Tom Richmond: An archbishop with nothing positive to say

I know the primary function of the Church of England’s senior cleric is to criticise the government of the day – Robert Runcie and George Carey were no different – but such interventions are becoming futile when the CoE has so little positive to say.

According to Rowan Williams, the disorder was linked to “massive economic hopelessness” and rising levels of youth unemployment will only inflame tensions still further.

He then went on to extol the virtues of restorative justice, though recent experience in Leeds is not encouraging after a teenager showed total contempt, and lack of remorse, when he blamed the occupiers of a house that he burgled for not taking adequate security precautions.

As well as being oblivious to the nation’s financial predicament with his demands for even greater state spending, Williams seems strangely quiet on how the CoE could transform communities if its clergy were tasked with expanding their diligent outreach work.

If they were tasked with setting up an extra activity in their parish every week for the young, irrespective of whether the youths concerned were religious or not, the future threat of “anarchy” may diminish. Alternatively, why doesn’t Williams ask vicars to set up mentoring schemes to help the young unemployed gain the skills and confidence that will impress employers?

For, if the CoE did lead by example and encompass the approach championed so assiduously in these parts by Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, then Dr Williams may find that his criticisms are taken slightly more seriously by those who have become disillusioned by his negative contributions to public life.

IT was the last rail journey from hell between London and Leeds that convinced me about the need for a high-speed train line between the capital and Yorkshire.

Yet it will never happen if the Government makes a £500m concession whenever the plan encounters difficulties with campaigners in the Home Counties.

This is how much it will cost to build a new tunnel in the Chesham and Amersham constituency of Cheryl Gillan, the Welsh Secretary who, perversely, represents this most rural of seats in Buckinghamshire’s southern reaches. It might – just – be sufficient to prevent Gillan from resigning in protest at the HS2 plan. Yet, having made one concession, presumably to appease the Welsh Secretary, what message does this send out to other objectors – and other sceptical Ministers whose constituencies straddle the route?

THE latest edition of About News, a 16-page newspaper produced by the NHS in Leeds in conjunction with the city council, confirms that these organisations still have money to burn – even in a week where roads have been lift ungritted and bin collections left to chance.

It arrived on my doorstep last Saturday afternoon. Its highlights included details of the seven week Love Arts festival that began on September 27; details of the Moroccan Market of Handicraft that took place from November 23-26 and a reminder, of one was needed, that schools break up for Christmas next Friday. In between this, there was Leeds Council’s assertion that “we are setting up an ‘enterprise zone’ in the Aire Valley” – when, in fact, this is the Government’s decision – and chief executive Tom Riordan’s assertion that he wants his city to be the best in the UK.

It will never happen, I’m afraid, if this kind of daftness continues. Hasn’t the council, in the week it announced a further 600 job losses, better things that it could spend the About Leeds budget on?

DO you remember Nicholas Ridley? Apart from being photographed chain-smoking when Margaret Thatcher when the then PM went on a litter-picking spree, he’s remembered for being the Trade and Industry Secretary who had to resign in July 1990.

His offence was an interview with The Spectator magazine in which he described EU economic and monetary union as “a German racket designed to take over the whole of Europe”.

Given the desperate attempts to save the euro, it did make me wonder whether such comments would be a resignation issue in these tumultuous times as Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, tightens her grip on the eurozone’s fate?

IT must be the season of goodwill when Labour veteran Dennis Skinner is offering advice to George Osborne after the Chancellor predicted that interest rates remain low.

Pointing out how most of Osborne’s forecasts had been inaccurate, the Beast of Bolsover went on: “For Christ’s sake, don’t go to the Prime Minister and ask him to bail you out because he was economic adviser to Norman Lamont, who lost £10bn in an afternoon and never went near a betting shop.”

Contrast this with Shipley MP Philip Davies’s disdain: “Which strategy does the Chancellor think is best for dealing with a deficit caused by overspending: cutting expenditure by more than eight per cent over the next four years, as the Irish Government are doing, or increasing cash expenditure by more than five per cent over the next four years, as this Government are doing?”

Osborne’s non-response spoke volumes of the difficulties that he, and the country, face.

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