There's a move afoot to create a Cabinet of Bishops to shadow government departments, with the Archbishop of Canterbury presiding like a Prime Minister Spiritual, and those around him holding various political briefs, such as the Bishop for Brexit, the…
Upon reading Archbishop Stephen Cotterell’s remarks on English identity in the Telegraph, I was reminded of the time I was reading the Law Society Gazette whilst waiting for a court…
The SNP's Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill is currently wending its way through the committees and procedures of the Scottish Parliament. It provides for the modernising, consolidating and…
Earlier this week, I found within the BBC treasure trove of the Alistair Cooke archive a 1992 edition in which he explored the vexed question of immigration and the relevance…
Published below is an open letter to the Home Secretary Sajid Javid concerning the definition of 'Islamophobia' which has been proposed by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims.…
"The best guarantee of religious tolerance is a well-organised secular state... there is a higher authority; it's called the law," proclaimed author Ian McEwan on the BBC's 'Newsnight', in a…
Having robustly defended Southwark Cathedral for hosting the sort of iftar (the break-fast evening meal during Ramadan) of which the Queen (and possibly Jesus) would approve, here's an iftar which…
If it had been called 'Tea & Chapatis' no-one would have batted an eyelid. But the meal had an upper-case Islamic name – Iftar – and it involved Arabic food:…
Back in 2008, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams delivered a cerebral lecture about society and pluralism to a huddle of lawyers gathered in London. It might have remained fairly…
Charlottesville has gone downhill a bit since The Waltons: the town where John Boy negotiated his first bank loan, Jim-Bob learned about his dead twin brother, and grandma and grandpa…
The Rt Rev'd Christine Hardman, Bishop of Newcastle, has put her name to a letter, along with other community leaders, expressing their sadness and shock that child abuse gangs have…
"For religion to be taken seriously there needs to be an improvement in religious literacy across the media," wrote the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby last year. The context was…
As the victorious President-elect Emmanuel Macron appeared in front of Le Louvre to address the Fifth Republic, it was conspicuously to the strains of Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' – the…
Ukip is about to choose a(nother) new leader. Will it be Suzanne Evans or Paul Nuttall? That's the choice (we can safely discount John Rees-Evans for.. all.. sorts.. of.. reasons..).…
Norbert Hofer is the presidential hopeful of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) in the forthcoming election (which is being re-run in December owing to previous electoral irregularities). The Freedom…
When the Durham Free School and Grindon Hall Christian School were excoriated by Ofsted last year for a raft of educational deficiencies (not least of which was failing to promote…
We live in an age of ever-increasing secularity, in which religious practice must be half-hidden and religious conviction often-denied. You have to excavate quite deep to discover the moral sources…
According to Ofsted, Chobham Academy in the London Borough of Newham is an outstanding school. It is important to begin with that observation, because the school's leaders, governors and sponsor…
Politics endangers the soul. Where there was once principle and conviction, there is compromise and obfuscation. Doctrine adapts and morality is murky. Truth is abstracted, or swallowed in bitterness.…