The Primate of All England ought not to have launched a partisan broadside on the Government
Letters to the Editor
SIR - Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is as entitled as the next person to express a personal view. He has, in the past, been subject to unjustified criticism for having the temerity to do so.
This time, however, criticism is justified, because he hasn't restricted himself to one issue but has used his position to launch a partisan broadside on the Government.
In doing so, he compromises the normal strength of his position as an individual of stature and independence. The problem is that any future pronouncements will also be seen as being politically partisan.
Andrew C. Pierce
Barnstaple, Devon
SIR - We all admired the dignified way the Archbishop conducted the marriage service of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. He should stick to his day job.
Tim Wadsworth
Malmesbury, Wiltshire
SIR - The Archbishop is entitled to his own Left-wing views, but he should not use his position to criticise the Government.
He thinks that "we are being committed to radical, long-term policies for which no one voted". In round terms, voting at the last election was 10, eight and six million votes for the Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem parties. The Coalition thus had two thirds of votes cast, and its compromise policies derive from that clear majority.
As a member of the Church of England, I did not vote for my Archbishop - certainly not for him to engage in party politics.
David Clarke
Hook, Hampshire
SIR - The direction this Archbishop of Canterbury has taken the Anglican Church in the past nine years frightens me. His policies are unfortunately not subject to a democratic test at least every five years.
Chris Watson
Carlton River, Tasmania, Australia
SIR - The Archbishop thinks it significant that no one voted for the Coalition's policies. Who voted for him or his 25 fellow bishops who occupy seats in the Lords?
Graham Hoyle
Baildon, West Yorkshire
SIR - No one voted for Rowan Williams's ideas. The population is broadly in accord with what the Coalition is doing - especially in education, the previous custodians of which were turning our youth into moronic Labour vote-fodder.
No wonder the Anglican Church is in such decline and disarray. He should keep his thoughts to himself.
Simon Holder
Stalbridge, Dorset
SIR - Surely the Archbishop should put his own house in order - a chronic shortage of clergy at the coalface, archaic bureaucracy, congregations dwindling, churches closing, divisive debate about women and gay bishops - before savaging the Coalition.
Jasper Archer
Stapleford, Wiltshire
SIR - In making this intervention, the Archbishop abuses the authority he enjoys, by virtue of his position as the country's most important religious leader, to exercise disproportionate influence in our party politics, on which he is no more qualified to opine than any other voter.
We would think it improper, and ridiculous, if David Cameron were to use Prime Minister's Questions as a platform for lecturing the country with his views on the Immaculate Conception; it is no less improper and ridiculous for the Archbishop to use his position in this way.
Michael Grenfell
London NW11
SIR - The Archbishop warns that the public is "gripped by fear" over reforms to the NHS, education and benefits. The polls do not support this, with the Conservative and Lib Dem share of voting intentions at nearly 50 per cent.
I think what he means is that those he talks to can't wait for another Labour government, incontinent spending and all.
Alasdair Ogilvy
Iping, West Sussex
SIR - The electorate, by a significant majority, made it clear it no longer wanted to be run by a Labour government that had brought the nation to a parlous, debtridden state.
We entrusted the resolution of 13 years of mismanagement to a new team, the Coalition. In a representative democracy it is surely appropriate for decisions to be made on our behalf.
Michael Nicholson
Dunsfold, Surrey
SIR - The Government is led by David Cameron, who appears to be a cultural Christian (having said that his faith "fades in and out rather like Radio Oxford"), and by Nick Clegg, a professed atheist.
The lack of a faith or a moral framework for government is demonstrated clearly by contrasting Jesus's anger with the moneylenders in the Temple with current economic policy, which appears designed to appease their modern equivalents, the markets, and to compensate them for their own follies and greed at huge cost to millions.
Dr Nick Winstone-Cooper
Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan
SIR - At last, the Archbishop has written something I understand.
Michael Barnes
Bletchingley, Surrey
