UK News

A priest’s guide: How to Swim the Tiber Safely

About 50 Church of England priests opposed to the consecration of women as bishops are expected to be in the first wave of Anglicans to take up an offer by Pope Benedict and convert to Rome. The traditionalist priests will be joined by five bishops and 30 groups of parishioners, in a structure called an ordinariate, or a Church subdivision, in the new year.

About 300 priests switched in the early 1900s when women were ordained as priests. Then they did not have the comfort of moving over in groups, and nearly 70 returned to the Anglican fold.

Here, one priest explains why he stayed, while another describes why he returned.

Peter Bolton, left, was a priest in the Church of England for 10 years before becoming a Roman Catholic. Just one year later he returned to the C of E. Since his return he has served in parishes in Salford, Watford and Weston-super-Mare. Recently he took early retirement on grounds of ill health. The opinions expressed are his own.

Why did I come back? Because I had not counted the cost. I knew I would lose house and income – I was a Vicar – but I had not reckoned on the utter loneliness of the experience, the personal cost.

Priests and people in the local Catholic Church were wonderful. The Bishop was kindness itself. There was a warm welcome for me. But what I had not understood in advance was the damage my becoming an RC would do to relationships with those I had been close to in the past.

But I will never forget how I felt when I realised how much my own mother was hurting because I had gone to Rome, or how my best friend could hardly bring himself to speak to me for days after my Reception and Confirmation. There were others too.

The private sector vs. definitions of fairness

– Ingrid Smith is Business Planning Editor,  Reuters Consumer Television –

Sitting in the auditorium of the London School of Economic’s Old Theatre earlier this month, I listened to Lord Turner pose the question – in rich societies is there a clear correlation between increased wealth and human well being?

An apt question indeed from the chairman of the soon-to-be-defunct UK Financial Services Authority, in light of the UK coalition government’s austerity review.

On the international stage, the OECD has described the spending review as “tough, necessary and courageous.”

In other quarters it is viewed as excessive by political pundits, such as Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney. He argues the cuts are almost twice the level recommended by the International Monetary Fund for developed countries.

The predication by David Cameron’s government – and to a lesser extent Nick Clegg’s – that fairness was and is at the centre of their economic and welfare management of the country poses the unavoidable question – how is fairness being defined?

Lord Turner argues the average worker views economic fairness from a relativist’s perspective i.e. — ‘I’m happy to earn X for the work I do until I find out someone else is earning Y (where Y is more!).’

A view to the future: investing in the young

Interesting to read today of a plan by The Co-operative Group to create more apprenticeships. With public funding for so many areas under threat in Britain’s austerity drive – including skills and education – what will others in the private sector do to ensure Britain has the workforce it needs to compete in the 21st century?

The Co-Op’s plan – which includes a promise to create 2,000 new co-operative apprenticeships, as well as investments in areas such as schooling – is also interesting for the approach it takes to young people.

At an event earlier this month, Steve Bell, Head of Policy for the Communications Workers Union, warned a conference I attended that future tension over austerity cuts “wouldn’t necessarily come from the trade unions” and pointed to the youth riots of the 1980s as a potential indication of what might happen in the UK when public spending cuts start to bite.

The Co-operative, perhaps aware of the potential problems that could be posed by a disaffected ‘lost generation’, is investing 2 million pounds in a programme called Truth About Youth – to challenge what it calls the widespread negative perception of young people.

The question has to be whether other bodies will follow suit. After all, one of the hopes for British growth is that private firms will mop up some of the public sector workers put out of work by government cutbacks, and provide services the government can no longer offer.

But the Co-op is not like other businesses. A mutual, it doesn’t have to answer to shareholders. It shares its profits with its 5 million plus members who drive company policy. Many large listed companies barely even listen to their shareholders, as recent attempts by investors to challenge executive payouts have shown.

Country-house opera wonders where it will get its next million

There’s more to the English summer social calendar than sport – but it is in danger of being drowned out by the cries of disappointed football fans and sapped by lack of cash.

