Is Britain a Christian country?

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Andrew Defty

In a widely publicised article in the modest Church Times, David Cameron last week called for Britain to be ‘more confident about our status as a Christian country’ and ‘more evangelical about a faith that compels us to get out there and make a difference to people’s lives.’ While this was seen by many observers as an unashamed attempt to appeal to the Tory faithful and counter the threat from UKIP in the forthcoming European Parliament elections, this is not the first time the Prime Minister has declared Britain to be ‘a Christian country’, and it does appear to represent a particular view of Britishness. There are, however, significant grounds for questioning the characterisation of Britain as a ‘Christian country’.

The Christian faith does have a long tradition in British political and public life. The Anglican faith still enjoys certain privileges which are not extended to other denominations or religions. The monarch remains the ‘Defender of the Faith’, although Prince Charles has suggested that, on his accession to the throne, this doctrine may be modified to become defender of faiths. The Christian faith is also the only religion to have permanent seats in the legislature with twenty-six seats reserved for Church of England bishops in the House of Lords.

However, the declining importance of the Christian faith, or indeed any faith, to a large proportion of the British public, coupled with the growth in observance of other religions might lead one to question the notion that Britain is any more ‘a Christian country’.  According to the 2011 Census Christianity remains, by some way, the most widely held religious faith in the UK, with around 33 million people (59% of the population), declaring themselves to be Christian. However, this is a marked decline on the previous census in 2001 when more than 71% of respondents declared themselves to be Christian. There has been a marked increase in those declaring themselves to be of no religion, 25% in 2011, up from around 15% in 2001.

Other surveys suggest the decline in religion, and the Christian faith in particular, is even more marked. The annual British Social Attitudes survey which has run since 1983, has shown an increase in those expressing no religion from 31% in 1983 to 48% in the most recent survey. As the authors of the most recent survey observe, the increase in those expressing no faith is mirrored by a decline in those claiming membership of the Church of England, which has fallen from 40% to 20% since 1983, while the proportion of  those claiming to belong to the Catholic Church and to other Christian denominations has remained fairly static in the same period. In a YouGov poll undertaken in 2012 following Cameron’s earlier characterisation of Britain as a Christian country, 50% of respondents declared that they did not consider themselves to belong to any particular religion, and a total of 76% said they were not particularly religious at all. Although 56% of respondents agreed that Britain ‘is a Christian country.’

While a number of surveys indicate a marked decline in the Christian faith in Britain, figures for religious observance suggest that the Christian faith may be having very little impact on people’s lives on a regular basis. Church of England attendance statistics indicate that those attending church on a regular basis represent only a tiny proportion of the British public. Around 1 million people attend church each week. To put this in some kind of context, this is considerably more than those attending a Premiership football match each week (around 730,000), but only around a quarter of the number watching Match of the Day on a Saturday night. At around 1 million worshippers a week the numbers attending an Anglican service are the equivalent of the weekly viewing figures for an episode of The Simpsons or the Sunday edition of the BBC antiques programme Flog It! Of course, attending a church service presumably has more significance to those taking part than watching an episode of Flog It!, but whether it has any more significance to the many millions who don’t attend is perhaps unlikely.

While the role of Christianity in the lives of many, if not most British citizens has been in decline for many years, the position of other religions in British life is becoming more significant. In contrast to the decline in Christianity, the 2011 census saw an increase in all the other main religions, with the numbers of Muslims increasing the most from 3% to almost 5% of the population. Firm figures for attendance at Mosques are difficult to come by but a number of reports suggest that weekly attendance will soon outstrip that for church services.

Cameron has said in the past that ‘the tolerance that Christianity demands of our society provides greater space for other religious faiths too.’ Aside from a lack of evidence that the Christian faith is any more tolerant of different religions than any other faith, Cameron’s reference to ‘our society’ and those who do not follow the Christian faith as the ‘other’  is perhaps the most problematic aspect of these statements. The characterisation of Britain as ‘a Christian country’ implies that those with other faiths, and indeed none, are somehow less British. It also suggests that those of ‘other’ religious faiths are recent arrivals to be welcomed and tolerated. In an earlier age Cameron’s statement may have seemed progressive but one wonders what this must feel like for third generation Jewish, Sikh, Hindu or Muslims born and raised in the UK. Cameron not only displays a lack of awareness of the nature and extent of religious faith in modern Britain, but also of the history of a religious faith within the UK.  The first Mosque was built in Britain in 1889, the first Sikh temple in the 1930s, the Jew’s Court in Lincoln is the location of a synagogue dating back to the 12th century, pre-dating the Cathedral at the top of the hill above it. It is not the case that Britain welcomes other religious faiths they are as indigenous and integral a part of British life as the Christian faith. Moreover, all of these faiths originated outside of the UK.

