A split appeared to open up in government last night over whether or not to wage war against the Archbishop of Canterbury. After party management left it to their 2019ers to wage war against the church following Justin Welby’s condemnation of Priti’s Rwanda plan, at 7pm last night Michael Gove used a speech at a Tories in Comms drinks reception to try calming the storm:
“As the example of Henry II shows, it’s never a good idea to go to war with Archbishops.”
Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest…
Unfortunately for Gove, no sooner had he suggested avoiding a bloody conflict with the Church, Boris got up at the 1922 committee an hour later and, according to Newsnight, slammed God’s representative on earth over his condemnation of Rwanda:
“These senior members of the clergy have not been as critical of Vladamir Putin as they have been of Priti Patel’s plan”
Presumably Tory MPs will be hoping the Archbishop will soon kick the Beckett…
After the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby was forced to apologise at COP26 for likening the threat posed by the climate crisis to the Nazis – Insulate Britain, renowned for their tone deaf PR moves – decided to make similarly insensitive comments.
In a now-deleted tweet Insulate Britain compared climate bystanders to Holocaust enabling bystanders in Nazi Germany. Quickly realising their mistake Insulate Britain deleted the insensitive message before reposting a slightly altered but still completely inappropriate tweet. Clearly they thought their reputation needed more trashing…
— Kit Marsden (@manek43509) February 11, 2020
Karen Pollock Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust told Guido:
“I am fed up of these wholly inappropriate comparisons. Maybe before pronouncing they ought to consider whether they’d say it directly to a Holocaust survivor or their family. I for one, am fed up of having to call this out.”
Insulate Britain proving once again why they do nothing but harm the climate movement…
Turbulent priest Justin Welby has gone full AC Grayling, calling the EU “the greatest dream realised for human beings since the fall of the Western Roman Empire” in an address to European churches in Serbia. The ABC blasted “the rise of Euroscepticism, the flames of which are fanned by ‘scare stories’ about migration and refugees”. And he even implied Brexit could destroy the entire continent: “The fact that Christianity survived in Europe does not indicate that it is indestructible, but that God protects the Church that he created and loves”. Even Grayling isn’t this ridiculous...
Remember Welby has form for tedious political interventions. He backed the Remain campaign during the referendum and has since linked Brexit to Trump and fascism. Welby has hired staffer after staffer after staffer from the Labour Party. His former parliamentary aide is a Labour Party member who considers “Tory rule” a “grim prospect” and says Michael Gove “is a truly terrifying human being”. Bet Bishop Michael Curry backs Brexit…
Boris responds to the ABC’s intervention on immigration:
“As for the Archbishop of Canterbury, I don’t know what the Bible says on this issue. If we don’t get out… I think that prayer is all that’s going to be left if we fail to vote leave on June 23rd. And I’m sure that he will lead the nation in prayers, but I hope that won’t be necessary.”
Boris went on to describe the Remain campaign as “gloomadon poppers”. Defined by his office as “people who habitually put out negative news”…
