In preparation for the new era, we go to see Posh at the Royal Court in Sloane Square, about an Oxford dining club called the Riot Club. We leave feeling slightly sick and return home to see television footage of David Cameron in Downing Street at last and what a week it's been. I feel lucky and privileged to be alive at this time. With Nick Clegg, said Cameron, he wants "to work hard for the common good and the national interest." The concept of the common good echoes Catholic social teaching. Not only does it signal the warm reception that the new Government intends to offer Pope Benedict XVI in September, but a determination on the part of both the Conservatives and LibDems genuinely to put the common good before their own. Nick Clegg's wife is a committed Catholic but I credit someone else for this governmental nod to more than a century of Catholic social thought. I owe my specialism on The Times to the man I believe is the greatest religious journalist of our era, Clifford Longley. In 1996 he was consultant to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales for the production of the seminal document The Common Good, widely regarded as supportive of Labour, who were duly elected. This time he was consultant to the bishops for Choosing the Common Good, another impressive document that more ambiguous than its predecessor, even if it nonetheless appeared to favour Conservative policies in areas such as marriage. It is clear that Cliff is now mentoring not just me or the Catholic bishops, but the entire country. We are in safe hands.
May 24, 2010
