Why The Archbishop Is Right – The North Of England Needs A Better Deal

Reuters

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has become renowned for his interventions on behalf of Christians around the world. From his graphic advocacy of Fair Trade to his campaign against the rule of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, the Ugandan-born cleric is a tireless advocate.

This week, though, he was championing a cause much closer to home. Sentamu used a speech in the House of Lords to call for the devolution of more political power to the north of England. As Archbishop of York, he has jurisdiction over the northern dioceses of England, so he might well be expected to speak out on behalf of them.

His rhetoric, though, wasn't just aimed at an increase in money or resources. The Archbishop said: "We need economic policies which build on the assets of people in community. People are not just units to be moved around the country to wherever they are needed. People become human among their neighbours and in their communities."

In arguing for the benefits of national prosperity to be shared more evenly between south and north, Sentamu said he was actually making a case for the whole country to be improved. "The state of the north is important," he argued, "because, unless we get things right in the north, the whole country will be more divided, less prosperous and more unhappy."

In this way, the Archbishop is acting not just as a church leader, or even as a politician, but using a prophetic voice to speak truth to power.

I've written before about the attitude some in the Church seem to have to the north of England (It isn't grim up north, it's glorious. Why don't more Christians realise it?) Sadly, this attitude is in evidence throughout political, economic and cultural life in the UK.

Too often, the north of England is ignored, maligned or even laughed at. But this was the heartland of the industrial revolution. The prosperity which built modern Britain was the result of the labour of countless people working in the 'dark satanic mills' of the North, as well as other industrial areas of the UK. We simply wouldn't be anything like the country we are today were it not for the colossal cultural, economic and yes, financial contribution of the north.

By speaking out, the Archbishop has highlighted what has been obvious in the last year – a divided society is an unhappy society. The post-industrial heartlands of the north of England which have been overlooked and left behind for generations finally drew attention when they voted for Brexit. If the post-Brexit settlement then leaves the status quo in place and the people remain distant from power, what have we learned? What have we gained?

This is where the Archbishop's powerful call for devolution comes in. In Catholic Social Teaching, the idea of subsidiarity is very important. It means that decisions should be should be made at the lowest possible level. This is what has been lacking in the north of England over the last 40 years. As state power was centralised to London by various local government reforms in the 1980s and 90s, so too was economic power. The industrial heartland of the country was stripped of its significance and we came to rely more and more on the increasing influence of the City of London as a financial centre.

The IPPR North (a think tank whose report prompted the debate in the House of Lords) has what looks like an exciting agenda for the north of England. This is where the Church comes in. There is a call for ideas – even crazy, radical ideas – to be submitted to form part of new plans for the rebuilding of the north. Churches across the north of England are already engaged in important work. Why not take the chance to offer a vision of what the future could look like? You can do so here.

The Bishop of Leeds, Nick Baines, is a passionate advocate for the north of England. In a blog post in 2013 he argued for the importance of cultural institutions such as the National Media Museum in Bradford. "Ultimately the decisions taken will speak eloquently of our national communal priorities," he wrote. "These will betray our ideological as well as economic assumptions. And underneath it all will seethe a pile of questions about our anthropology, our fundamental philosophy of the common good, and the gap between our words of 'social solidarity' (for example, "we are all in it together") and the reality we fear to face."

This is just as true in 2017. For the sake of the whole country, we mustn't allow the south east to dominate the rest. God cares just as much about every blade of grass in our green and pleasant land. So should we.