Dr Giles Fraser, the self-appointed National Spokesman for Right-on Christians, has dismissed Lord Carey as a Thatcherite “yesterday’s man” and “a one-man band” for supporting the Government’s welfare reforms. It’s an unpleasant attack – another one carried by the New Statesman.
Will Heavens writes in The Daily Telegraph blogs: The former Archbishop of Canterbury said that the welfare state has rewarded “fecklessness and irresponsibility”, a fact which most Britons agree with. So Fraser instructs him: “George, do us all a favour – take up golf.” (He’s old and retired – gedditt?!?!?)
This represents “a slightly creepy attempt to please his audience at the expense of a monumentally disrespectful and personal attack on another clergyman,” says Daniel Finkelstein at the Times. I agree: and it’s incredibly badly judged. What is going on here? Is Giles Fraser trying to impress his new mates at The Guardian, where he’s been given a job as a leader-writer?
More to the point, he’s twisting the facts. Church of England watchers tell me that Carey was never a Thatcherite (he became Archbishop of Canterbury during John Major’s prime ministership, by the way). “If anything,” one veteran religion reporter says, “he was soft Left and presumed to be a Labour voter.” And Fraser’s charge that Carey was put forward by Margaret Thatcher as “a man after her own heart”? It’s probably an urban myth. When Anthony Howard cleverly predicted Carey’s appointment, it was for many reasons – including that he was evangelical, as opposed to his High Church predecessor, Archbishop Runcie. It was certainly not because Carey was a rabid Rightie.
Two decades on, he’s still nothing of the sort, despite this crude attempt at character assassination. Lord Carey backs a benefits cap, and also criticised St Paul’s for its handling of the Occupy protesters. (He wrote in the Telegraph that the Church authorities at times resembled an “officious risk-averse ’elf ’n safety bureaucracy”.)
That would make him a curious “one-man band” – because, unlike Giles Fraser, he’s playing the same tune as the rest of the country.
Tags: Church of England, Daniel Finklestein, George Carey, Giles Fraser
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Will Heaven is an Assistant Comment Editor and the Deputy Editor of Telegraph Blogs. He writes about politics and religion and is @WillHeaven on Twitter. His email is will.heaven@telegraph.co.uk.