The Archbishop of Canterbury is proposing to groups of MPs his intention to chair “citizens’ assemblies” to stop a no-deal departure from the EU.
First question: who are the “citizens” who will make up these so-called “citizens’ assemblies”? Citizens – though, since the people of Britain are not French republicans, we call ourselves “subjects” – voted decisively to leave the EU in the 3016 referendum. Not for the first time, Welby, under his pretence of a desire for more democracy, is bent on overturning our democratic decision to leave the EU. And Welby must be made to understand that this wasn’t any old hole-and-corner affair: more people voted to leave the EU than have ever voted for anything in British history.
Thus Welby has set himself in arrogant opposition to the will of the people
Welby has held talks in which he expressed his desire to chair citizens’ assemblies at Coventry Cathedral in September with prominent MPs to discuss tactics to oppose our leaving the EU “without a deal” on 31st October.
Unsurprisingly, Welby’s deceitful plan has come in for some criticism. Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith responded: “I generally don’t criticise the Archbishop but he shouldn’t allow himself to be tempted into what is essentially a very political issue right now.”
Mark Francois, vice-chairman of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs, said Britons were exhausted from being told why the result of the referendum should be overturned. He said: “I suspect Britons will not be overjoyed by having it rubbed in by the Archbishop of Canterbury to boot.”
Welby was also criticised by the Labour MP Kate Hoey and Brexit MEPs who demanded of the Archbishop that he stops his interference in the Brexit process. Ms Hoey said, “Welby should be in talks about why fewer people are attending church rather than pretend he is just trying to stop a no deal. He wants to stop us leaving!”
Of course he does! This concept of “leaving without a deal” is a red herring. Remainers, such as Welby, who wish to deny the referendum result, are craftily using the word “deal” to ensure that in actuality we never leave the EU. That was May’s ruse and it is being tried on again by her disciple Justin Welby.
The truth is we already have a deal and the deal is simply that we leave.
Welby is – let me retain my usual politeness – a shambles. He has already shown himself to be the enemy of justice and truth by his insistence that there remains “a significant cloud” over the head of Bishop George Bell – and that despite the fact that Lord Carlyle’s official enquiry cleared Bell of any sexual impropriety. Now in his deviations and machinations by which he means to ignore the expressed will of the people, Welby is very particularly at odds with his own church members.
Speaking before the referendum, Welby declared himself against Brexit. But in the vote his fellow Anglicans strongly supported it. Linda Woodhead of Lancaster University conducted an exit poll of 3,242 UK adults immediately after the referendum. This showed that exactly two-thirds of those declaring themselves members of the Church of England voted to leave the EU. That was significanlty higher than for England as a whole, where 53% chose Leave.
We do retain a rational use to the word “leave”: Welby should be told to leave our decision to leave alone.
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since the people of Britain are not French republicans, we call ourselves “subjects”
Not so. Have a look at your passport: we are citizens.
Justin W. coming out of the closet:
https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/google_amp_1280x720/s3/2019-04/B3ECD679-B171-4215-AFF0-7538C216A613.jpg?itok=12tSUTIv
What on Earth has happened to the C of E? Its archbishops used to be men of substance. But the last two, Williams and Welby, are dreadfully poor quality people. Welby is a complete idiot, and Williams’ pseudo-intellectual incoherent mumblings betrayed a man widely thought to be intelligent as simply a deeply confused, hopelessly muddled, indecisive waffler.
Welby might just as well sit on Dover beach waiting for the tide of Christianity to return.
Like many parliamentarians and others, he doesn’t seem to have realised that leaving with no deal is the default setting in EU law. As EU law supersedes British law there is nothing the prattling of his citizens could do to stop it.
There are only two ways to stop a no deal. Either ratify the Withdrawal Agreement or revoke the Art. 50 notice to leave.
Parliamentarians have refused to ratify, playing a game of double or quits. The only way then to prevent a no deal is to revoke.
If Welby insists on his assemblies the qualification to join should be (1) the ability to define what a customs union does compared to the Single Market, and (2) to describe what the EU’s Common Commercial Policy does. Otherwise the cacophony that would result from issue-illiteracy would resemble the confusion in the account of the Tower of Babel.
