Praised for defying political convention when he admitted in 2007 that he was an atheist, Nick Clegg appears to have undergone a rapid conversion.
The Liberal Democrat leader, who was criticised by David Cameron for his “holier-than-thou” attitude in the first of the televised leaders’ debates, has written an article for The Church of England Newspaper in which he claims that Christian values are “central” to his policies.
“My objective is to make space in society for every individual to pursue their [sic] own beliefs, and to achieve their potential,” he writes. “For me that means being willing to take a stand, even on issues that may be unpopular.”
I have not read the article in question, but I wonder whether it mentions another central plank of the Liberal Democratic platform: to remove from faith schools the freedom to choose pupils on the basis of faith. This would effectively kill off the greatly admired Anglican and Catholic schools, by removing what makes them distinctive. (There being no separation of church and state in the UK, our church schools get government money.)
Deathbed conversions have been the subject of comment by many over many years. Have we a new species here – The Political Conversion of Facilitation to Election? It appears the necessity here is not to convince God of the earnestness of the conversion, but the electorate.