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Britain and Europe

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Andrew Defty

Post with a number of useful links from the BBC’s Inside Europe blog. I particularly like the Key Moments and Themes bit, there’s a lecture in there somewhere.

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We need to invest to ensure we have good quality councillors

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Andrew Defty

Recent revelations about a significant overspend at Gainsborough Town Council, and the announcement of an increase in allowances for Lincolnshire County Councillors, have raised understandable concerns about value for money in local government. However, the solution may be more investment in local government, and local councillors in particular, rather than less.

Local councils are responsible for the delivery of a wide range of the services we all use on a daily basis. As such they are also responsible for managing significant budgets. Yet the 20,000 local councillors across the UK, who are responsible for allocating the resources to provide these services, are almost without exception amateurs, who carry out their role, in most cases, out of a sense of civic duty and for little reward. A sense of civic duty may not, however, be enough to equip one to handle budgets of hundreds of thousands if not millions of pounds. Although all councils are supported in this by a cadre of professional local government officers, there is also need for councillors themselves to be trained in order for them to effectively carry out their role.

Training for local councillors is provided by a range of bodies including the Local Government Association, political parties and by councils themselves. However, the quality of training is mixed. A report by the Select Committee on Communities and Local Government published last year found that in general training by the Local Government Association was good, thorough and well received, but that training provided by political parties was much more mixed with some councillors complaining that the parties take the money and the seats, but offer little in return, or that training ends the minute councillors are elected. It is also worth bearing in mind that there are a diverse range of smaller parties represented in local government which are not able to draw on the resources available to the main parties, and around one in ten councillors are independent.

There is also a question about what impact spending cuts have had on the training and personal development budgets of councils themselves, which may impact both on training for councillors and local government officers. Local government has borne the brunt of public spending cuts since 2010. While some councils have ring-fenced training budgets, cuts to council spending may be having an impact on training and development in some areas. Spending on training may not seem like a priority when significant cuts are being made to essential services such as social care. However, proper training for local government officers and councillors is of increasing importance at a time when councils are being asked to make difficult budgetary decisions in highly constrained financial circumstances.

A related point is whether councillors should be more generously rewarded for their work. Local councillors in general are not paid for what they do, but do receive allowances. While these can vary depending on the size of the council and the particular responsibilities of individual councillors, they are generally around £8000 pa. It is difficult to make the case for increased allowances, or salaries for councillors, in the face of cases of mismanagement in local government. However, there is an argument that more generous allowances might attract more people into local government, and allow those with other work commitments, and perhaps a wider skill set, to become local councillors. The pool of individuals prepared to stand as local councillors in the UK is relatively small. At present the average age of local councillors is 60, and many of them are retired. While there are a great many highly experienced and effective local councillors, greater financial support particularly to allow individuals to take more time off work to carry out council duties, might open up local government to a much wider range of people, with benefits to us all.

The current government has, perhaps not surprisingly, been dismissive of the idea of more generous allowances for local councillors, insisting that councillors should be volunteers. Such suggestions also tend to be unpopular with the public who object to paying people for carrying out their civic duty. However, Members of Parliament have been paid since 1911, and the payment of members was an important step towards opening Parliament up to a more diverse range of members and particularly the working class. MPs are generously rewarded for their work with an annual salary of around £66,000 p.a. Yet most backbench MPs do not carry the responsibilities of many local councillors and few have any kind of budgetary responsibility aside from the running their own office. Ministers who run government departments are even more generously rewarded. It is also worth bearing in mind that those individuals who sit in the House of Commons are also amateurs and may be no more well qualified for their role than the many more individuals who sit in council chambers across the country.

There is also a link between the quality of our councillors and politics at a national level. A large number of MPs, around two thirds of Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs, previously served as local councillors at some level. Local government therefore provides an important training ground for our MPs. While not all councillors aspire to a seat in Parliament, and many would quite rightly consider that they have more power to affect real change at a local level, undermining the training and development of local councillors will have a knock-on effect at Westminster.

