Jamie Franklin

The Revd Dr Jamie Franklin is the Priest in Charge at Holy Trinity Church, Winchester and the author of The Great Return.

Thursday

Jamie Franklin

Cruel Labour, the decline of sacred spaces & Clandon Park’s controversial restoration

From our UK edition

51 min listen

This week: Starmerism’s moral vacuum‘Governments need a mission, or they descend into reactive incoherence’ writes Michael Gove in this week’s cover piece. A Labour government, he argues, ‘cannot survive’ without a sense of purpose. The ‘failure of this government to make social justice its mission’ has led to a Spring Statement ‘that was at once hurried, incoherent and cruel – a fiscal drive-by shooting’.  Michael writes that Starmer wishes to emulate his hero – the post-war Prime Minister Clement Atlee, who founded the NHS and supported a fledgling NATO alliance. Yet, with policy driven by Treasury mandarins, the Labour project is in danger of drifting, as John Major’s premiership did.

Jamie Franklin

The C of E’s tragic misuse of its sacred spaces

From our UK edition

I am a priest in the high church tradition of the Church of England. The technical term is Anglo-Catholicism, but I come from a very different Christian background. My heritage is non-conformist evangelical – I was baptised in a swimming pool in the summer of my first year of university. St James’s in Piccadilly hosts events featuring ‘icons’ from RuPaul’s Drag Race UK It’s a long story as to how I’ve ended up wearing a chasuble and celebrating ‘Mass’, but a big part of it has been to do with church architecture. After several years in the charismatic evangelical scene, I became fascinated with the beauty of medieval churches, particularly cathedrals. I began to think of the large white-cuboid former bingo hall owned by our church as soulless and empty.

Thursday

Jamie Franklin

Who does Justin Welby speak for?

From our UK edition

Archbishop Justin Welby’s appearance on The Rest is Politics has caused quite a stir in Anglican circles.  For the most part, the Archbishop came across well and gave some very insightful answers when questioned, for example, about original sin and peace-making in war-torn nations. But these good things are inevitably going to be overshadowed by Welby’s answer to Alistair Campbell’s question about gay sex. Campbell asked Welby whether he had a ‘better answer’ to the one he gave Campbell in 2017, on whether gay sex is a sin. Welby essentially refused to reply, saying he didn’t have a good answer. In this most recent interview, however, he says that he has thought about it and has improved his take.

Thursday

Jamie Franklin

Will the Red Wall revolt split the right?

From our UK edition

48 min listen

On the podcast this week: is Rishi ready for a Red Wall rebellion?  Lee Anderson’s defection to Reform is an indication of the final collapse of the Tories’ 2019 electoral coalition and the new split in the right, writes Katy Balls in her cover story. For the first time in many years the Tories are polling below 25 per cent. Reform is at 15 per cent. The hope in Reform now is that Anderson attracts so much publicity from the right and the left that he will bring the party name recognition and electoral cut-through. Leader of Reform UK Richard Tice joins Katy on the podcast to discuss.