Bashing bishops before they bash you, and other clumsy metaphors.

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Bashing bishops before they bash you, and other clumsy metaphors.
OP - November 15, 2011, 01:12 PM

There's a draft bill in Parliament that threatens to make this curious part of our constitution that much less accountable, should it make it into law. The BHA is running a campaign to scupper this bill:

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The government's proposals do not simply maintain the status quo but actually contain a number of new privileges for the Bishops including - astonishingly - to exempt them from provisions on serious offence, and those on expulsion and suspension.

The government attempts to excuse this by stating that 'it is anticipated that such members would be subject to the disciplinary procedures established by the Church of England.'

In other words, the government believes that the Bishops sitting in our parliament, with full voting and speaking rights as any other member, should be accountable to the Church and not to parliament.

These proposals are so outrageous that even the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, have strongly opposed them in their submission to the Joint Committee scrutinising the draft Bill.

We believe that this is an affront to democracy, and that in effect the government's package of proposals on Bishops in the Lords would create a new largely independent, and largely unaccountable, bloc for the Church of England in Parliament.

If you feel strongly about this, go here.

Before it gets too late, you will find escape.
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Re: Bashing bishops before they bash you, and other clumsy metaphors.
Reply #1 - November 15, 2011, 02:19 PM

Lol "bashing the bishop". And here I was thinking this thread was about wanking.

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Re: Bashing bishops before they bash you, and other clumsy metaphors.
Reply #2 - November 15, 2011, 08:11 PM

Bloody hell. Does this daft proposal have any chance of passing?

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Re: Bashing bishops before they bash you, and other clumsy metaphors.
Reply #3 - November 15, 2011, 08:43 PM

Probably not if nipped in the bud; the BHA are after this bit to be written out of the bill (the HoL is likely to be reformed in some form anyway). While victory here isn't quite the same thing as kicking their graces out, it's clearly better than the alternative.

What amazes me is why this bunch of would-be Parliamentary reformers in government haven't proposed to kick the bishops out of there altogether. I know the Tories have a sizeable Christian constituency, but it's far from obvious that it's a high-church Anglican one (these days, anyway).

Before it gets too late, you will find escape.
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