Local government is vital to the health of our democracy. It is desirable, and often more cost effective, that decisions about the allocation of resources in a local area are taken at a local level. However, if our local councillors are to manage large budgets and make important decisions which affect our everyday lives, we should perhaps be prepared to invest more in ensuring that they are well equipped to do so.

This post first appeared in the latest edition of The Lincolnshire Echo, Thursday, March 27 – Wednesday, April 2, 2014.

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Can you tell what it is yet? Public Attitudes towards the Big Society

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Andrew Defty

The ‘Big Society’ was a central theme in the Conservative 2010 general election campaign, it appears to underpin the coalition government’s policies in a range of areas and the Prime Minister has invested considerable personal capital in it. It revolves around the notion that state provision in a range of areas can, and indeed should, be reduced by encouraging individuals and communities to take greater responsibility for the delivery of services. As David Cameron asserted in a speech in 2009, ‘our alternative to big government is the big society’. Public understanding, willingness and crucially capacity to take responsibility for services previously provided by the state is therefore central to the success of the ‘Big Society’.

However, despite a strong commitment and significant publicity, including four high profile speeches by the Prime Minister, there is little evidence of widespread public recognition of the ‘Big Society’ or of any increase in recognition since the general election. Even amongst those who have heard about it, there is little evidence that a large proportion of the public have a clear understanding about what the ‘Big Society’ means. There is also evidence that, in the absence of a clear understanding, a significant proportion of the public simply assume that it is a cover for public spending cuts.

There is some evidence that while public recognition of the ‘Big Society’ is limited, when provided with a little more information about what it may involve, a significant proportion of the public think it sounds like a good idea in principle. There is also evidence that the public would like to be more involved in activities and crucially, decision-making, in their local communities. However, even amongst those who claim to have some understanding and who are broadly supportive of it in principle, there is considerable scepticism about whether the government can be successful in implementing the ‘Big Society’. Levels of volunteering have remained fairly static over many years and there remain significant barriers to people becoming more involved, particularly at a level required to  provide the consistent delivery of services previously provided by the state. It is also apparent that while many people recognise the value of voluntary action they don’t want it to replace state provision. While the government has gone some way towards persuading the public that there may be some value in increased involvement in their local communities, they have been less successful in convincing the public that the ‘Big Society’ is a desirable or effective alternative to state provision.

This post summarises an article I have recently published in the journal Social Policy and Society. The post first appeared on the Cambridge University Press journals blog, from where you can also link to the article.

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Some thoughts on the passing of Tony Benn

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Andrew Defty

Most politicians start out as radicals, become more moderate as they get older, and in many cases end up in the House of Lords extolling the virtues of the unelected second chamber. Tony Benn did the opposite. He eschewed his hereditary peerage in the House of Lords, pursued a successful career as a Cabinet Minister under Harold Wilson, became an ever more radical voice on the Left of the Labour Party and ultimately left Parliament criticising its relevance to many people in modern Britain.

Tony Benn’s radicalism belied his age and meant that he generated a level of respect and admiration particularly amongst young people, which many younger politicians struggle to attain. There is often a generation gap in politics which leaves young people feeling alienated from the political process. In his later years Tony Benn’s, largely self-proclaimed outsider status, and unflinching desire to challenge authority allowed him to bridge that gap. I know that many of our students, whose affiliations span the political spectrum, will be debating his legacy today but that there will be a level of admiration for his principled stand on many issues which is perhaps unique amongst British politicians.

With such a long and diverse political career it is difficult to pinpoint Tony Benn’s most significant contribution to British politics. His fight to his revoke his hereditary peerage changed the British constitution, although did little to change the House of Lords. His contribution to the Labour Party will divide commentators. His stand against the lack of accountability within the European Community, is an ongoing debate in which his arguments will continue to have an impact. His real contribution to history may ultimately be the eight volumes of diaries and  the huge volume of material collected in his personal archive, which chronicle post-war British politics. Yet it was his unwavering insistence that those with power – politicians, governments, businesses, soldiers, Eurocrats – should be answerable to the people which lies at the heart of his appeal to many and will ensure his ongoing relevance.

This comment was also featured in The Lincolnshire Echo.

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