During the June and July evenings when much of Britain grinds to a halt to watch World Cup matches on giant screens in pubs and smaller screens at home, a different style of audience escapes to the countryside, wearing evening dress and carrying picnic hampers, for the 2010 season of country-house operas.

While the most famous are at Glyndebourne, a younger rival Grange Park Opera in Hampshire has also earned critical acclaim.

It is undeniably elite, but that does not mean it does not have money issues.

Whereas football is guaranteed enormous audiences and sponsorship deals, often in defiance of the quality of play, Grange Park ticket sales fell last year against the backdrop of global recession and funding cuts to the arts.

It was the first time they had not shown annual growth since the founding of the festival in 1997.

Katie Nicholl on when to expect a royal engagement

Rumours sparked in a blog post written by journalist Tina Brown that a royal engagement would be announced on June 3 or 4,  fizzled by the end of last week.

Royal watchers have long anticipated that Prince William, elder son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, will marry Kate Middleton whom he met at university. Prince William is currently training to be a search and rescue Pilot with the Royal Air Force

Katie Nicholl, the royal correspondent for the Mail on Sunday newspaper, whose new book about the princes titled “William and Harry” came out on June 3, shares her predictions and insights with Reuters in the following video clip filmed at Harrods department store in London:

Oona King to run as Labour candidate for mayoral election

Once one of “Blair’s Babes“, former Labour MP Oona King has thrown down the gauntlet to former Mayor Ken Livingstone with the announcement of her official bid to become Labour’s candidate to run for London mayor in 2012.

King served as the second black woman MP in Britain after Diane Abbott, the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, who was elected in 1987.

Until her defeat by Respect’s George Galloway in 2005, King represented Bethnal Green and Bow in the Commons for 8 years from 1997 to 2005 under Prime Minister Tony Blair’s leadership.

In a 2007 autobiography titled “House Music: The Oona King diaries“, King details her life as an MP, including the challenges she faced after announcing her support of Britain’s role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

King, currently head of diversity at Channel 4, will have to defeat anti-establishment Labour candidate Livingstone to compete against Conservative incumbent Mayor Boris Johnson in 2012. Last year, Livingstone announced a challenge to Johnson.

Livingstone was the first elected mayor of London. He was elected as an independent candidate in 2000, but in 2004 he ran for the post again under the Labour banner and served as mayor until 2008 when he was defeated by Johnson.

He was leader of the Greater London Council from 1981 until Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government abolished it in 1986.

Twitter users still agree with Nick

One the eve of the general election, our exclusive Twitter analysis of political sentiment shows that while the latest opinion polls point to a late rally by Gordon Brown’s Labour Party, users of the micro-blogging site still favour Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats over the other two main parties.

US market research firm Crimson Hexagon (on behalf of Reuters.co.uk) has been archiving all tweets on British politics since March 22 and analysing them for positive and negative sentiment. All parties have had their ups and downs, most notably in the aftermath of the first leaders’ debate (which led to a spike in support for the LibDems and the hashtag #iagreewithnick trending on Twitter) and Gordon Brown’s “bigot” gaffe in Rochdale,which gave us the highest percentage of negative tweets for any party during the campaign.

Just hours before the nation goes to the polls and with so many voters apparently still undecided, it’s worth taking a look at the latest numbers.

The graphic below shows positive tweets for each party up to May 4. The LibDems come out top on 20 percent, with pro-Labour sentiment on 12 percent and pro-Tory lagging behind on five percent.

The next graphic shows negative tweets for each party. Again the numbers favour the LibDems; negative sentiment for Clegg’s party is on just eight percent. Negative Labour tweets are at 16 percent. Meanwhile, despite a lead in the opinion polls, David Cameron’s Tories are the least popular on 25 percent. The highest percentage of tweets we have seen (a massive 42 percent) occurred when Gordon Brown called pensioner Gillian Duffy a “bigoted woman”.

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Political theatre unfolds according to script

There was a big fuss but no suspense this morning outside Number 10 Downing Street. In what has become a typical pattern in the world of 24-hour news, media organisations had been briefed in advance on the content and the choreography of Gordon Brown’s election announcement. This was the ultimate scripted, pre-packaged news event.

