• The AB of C

To this list must surely be added the Archbishop of Canterbury. This week, the current incumbent, the former oil executive Justin Welby, resigned. This was as a result of his alleged knowledge of the systematic abuse of boys and young man perpetrated by John Smyth – a suspicious name in itself – which, it was claimed, he was aware of since as long ago as 2013.

Shocking though they are, the details of this case don’t surprise me. This is just the latest story about an organisation whose behaviour is frequently at odds with its ideals. However, any organised religion is, like other institutions such as a political party, the Freemasons or Manchester United, concerned above all else with preserving and maintaining itself and its self-image. The aims of the organisation don’t matter: what does is its own survival.

In this the Church of England has proved very adept, as has the Catholic Church. Things have changed, of course. Malefactors are no longer tortured on the rack or burnt at the stake, but quietly shipped away to other places where, though they might do further harm, this would be conveniently distant from the area in the control of whoever made the decision.

The Church of England has no direct divine mandate in the way that Islam does: assuming you accept (which I don’t) that such things exist at all. This was the result of a supreme piece of political settlement by Elizabeth I in the late 1550s. Theologically – again assuming this matters, which I don’t – it’s a mess. The CofE doesn’t seem to know what it believes in for 20 minutes at a time, or admits to views so broad and ecumenical as to make a mockery of any particular doctrine it espouses, and thus its pretence of being a faith at all. Its main effect seems to be to give those so inclined an hour or so of observance a week, often wearing a nice hat, so salving their consciences in the way that many of us worm a cat.

I must add that most of the vicars I’ve met have seemed to be good people and have the interests of their community at heart. Whether it be soup kitchens, climate-change vigils or opposition to industrial incinerators, their stands often chime with the national mood. This is, however, often despite rather than because of their religious affiliations.

Popularity is no proof of anything apart from popularity. However, it’s worth reporting that according to Christian News, weekly attendance at CofE churches (of which there are about 16,000 to choose from) is about 685,000, rather fewer than visit the 46 grounds that host league football each week.

Karl Marx said that religion was the opium of the people, a remark whose true meaning has since been debated (along with many other of his utterances). He foresaw that the need for religion would wither away come the revolution. That hasn’t yet come, but withering has to a large extent taken place.

The church still occupies a central place in our thought. For reasons that defy logic, the Lords Spiritual (bishops and archbishops) still occupy 25 places in the House of Lords. The monarch is still the head of the Church of England. Most of us know the Lord’s Prayer by heart. Many of our schools casually, or for reasons of their benefaction, espouse the doctrines of this sect each day. Churches, like medieval castles or Victorian railway stations in India, are constructed on a grand scale to remind us of our loyalties. Some of these are transcendently beautiful, as is much of the art and music which Christianity has inspired.

However, I’m struggling to think of anything transcendent that the CofE has contributed to national life since 1559 apart from helping to end a religious conflict. The best role the AB of C can play these days is as a slightly flaky moral guardian, reminding politicians of things that he feels they’ve forgotten, and frequently being castigated for his interference. Being associated with having protected a sexual predator for over a decade rather removes the moral high ground on which such pronouncements depend.

• PotUS

So, we need to adjust to a new reality in the USA. It might help if we reflect that what the man says is less important than what he does. The former is often bizarre, confusing and illogical. However, so are voters (me and, in all probability, you included). We react to different things at different times for different reasons. He’s won the election. The American people have spoken clearly.

So: what’s he going to do? The signs are that the transitions to his new administration will be more sensibly managed than last time. He’s had his hand on the levers of power before, knows what works and what doesn’t and – uniquely – had four years to reflect on this. The man may be crazy but he’s not an idiot. Above all, he prides himself on being able to make a deal. That’s his USP. He thinks that no-one can make better deals than him. This isn’t part of the normal political lexicon. Then again, nor is much else about what he’s said.

So what about his initial appointments? Well, that doesn’t give much hope. The appointment of a former Fox News anchor as Defence Secretary and X-boss Musk as head of the Government Efficiency Department certainly shows that DT has no worries about concepts of objective truth. We knew that already, but it’s now been confirmed.

