TELEGRAPH FRONT PAGE "Entire cities cast aside by Coalition, says Archbishops" #skypapers pic.twitter.com/t3s1y0oSBN
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 14, 2015
Britain under the Coalition is a country in which the poor are being “left behind” and entire cities “cast aside” because politicians are obsessed with Middle England, the Church of England says today in a damning assessment of the state of the nation.
In a direct and unapologetically “political” intervention timed for the beginning of the General Election campaign, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, warn party leaders are selling a “lie” that economic growth is the answer to Britain’s social problems.
Questioning David Cameron’s slogan “we’re all in this together” they condemn inequality as “evil” and dismiss the assumption that the value of communities is in their economic output as a “sin”.
The natural response to this would be: ‘Please name those cities which have been cast aside.’ Our larger conurbations certainly have areas of poverty and deprivation. But cast aside? Not only that but whole cities? And if such towns were named what would the residents say? I think they would be outraged to be stigmatized in this way. Methinks hyperbole at work here. Some ooh 30 years ago the then Bishop of Durham at election time said it was shocking that in Britain children were still going to school barefoot. The bareknuckled politician Norman Tebbit challenged him to say where. Of course the said bishop could come up with nothing.