Ever closer union

Church of England’s Brexit prayers – what exactly do they mean?

A few months ago the Archbishop of York issued a Brexit prayer, or, rather, 'A Prayer for Parliament in Time of Brexit Trouble'. It was a fairly benign effort which was very well received in the Church of England, not…

Chequers Plan: a dog’s Brexit, or a dog’s dinner of pragmatic politics and parliamentary sovereignty?

July 9, 2018
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Whatever you think of Theresa May's Chequers Plan, it did at least unite the Cabinet for 48 hours. On the plus side, it was at least a plan. It may…

Welby IICSA clericalism deference ashamed

Welby condemns the church’s deferential culture of clericalism and tribalism

March 22, 2018
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"I have seen afresh the insanity of clericalism and of a deferential culture and how we have to struggle against that," the Archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday in his evidence…

COMECE: Roman Catholics should support EU integration

October 18, 2017
372 Comments

COMECE is the Roman Catholic Church in the European Union (the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community). Its mission is to explore strange new worlds, to seek…

Félicitations, President Macron – Vive la Faux Révolution!

May 8, 2017
236 Comments

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…

EU intervention in the General Election: May the force of May ever seize the day

May 4, 2017
142 Comments

Theresa May has thrown down the gauntlet to confront the latest meddling EU intervention. She also threw down the vambrace, breastplate, pauldrons and helmet, and she had every right to.…

May invokes Article 50: may our second national revolution be as glorious as the first

March 29, 2017
350 Comments

On 22nd January 1972, Conservative Prime Minister Ted Heath signed the Treaty of Rome, by which the process of UK accession to the EEC began. After hundreds of hours of…

Bishop of Liverpool slams Trump/Brexit voters who “bow the knee to hate”

November 21, 2016
429 Comments

Amazon have produced a warm, cuddly, interfaith Christmas ad. And it's authentic: there are no actors. A real-life vicar and a real-life imam exchange gifts (knee-pads) to help make praying…

Brexit, pursued by a Blair

October 29, 2016
196 Comments

"This is the chase: I am gone for ever," proclaims the old shepherd Antigonus in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, immediately before that most famous stage direction: 'Exit, pursued by a…

Bishop of Europe: Brexit represents loss, abject failure, squandering of birthright

July 18, 2016
263 Comments

"Let me be clear," said the Rt Rev'd Dr Robert Innes, Bishop of* Europe, as he addressed the General Synod of the Church of England. "From my European perspective,…

Brexit: a supreme act of foolishness perpetrated by racists, bigots and small right-wing men

June 25, 2016
799 Comments

Never in a decade of blogging has so much bile and vomit been spewed in this direction. Oh, we've had our fractious moments over the years, but nothing, ever,…

Salt & Light: the gospel, the EU, and the misappropriation of God's word

June 7, 2016
136 Comments

Steve Thomas is the International Team Leader of Salt & Light - "an international family of churches together on mission". Their core commitments are impeccably orthodox and undeniably evangelical,…

Edward Fox urges Britons to leave the EU: "Sovereign power is absolute"

May 16, 2016
101 Comments

Edward Fox OBE is one of the UK's most distinguished actors, with a career spanning seven decades. In manner, character and disposition, he is the epitome of English decency,…

Giles Fraser backs Brexit – and the liberal elite sneer at him for it

May 11, 2016
364 Comments

The Rev'd Dr Giles Fraser is one of the very few Church of England clergy who has publicly declared that he wants the UK to leave the EU. It…

Catholic bishops: picking their principles of social teaching

May 10, 2016
377 Comments

This is a guest post by Peter Smith: a Roman Catholic barrister practising in London. ______________________ Thus, the Catholic bishops in England and Wales have spoken. The EU Referendum, they…

Cameron splashes £9million of taxpayers' cash on EU propaganda

April 7, 2016
236 Comments

When is EU propaganda not EU propaganda? When it's commissioned by the UK Government and paid for by British taxpayers? When it's helpful facts rather than belligerent opinions? Or…

EU Referendum: Welby asks the fairest questions of all

March 13, 2016
86 Comments

The froth masks the urgency of the substance; the heat deflects from the dominant paradigms of light. The EU Referendum debate is being reduced to a Tory pantomime of…

Cameron's EU deal: we were lied to in 1975; we won't be deceived again

February 3, 2016
283 Comments

David Cameron's EU deal is no deal at all. It amounts to minor tinkering, presentational puff, and achieves little in terms of the subsidiarity-sovereignty objectives which the Conservative Party…

Stephen Crabb has no need to be ashamed of his Christian faith

December 19, 2015
164 Comments

Who could have imagined just 15 years ago at the turn of the century that we would now be living in such unpredictable times? What seems like a permanent…

Cameron's EU via media: a British Model of Associate Membership

November 11, 2015
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We want neither to be absorbed by the infallible magisterium of catholicity ('ever-closer union'), nor isolated by the nationalism of puritanical reformation ('out'): we want, instead, a particular 'British…