Welby obviously hasn’t seen an application in the scriptures he believes in. Though most of the citizens in the soviets – sorry, assemblies – wouldn’t be Christians, St Paul didn’t want Christians getting involved in politics (and his churches were organisationally exactly the same as the voluntary associations that honeycombed the Roman world and indistinguishable from them – that is, they were assemblies, whether made up of citizens or not). Honour the emperor, Paul told his assemblies. Honour Johnson’s government, perhaps the Apostle might say today, if he were to speak to the Archbishop.
In the last three years politics has thrown numberless ethical issues to which one might hope Welby might offer elucidation and enlightenment. His pathetic intervention shows beyond doubt that if one seeks help with religious and moral principle in public affairs, the C of E is not the place to look.
Dare I suggest Welby study Chapter 4 of the Politics and the section on friendship at the end on Nicomachean Ethics – both by the man Shakespeare could refer to as the pagan philosopher and be confident his audience would know who he meant.
A minor point. It’s good to know there will be a referendum in 3016 but I thought only climate fanatics knew the future in such detail …
Oh Michael, you’re a climate change denier too? And you bemoan the “era of idiocy”!
ha! Are you saying that you deny the right of people to disagree? This last week, and for half a dozen other weeks this summer, thunderstorms and a month’s rain in 20 minutes have been forecast for where I live in Yorkshire. None have been delivered. Did you see the Met Office apology for the non-delivery of their promised hurricane and tsunami for Cornwall that caused a concert to be cancelled a few weeks back? Nope. me neither. If they can’t tell today’s weather, how come they’re so sure of 2050?
Much of the so-called science is in fact fiendishly complex differential equations that amount to little more than extrapolating lines on graphs. None of the predictions over the last 50 years have been fulfilled. (A 4c rise by 1980 with mass starvation, no ice caps or polar bears and a halt to the Gulf Stream for example.)
Big financial interests are now on the case with energy companies piling the profits. It’s not just puritanism preached by the toffs for the deplorables. It also gives those ghastly people at the G7 the chance to boss brown people about and stop them developing their farming which might threaten the cosseted EU scroungers like the French.
Paul Homewood has a site which provides the full data that the warmist fanatics take selections from. Highly recommended.
Nissar Hussain is a convert from Islam to Christianity. For doing so he suffered physical attacks and frequent vandalism of his car and property. His wife and children were threatened. This went on for years, with little assistance from the authorities.
He frequently asked for help from the Church – little was done to help. On one occasion Archbishop Welby turned his back on Nissar and walked away. See the description at 29:19 in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68zD7TUSGx0
Watch the whole video of course. The lack of support that is given to apostates is appalling. Within Sharia there is the death penalty for apostasy. Welby must surely know that fact?
There is supposed to be a separation of Church and State. Welby seems to be muddling them up together – he should not be interfering in the Brexit process. There is supposed to be a connection between Christians and the Church. Welby has shamefully turned away from a Christian in his hour of dire need. It is what the hypocrites did in the parable of the Good Samaritan.
I know that every Anglican Bishop in England, Wales, and Scotland (around 120 of them) has been told, in no uncertain terms, what Islam is really like. They do not seem to want to know. They seem to want to continue with their self-deceit, their inter-faith dialogue and their leading of their flock astray.
There are those who have been dismissed for quoting from the scripture – also ignored by the Church.
Michael, that is shameful too. What has happened to the Church?
The booklet “Islam and Christianity: essential debate for the 21st century” has been sent to every Anglican Bishop in England, Wales, and Scotland. The response has been minimal. And yet this is the pressing matter of our time. How can the Church ignore it?
The booklet is here:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/gentle-knight-publications/islam-christianity-essential-debate-for-the-21st-century/paperback/product-24019948.html
Thank you. I fear that these efforts are futile in the current era of idiocy and that we are all like the dog in the excellent and well-chosen picture heading this article.
Still, at least we can smile, not an ability the lunatic left seem to have.
Michael, we have to persevere. The efforts may seem futile, however we cannot stand idly by while our future is being destroyed.