Acts and Omissions: (Lindchester Chronicles 1) (The Lindchester Chronicles)

by Catherine Fox

He’s heading for the House of Lords, where he will do what bishops do; thwarting this, defending that: being a force for good or a bunch of barking bigots, depending on which paper you read. Bishops sit in the Lords for historic constitutional reasons. But do we want unelected clerics in government, a constitutional idiosyncrasy we share solely with Iran? Oh dear, perhaps we ought to clamour for an elected Upper House and sever at last the ties between church and state?

I guess it depends on your politics, I guess but an unelected chamber of 800 people, only some of whom attend regularly and all seem to draw expenses, etc., seems an expensive luxury, to me, when we could have a chamber part made up of subject experts and regional representatives, elected by the people to represent them. This might (NOTE...MIGHT) make everyday people feel as if they had a voice!!

We will find Jane sitting by herself in Susanna’s lovely kitchen, ranting at Susanna’s floral Cath Kidston Roberts radio. If you are a Conservative voter, or easily offended, look away now: Shut up, shut up, shut up, you vile Tory twats. I was at college with wankers like you. You know nothing, nothing about poverty. The taste of it in your mouth, the feel of it on your skin, in your hair. Culture of dependency, my arse. Struggling to make ends meet does not mean forgoing the skiing trip so you can pay your kids’ school fees. No, tosser, you could not live on that much a week. You could probably lose that much down the back of your fucking antique French sofa and not notice! Fuck you and your fucking bedroom tax. God, let this be your poll tax, the thing that brings you down, you Boden arseholes.

Quite!! Well, that's just shown my Centre-Left political; views, I guess...!!!

Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Isn’t that, thinks Dominic, what the Church should be saying?

We will whisper this very quietly in case we jinx it: the weather has turned lovely. There are those in the diocese of Lindchester who (confusing ‘global warming’ with ‘Middle England warming’, and ‘climate’ with ‘weather’), will remark, as if coining the drollery for the very first time, ‘Well, if this is global warming, I’m all for it!’ They have read a book, perhaps, or at any rate heard someone talk about a book, and have satisfied themselves that climate change is a complete fabrication because scientists are divided. And they are quite right. It is our duty to remain open-minded and give equal weight to the dissenting two per cent. Remember how scientists were divided on the links between cancer and smoking, and on the depletion of the ozone layer, on acid rain and all the toxic hazards of leaded fuel? So you go ahead and enjoy this lovely weather with a clear conscience, people of Lindfordshire who have heard about a book that flies in the face of ninety-eight per cent of serious science.