Agency, hollowed out by the last Government, ever preside over the kind of work experience that is required to make our neighbourhoods into effective places for bringing up children or looking after old people? Or will its inflex- ible processes actually drain neighbourhoods of willing people with spare time, as similar reforms did in the American state of Wisconsin? In other words, how much will claimants be able to choose their own volun- tary work? And if they will, where are the vital links between local benefits offices and the voluntary sector? ●Is the promise of employment genuine? If it is, does it justify the compulsion outlined by the reforms? But if the jobs are never going to be there, then the new system will be built on a lie. And since nobody can expect any government to see with certainty into the future, are they doing what is necessary – and with equal boldness – to make sure the new jobs will be there? ●Which brings us to the last and most fun- damental question: is the Government going to insist on the kind of local lending infra- structure that has any hope of providing the jobs we need? This is a not just a question for Iain Duncan Smith, but for the whole Government. For without local banks, the idea of thriving local economies based on local enterprise seems a distant prospect. The sound of politicians pleading the banks – including the ones they have direct control over – to lend more to small businesses, or threatening them if they don’t, suggests that they have not yet grasped the truth about this. Worse, harping on about how the banks should lend more is actually delaying the action required to make sure they do. Because the truth is not that the banks at the moment won’t lend. It is that they can’t. British banks no longer have the local infra-


structure and personnel they need to make intelligent local loans. Their computer systems and formulae will always decide that most loans, on reasonable conditions, are too risky.


have increased from 6.6 per cent in 1973 to 7.2 per cent in 2008 in England and Wales. The highest in England are 11 per cent in Liverpool and 12 per cent in the City of London. When adult unemployment pay was first introduced in 1911 at seven shillings (today worth just under £20) a week it was 22 per cent of average earnings in manufacturing; by 2008 it was 10.5 per cent as a result of tying increases to the Retail Price Index which does not increase as fast as real earnings, or as the price of essential items like food and fuel. The inadequacy of the RPI coupled with the coalition’s switch to the Consumer Price Index will reduce the increases by £1 a week every year reaching £10 a week in the tenth year. The health of newborn babies is put in


further jeopardy by women’s stress and debt. The Government Office for Science has related mental illness to personal debt and notes that mental illness costs the economy £77 billion a year, now updated to £105 bil-


They have no local people of sufficient author- ity to override those systems, let alone know their local markets. The attention of our hand- ful of mega-banks is elsewhere. They are animals of the speculative economy now. They have lost their ability to engage in the real one, at least at local level. The last Bank of England figures showed that 70 per cent of what local lending there is goes into property, fuelling the next spec- ulative bubble. Continental Europe and the United States both enjoy a local banking infra- structure; we don’t. It may be that the Vickers Commission will recommend the break-up our banking oli- gopoly, or otherwise inveigle the banks to create the local banking infrastructure we need – and which our competitor nations already have. But they won’t be reporting until September next year, and the job losses are happening now. Nor are the banking lobbyists short of resources. The coalition is being bold on public spending and benefits reform, but so far it has been tentative and nervous about banking reform. It may be because they have not yet grasped that the banks are more than a nui- sance that are failing to lend. They have become huge engines of a speculative economy which is actively corroding the real economy that most of our lives depend on. They are not just failing to make us richer. They are actively making us poorer. The choice is whether we remain pathet- ically dependent on gigantic, faceless systems of control – whether they are banks or benefits consultants – or whether the coalition can create the kind of institutions that are going to make us more human.


■ David Boyle is a fellow of the New Economics Foundation, co-author of Eminent Corporations: the rise and fall of the great British brands (Constable, £8.99) and a former Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate.


lion by the Department of Health. But the moment the housing-benefit caps become law councils will debit about one million households’ rent accounts with arrears, which private landlords have said they will enforce through to eviction. The Treasury has made no exceptions for pregnancy. All pastors will be aware that divorces, losing a job or a home are emotionally stressful in the same way as bereavement. Withdrawing welfare from women in deep


poverty and imposing debts, while allowing the inadequate buying power of jobseeker’s allowance to drift endlessly downwards is a toxic mix of policies damaging to public health. It cannot be justified by the often- repeated mantras about dependency, or appeals to the moral hazards associated with welfare payments that are set too high.


■The Revd Paul Nicolson is chairman of Zacchaeus 2000, a charity that works with vulnerable debtors.


THE LONDON SOCIETY OF JEWS AND CHRISTIANS


Lily Montagu Memorial Lecture


Vibrant Scepticism: Thoughts of a


Retiring Teacher given by


Dr Jonathan Katz


of St Anne's College, Oxford on


Wednesday 24 November 2010 8.00pm


(Refreshments at 7.30pm)


The Liberal Jewish Synagogue London NW8 7HA


All are welcome


Further details: Alex Wakely a.wakely@liberaljudaism.org


SABBATICAL RENEWAL AT DALGAN PARK IMU INSTITUTE


PROGRAMMES 2011


The Renewal for Ministry Programmes at Dalgan Park offer the opportunity for personal growth and renewal in a welcoming and supportive environment to those who are engaged in Christian ministry. They also provide space for those who are in transition in ministry to pause and reflect on the call of the next stage of life.


Together these programmes provide a substantial sabbatical renewal opportunity.


Winter/Spring Term


The Growth for Ministry Renewal Programme (24 January– 24 April 2011)


Autumn Term


The Faith and Mission Renewal Programme


(19 September–16 December 2011)


For further information, contact us at: IMU Institute, Dalgan Park Navan, Co. Meath, Ireland Phone: +353 (0) 469021525 Fax: +353 (0) 469073726 and 9022799 Email: imuinst@eircom.net Website: www.imudalganpark.com


13 November 2010 | THE TABLET | 13


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40