• Dysfunctional

Still with Ian Dunt’s How Westminster Works and Why it Doesn’t by the bed, I remain fascinated by the effortlessly convincing way in which he lays bare the ways our democracy is fatally flawed: flawed, that is, if you don’t happen to be a member of a political party.

The chapter I read this morning concerned ministers and how – which is a point that has always worried me – they have, with few exceptions, no knowledge of the areas that they’re getting involved with. Dunt suggests that this is in many ways deliberate, with ministers being expected to toe a party line rather than try to manage a department. The task is, in any case, beyond the competence of any normal human considering the number of issues that civil-service paranoia demand be pushed upward for ministerial decision, the lack of understanding ministers have about how the civil service operates and the normal brevity of their tenure.

Take education. All government activities should involve strategic, rather than tactical or opportunistic thinking. Education, which occupies at least 10 years of people’s lives and frequently more, seems to demand particularly long-term thought. As with so many professions, teachers are in it for the long haul. This is not a job to be taken lightly. The future of the country is, literally, in their care. Surely expertise and – if justified – length of tenure should be valued? If so, might one not expect the same from the Secretaries of State who decide vital matters of policy.

It seems not. In the 10 years since 2014 there have been 10 SoS for Education, five of these having all or part of their tenure in one year alone (2022). One lasted only two days. Imagine if your children’ s school had that kind of turnover of head teachers. What would you think about either them, or the system that had appointed them?

Although I felt I already had a pretty cynical view of what was wrong with the way we were governed, this book is opening my eyes to abuses on a systemic and national scale that I hadn’t suspected. And I’m not yet half-way through it…

• Remote meetings

Another reminder that the government is asking for our views on the subject of once again allowing councils to conduct meeting by Zoom or similar, as briefly prevailed during the pandemic.

The preamble says that it “seeks views on the detail and practical implications of allowing remote and hybrid attendance at local authority meetings. It also tests views on the possible introduction of proxy voting for those occasions when an elected member, due to personal circumstances, may be unable to attend even remotely.”

Responses are invited “from local authority elected members, all types and tiers of authorities and local authority sector representative organisations. We are also particularly keen to hear from those members of the public who have a point of view based on their interest in accessing local democracy in their area, or standing as a candidate for local government at any tier to represent their local community at some future point.”

 • And finally…

• I’ve been finding out about almshouses this week, inspired by a project in Lambourn which is creating nine social-rent homes at no cost to (but with no support from) our local council. These, for various reasons, exist outside the planning system and so often form no formal part of its considerations, and yet they provide benefits which should be better recognised. There’s a housing crisis, particularly for affordable and social-rent homes. Almshouses have been around since before the Norman conquest and so perhaps are regarded as irrelevant.

It would seem not, if their local connections, historical stipulations and altruistic ambitions can be harnessed to the present-day needs of the planning system. They seem to me like a resource that’s not being sufficiently recognised. More on this soon.

• The BBC reports that Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has criticised “Western fake news” about the country’s emissions and said nations “should not be blamed” for having fossil fuel reserves. These resources are, Aliyev claims, “a gift of God”. An inconvenient truth though it might be, the man has a point. Ignorance is no defence in the law. The fact that virtually every post hunter-gather settlement exploited natural resources to further its own interests can be cited in his defence.

The world is not, and never will be, organised on a basis where existential threats will, if not fast moving and immediate, trump the interests of anyone who happens to be in power over a particular area of the planet. Geopolitics doesn’t change, even if the problems do. A full-scale invasion from Mars might pull us all together, but I rather doubt even that. The Americans will blame the Russians, and vice versa; the Chinese will say the whole thing is a western plot; the EU will say that we need to have more evidence; and the North Koreans will deny that anything has happened at all.

• As a football fan, I’m irritated by the number of international breaks which happen which cut into the domestic seasons. Yes, I get caught up in the hysteria of international tournaments, but each time I’m increasingly alarmed by the graphics and rhetoric that accompanies them. Perhaps Brexit was meant to make us feel prouder of our difference from others. It hasn’t quite worked for me yet.

• The Guardian reports that the British Museum has been given a private collection of Chinese ceramics worth about £1bn, “the highest-value object donation in UK museum history”. That’s all great as long as the museum can stop them being nicked...