The bishops have a point: our politics is stale and unambitious

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/18/bishops-right-politics-stale-morally-empty

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Roll up, roll, up for the next instalment of the great state vs market show. You have seen it before. Pollsters and commentators will talk up minute fluctuations of advantage as each side fiddles away at the worldview of the other. No wonder we end up getting obsessed by the personalities, the costumes and the make-up – the plot is always the same. And the more that politicians offer hammy indignation about the moral vacuity of the other side, the less the paying public wants to see the show. Isn’t there something different on offer?

Related: Cameron rejects bishops' warning against scapegoating people on benefits

Russell Brand and Church of England bishops made unlikely bedfellows – pause for a cheap smirk – but they both agree on the dullness of the current political production and long for someone to come along and redo the script. Brand is happy to admit what the bishops are not: that they both hope and expect that new voice to enter from stage left. But they differ in their capacity to sit through the current production. With a much lower boredom threshold, Brand has left at the interval and returned his ticket, declaring the whole thing to be a dud, and inviting others to do the same. The bishops, much more conversant with boredom, advise that people sit through the play even though they too agree that it isn’t terribly good. Being generous, polite sorts, they want us to stop throwing rotten apples and appreciate that everyone is working hard and probably trying their best. They clap at the good bits, albeit unenthusiastically. But they are not leaving. And they advise that we shouldn’t either. After all, it has taken centuries to save up for us all to have a seat; cynicism comes at too high a price if it means we have to walk out on the show.

Actually, the bishops’ general election letter is not averse to a few whispered digs. Nigel Farage and Ukip are an obvious target, with the word “racism” pointedly applied to the political scene in a way that one cannot imagine happening previously. But overall, it’s the lack of political imagination that gets the bishops booing. They want a production with a far greater sense of ambition. Something to inspire. Something that will bring us together in a greater story of ourselves … though it is fair comment to say that having pretty spectacularly failed to do this in their own theatres, they may not be the obvious people to listen to.

But it’s a free country and we all are allowed our say. Free speech – even for bishops, I say. Not least because the bishops’ take on current politics does reflect a widespread dissatisfaction with political actors who are being made to work with the same lines over and over again. The bishops’ bad review of contemporary politics is not so much about those who are desperately squeezing significance from cliché-ridden speeches – the complaint is more about the absence of a better political philosophy. The problem is not the actors: blue, red and yellow are all auditioning for a remarkably similar play. No, since the death of the “big society”, the problem is in the ideas department.