Tory church campaign sparks party political row

By Richard Shaw THE CONSERVATIVES have launched their General Election manifesto with a pledge that it has listened to churches.
The Conservative Party manifesto, the first of the major parties' to be released, claims to draw on the results of consultations with over 300 Christian leaders and charities.
Issues covered by the manifesto include the restoration of the Married Couples Allowance, the opening of new church schools, the retention of Section 28, and increasing openness to Christian radio broadcasters.
The manifesto said: "We will introduce a new Married Couple's Allowance which will give a tax cut worth f1,000 to many families when they need help most."
The pledge on Section 28, however, does not come in either the section on raising a family or that on society, but can be found near the end of the document in a section associated with reforms of Parliament.
Gary Streeter, chairman of the Listening to Britain's Churches process described the manifesto as "a breakthrough manifesto for Christians in politics".
He said: "Conservatives will support marriage, keep Section 28, end discrimination against Christian broadcasters, and tackle the corruption and waste that stops aid reaching the world's poorest people."
The Christian Socialist Movement (CSM), however; criticised the manifesto as "a manifesto for the rich and affluent".
It complimented the work of the Labour Party and its initiatives such as the New Deal and the working families tax credit. Graham Dale, director of CSM, said: "The Conservative manifesto doesn't even mention child poverty and commits them to abolishing the New Deal. Conservatives may have been listening, but they have to hear Christian concern for a fair and just society."
This week the Liberal Democrats also released their manifesto, which contained a number of policies they felt would appeal to Christians, including the strengthening of religious liberties, allowing Christian radio and TV stations to apply to become designated public service broadcasters and increasing the proportion of the GDP spent on international aid.
Martin Turner, spokesman of the Liberal Democrats Christian Forum and candidate for Sutton Coldfield, said: "During the last Parliament a quarter of Liberal Democrats were practising Christians; that was the largest proportion in all the parties."
He said: "The Liberal Democrats are in support of marriage. Marriage is the basis of society. The Liberal Democrats' policies are designed to help those families whose lives are under the greatest pressure."
He explained that the Liberal Democrats would abolish the child support agency, which he said "is universally seen as one of a raft of things to make divorce easier".
"We intend to introduce family courts where couples would have to make the case to explain why they are breaking the marriage to the detriment of the children," he said.
Meanwhile, Cardinal Thomas Winning, Archbishop of Glasgow, lauded the Conservatives' support for marriage. His comments came after he received responses from the leaders of all the major parties to a letter urging them to put the family at the forefront of their manifestos.
The cardinal said: "I think it is a little disappointing that only the Conservative Party took up our challenge to offer direct, practical support to marriage as such through the tax and benefit system."