I know many people today will be afraid of what the Government cuts outlined in the CSR [Comprehensive Spending Review] will mean for them and their families.
I think we would all accept that this is a difficult time for our country economically. There are difficult choices to be made, and real debates to be had about what is the best way forward. Debate, discussion and compromise can all be positive when those involved are conducting themselves in the right spirit. However we need to ensure that no-one is left behind.
The promotion of social justice should be a primary moral imperative for any government, and for every publicly funded institution. For when the government puts the promotion of social justice at its heart, we can stand together as one nation, as one people in solidarity with each other, recognizing the dignity of all, and affording all fair and equal opportunities for access and services. Freedom, fraternity and informed choice must characterise our social fabric.
A good piece, in parts, by the Archbishop, but I think the term ‘social justice’ needs to be looked at more carefully. We have just been through a period with a Labour government who have [as all Labour governments do] overspent massively in the name of ‘social justice’ – much of it wastefully and ineffectively.
We have gone from a period when the last government took over when the world’s 4th largest economy and borrowing was in relatively good shape, north sea oil revenues were coming in, and tax was relatively low, to a state where the coalition government took over, where the economy has shrunk and its position is sliding down the world ratings, borrowing is horrendous to the extent that we risk a run on our currency and a loss of our debt rating, north sea oil revenues have been largely exhausted and the proceeds already spent rather than saved. The tax burden has risen by multiples, pensions have been eroded by the market and by taxation and everything that moves has been taxed.
Now is the morning after the night before and the new government has arrived to find the cupboard bare. Long term contracts for public spending with massive penalty clauses for breaking them have mortgaged future revenues and bound decision-makers.
There is and is going to be more pain, because those who advocate ‘social justice’ have almost bankrupted us. Only today I was listening to a government funded body who go into primary [elementary] schools to promote social diversity and inclusion in the interests of ‘social justice’ bewailing the upcoming cut in their funding. Well we are at the stage where we will struggle to pay for even the basic functions that a government should provide, let alone all these add ons which are apparently so necessary to the social justice lobby.
We certainly need to look after the ill, the unemployed and the needy, but political engineering will have to sit on the shelf until the basics have been sorted, whatever the Archbishop and those who got us into this mess think while sitting in their palaces. Perhaps they should contemplate what their role has been in getting us into the state we are in and approach things with a little humility and perhaps with apology.
Definition of social justice: Take your money by force and distribute it to buy votes from people who won’t or can’t work.
It is a failing tactic of those in power all over the world, and our politicians can’t think of any other way to stay in power. Its worked too well in the past.
Well said, friends.
[blockquote]I am not an economist, and I am not a politician, but to cut investment to vital public services, and to withdraw investment from communities, is madness.[/blockquote]
Isn’t that the truth! Our liberal archbishops and their Council have overseen a period of growth in the church’s assets of minus £1billion.
Truth be told, with tax receipts down and empty coffers, were we to take the approach the Archbishop advocates, as with the church as with the state, and look at spending from the point of view of the end service, rather than our resources, then the result would be that we could only do that by continuing to borrow even more than we do at the moment, and taking the risk that not only would other people would be prepared to continue lending even more to us, but that they would be prepared to support and even renew their existing lending. The most likely result would be a collapse in confidence in Britain, a run on our currency, blowing our credit rating to bits and us having to go cap in hand to the IMF or European Union as Greece had to do. When that happened, even more swinging financial discipline than that the current coalition government has put in place. There then wouldn’t be any element of ‘social justice’ in what would be imposed on us.
But then, as the Archbishop says, he is not an economist, which is why he is one of those charged with running the finances of the Church of England, disasterously, when not telling the government how to run the economy.
We have the headline: [url=http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/207388/Church-diocese-is-axed-because-of-Muslim-influx/ ]CHURCH DIOCESE IS AXED BECAUSE OF MUSLIM INFLUX [/url]
I think that the public perception is that the CoE leaders are trying to divert attention from their actual job performance by talking about everything else (and I would agree with that perception).