A huge pack of photographers, cameramen and journalists crowded behind crash barriers across the street from the famous black door from the early hours of the morning. The place was abuzz with technicians doing sound checks and taping cables to the ground with duct tape. The TV channels had lined up their star presenters in smart suits and ties, while behind the cameras reporters huddled in fleeces and scarves to fend off the morning cold in the notoriously draughty street.

“What’s going on?” joked Bob Ainsworth, the defence minister, as he arrived for a cabinet meeting before Brown set off to see the Queen. Indeed, anyone in Britain equipped with a TV set or a radio had already been given ample warning that the prime minister was about to ask for the dissolution of parliament and to call an election for May 6.

Veterans of previous election campaigns said Brown staged his big announcement very much in the traditional way, the only novelty being his decision to appear flanked by his cabinet rather than by himself. This was interpreted as a way to offset his personal unpopularity by presenting a team of familiar faces. Brown may also have been trying to draw a contrast with the Conservatives, whose leader David Cameron is widely seen as their main electoral asset but whose other senior figures are little known to most voters.

Whether voters will be charmed by the Labour team photo remains to be seen though. Few will have forgotten that Brown has survived several attempts to topple him by members of his own camp — the latest as recently as January.

The announcement itself, full of talk of recession and dire warnings of hardship should the Conservatives win, was not exactly rousing. “It sounded like they’d already lost,” said one correspondent leaving the scene just after the speech, while another described it as “Presbyterian”, a reference to Brown’s austere style and background as the son of a Scottish clergyman.

After the announcement, Brown sped off to start his campaign tour with visits to a supermarket and a printworks. It will all be scripted from now on until May 6 — unless Brown can be prodded into saying something unexpected during one of the three televised leaders’ debates coming up. That’s probably the best hope of those still keen to see a little spontaneity in our politics.

Budget for votes riskily delays UK debt pain

– The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own –

Alistair Darling promised no election “giveaways” and in one sense he delivered. The UK finance minister’s budget is about not giving away the election. It might have been worse — if Darling had acceded to his boss Gordon Brown’s even more populist instincts. But there are vote-seeking swipes at high earners and banks, as well as a crowd-pleasing but misguided tax cut to first-time house-buyers. The UK’s budget-balancing pain is being postponed and concealed. And that’s risky.

The headline measure is a tax cut. First time buyers of properties costing up to 250,000 pounds won’t have to pay anything to the government. Many voters will like that. They will like it, too, that people buying million pound properties foot the bill. A further bout of bank-bashing was part of the electioneering approach. Given the scandal of City rewards, few will blame Darling.

The economic impact, however, will be limited. The wobbly housing market may be helped slightly. But the UK economy needs to be buoyed by production and exports, not house price inflation.

Even so, Darling was able to present slightly better borrowing figures. VAT revenues have picked up strongly so far this year. Unemployment has not risen as much as feared. The budget projects a 167 billion pound deficit for this year, an 11 billion pound reduction on the previous forecast. And over the next several years a similar improvement is retained. But in 2010-11 the projected government deficit remains a colossal 163 billion pounds, 11 percent of GDP.

Thereafter, the deficit shrinks more rapidly as spending cuts start to take effect. But financial markets may not give much credit to these medium-term forecasts, because Darling has neglected to say where the cuts will fall — presumably because he thinks it will be too distasteful for voters to see. What’s more, he only reduces the red ink by projecting fairly rapid GDP growth of 3.25 percent next year and an average of 3.5 percent in 2012 and beyond. As the UK restructures, growth is unlikely to be high.

It is probably only a matter of time before financial markets signal, through interest rates, that their patience has run out. That moment could come soon if Greece or other troubled euro zone economies cause a new wave of risk aversion. But Labour’s hope that the budget will get it through to the election will probably be fulfilled. Then it will be up to either an incoming Conservative government to tighten its belt or re-elected Labour to spell out where the spending axe will fall.