New Church Report Attacks Blair’s Social Policies

The Church of England is to publish a report on urban life in Britain attacking some of the government’s core social policies.

|TOP|The two most-senior officials in the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, will officially release the report, entitled, “Faithful Cities” in London.

In particular, it has been reported that one of the central criticisms will be the low level of the minimum wage currently operating in Britain.

Twenty years ago, the Church of England released the ‘Faith in the City’ document, which rebuked a number of key initiatives of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It is believed that this document signalled a low mark in relations between the Conservative government of the time and the Church of England.

Another criticism thought to be contained in the new Church of England report is the way the government uses poverty as a “tool of coercion” with regards to refusing asylum claims.

The report has been published following input from church leaders, academics, clergy, as well as other Christian church heads and religious leaders.

|AD|The release of the report comes on a day that Dr Williams and Dr Sentamu plan to visit a street market and community project in Camden, London.

The Methodist Church has already expressed its concerns over Prime Minister Tony Blair’s recent statements on foreign criminals issued in the House of Commons 17th May 2006.

Having come under severe criticism over a number of illegal immigrants and foreign national criminals that were inadvertently released back into society, Blair last week promised that foreign prisoners would be sent back to their countries, which were previously deemed unsafe for deportation.

Anthea Cox, the Coordinating Secretary for the Methodist Church, has expressed deep concerns saying “Whilst concern about crime should be taken seriously, we have a moral obligation not to send people back to regimes where they will suffer gravely and could even face execution. We are seriously concerned about the implications of Mr. Blair's comments for human rights.

She continued, “Our criminal justice system sentences people according to their crimes, not on the basis of nationality. We need a sense of proportion and to look at each case individually - sending people back to unsafe situations would be disproportionate punishment in most cases.

She concluded, “News stories and political responses such as this one from the Prime Minister unfortunately spread the idea that immigrants cannot be trusted - we have the opportunity and responsibility to take in people who need our help and to educate one another against prejudice.”