Bishops: ‘big government’ discourages virtue
By Simon Caldwell and Ed West

12 March 2010

Archbishop Peter Smith, left, joins Archbishop Vincent Nichols at the launch of Choosing the Common Good

A senior catholic bishop has criticised Labour’s drift toward big government – accusing the party of developing an “obsession” with passing new laws and regulations.

Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff also said that Labour’s apparent preoccupation with meeting targets was detrimental to the common good. “Targets can have their place but if they’re over-done you get a tick-box mentality which doesn’t actually solve the problem they were supposed to,” he said. “They can be useful but I think what we are trying to say is that you cannot rely on law and regulations or targets, there is something deeper that is necessary, it is an approach to life and particularly, I would say, an approach to personal responsibility and duty,” he said.

“There has been a tendency in recent years to think Government has to do everything. The downside of that is that people say ‘well I don’t have to bother, the Government will sort all this out’. But it doesn’t work like that at all. Everyone in a civil society has a part to play in the building up of a good civil society which is focused on the common good of everyone.”

Labour has passed in the region of 370 Acts and about 32,000 Statutory Instruments since it came to power in 1997. The Liberal Democrats have claimed this equates to 114,000 pages, or seven full editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In the field of criminal justice alone the Government has created 3,500 new crimes prompting the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, to last year call for “less legislation”. There have also been 80 tax hikes under Labour with workers now paying between 20 and 56 per cent tax depending on how much they earn.

Archbishop Smith’s comments came last week at the launch of Choosing the Common Good, the bishops’ pre-election guidance.

In their document the bishops ask voters: “Have we allowed ourselves to be seduced by the myth that social problems are for the Government to deal with? No government can solve every problem, nor make us more generous or responsive to need. The growth of regulations, targets and league tables, which are tools designed to make public services accountable, are no substitute for actions done as a free gift because the needs of a neighbour have to be met.”

They said that communities would prosper if the public recovered the cardinal virtues of prudence, temperance, justice and fortitude. The document condemns abortion and euthanasia, raises concerns about poverty and the care of the elderly, immigration and community relations, the global community and ecology, and presses for support for marriage and family life.

It also has a section on religious freedom which makes the observation that as laws, regulations and targets proliferated the Government was at the same time squeezing the role of faith communities out of the public life of the nation.

The Government’s diversity and equality agenda has drawn criticism from Catholic leaders – including Pope Benedict XVI – because it has encroached on the rights of Christians to act in accordance with their beliefs, forcing the Church either to close or relinquish control of adoption agencies which could not assess same sex couples as adopters or foster parents, for instance.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, told journalists that he wanted to address the “short-sightedness” among some members of the Government who were “distorting what religious faith actually does”.

He said: “Tolerance is a Christian virtue and then this is turned on its head because we are being accused of intolerance. Then we hear the message that we will tolerate everybody except you.

“Let’s not lose our nerve about our Christian faith.”

He also told reporters that they must not be surprised “if the Catholic Church speaks out in favour of marriage”.

“Marriage remains the aspiration of most people,” he said. “We have to understand that the road people travel before they get married is different than what it once was but it remains their aspiration because it is the best recognition of their public commitment to one another and the best context to raise children.”

He insisted that the document was not directing Catholics how to vote. “That is not our job,” he said.

But afterwards Elizabeth Berridge, executive director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, welcomed the document primarily as an endorsement of David Cameron’s proposals to give tax breaks to married couples, as well as gays in civil partnerships. “I am so pleased to read such a wonderful endorsement by Catholic leaders of the need for marriage to be supported in our society,” she said.

“We cannot build a strong society without recognising the vital role that marriage plays,” she added. “Conservatives know that the evidence supports the fact that children are more likely to thrive when their parents remain married and that marriage is also a vital tool in the fight against poverty. The Conservatives have put marriage back on the electoral agenda and have provided a clear choice for voters.”

But Geraldine Smith, the Labour MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, and a Catholic, said, however, that no political party could exclusively claim the support of the Catholic Church. “There have been issues where I feel the Government has upset the Church,” she said. “The Church was especially upset about the adoption agencies. I think it is important that the Catholic Church keeps up the importance of fighting against poverty. On that Labour has got an excellent record.

“I can only speak for myself, but sometimes trendy issues and groups seem to have captured the minds of lots of people. The most stunning example was the adoption agencies.

“There were many MPs who had doubts but were scared of being accused of bigotry, which is not true, because as a Christian you start from a position of love. It’s not surprising that if you do that then you will lose support. The Government must take some responsibility for this.”

Stephen Beer of the Christian Socialist Movement said: “We have long argued that the Christian faith will always be in the public square and the question is not should faith and politics mix but how. Christians need to address this point. Christians in the Labour Party are campaigning strongly on this theme. We need to look at party policies on family issues and ask whether they will actually work or whether they are more about spin than substance.”