Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

The Pope’s Visit

It is right that the Pope should visit Britain. It is wrong that this should be a State Visit. The status of the Vatican owes more to Italian politics in the days of Mussolini than it does to the real world. Moreover there is no other faith which is also a State, therefore this courtesy conveys a message that the Pope is somehow above other religious leaders, which is the last message in today’s world that any coherent foreign policy should be trying to convey.

The last government got this wrong. The present government is saddled with it. In the end the British people will make the visit an outstanding success, because of their courtesy, some because of their faith and many because of their love of ceremony and spectacle.

Questions will hang in the air, vibrant with the mass devotions. What about the sex abuse? What about condoms in Africa? What about equality among sexes and among those with a different sexual orientation? At the end of the visit there will be a multitude uplifted by Pope Benedict’s blessings. He must in turn go home with a message that faith can remain true when it moves with the times.

Ed Milliband

I see one of the Sunday papers gives Ed a lead in the race for the leadership. This is good news for the Party. The days of New Labour are over. Whatever it may have achieved, it is remembered for the wars and the lies. It is remembered too for creating a quango State with a suffocating and often dysfunctional bureaucratic process and a spin machine which tried to lead the electors away from unwelcome truths. It is also remembered for widening the gap between rich and poor and for abandoning Labour’s traditional role as champion of the poor, the vulnerable and ordinary people who value who  they are more than what they own.

David does not see that. Ed does. That is why it will be a good thing if he wins. The left of centre needs leadership and a plan. He will provide both.