truth about something, even if it is not polite or pleasant.’

Now, while always quick to praise Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch for her despatch box performances - there is, however, nothing to say Reform leader Nigel Farage wouldn’t do even better if he was able to take her seat - this voter has had no truck (yes, another turn of phrase) with her party since it gifted the country to the current incumbents.

However, credit where it’s due, the Tory party’s chairman, Yorkshire MP Keven Hollinrake, was talking the right sort of language when he said in an interview that disgraced former American Ambassador Peter Mandelson “was clearly a wrong ‘un.” The thing is though, why wasn’t more of a fuss made at the time. This country needs leaders who kick up a stink – sorry, here we go again - when something isn’t right at the time, rather than giving good soundbites afterwards.

Never mind if it’s elected members of Parliament or councillors at a parish meeting; they need to be able to speak out without worry of being branded bullies or behind the times. To give an honest opinion, without risk of it landing them in hot water or - as seems to be the way our world is going - a stay at His Majesty’s Pleasure for daring to speak out.

Just the other day, Church of England bishops poked their noses into British people’s use of the St George’s cross.

While yes, any far-right use deliberately meant to intimidate others is obviously wrong, this reporter would like to politely request there are more important issues for them to be getting their cassocks into a twist over.

Their statement followed last summer’s Operation Raise Your Colours online campaign, which mobilised widespread flying of St George’s Cross flags across the country.

Rather than vilifying, it’s so much more important to look at the reasons why people feel they need to raise a flag on a roundabout or wave one outside a hotel housing illegal immigrants (at such huge taxpapers’ expense) in hotels or former army camps next to worried communities.

Religion - and society as a whole - needs to get back to basics. For anyone unfamiliar with the term, it means ‘giving your attention to the simplest and most important matters after ignoring them for a while.’

A parting note to whoever, in these tumultuous times, ends up holding the reins of power, this does not mean chucking more money at those who don’t contribute to society.

It means stepping up to the plate - that one’s a favourite - and keeping it real, which a quick look-up explains as being ‘genuine, unaffected, or honest.’