An exercise in despair
September 22, 2007

Society is at breaking point, according to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Lambeth Palace is just across the River Thames from the Palace of Westminster but it couldn't be more different. Even during recess the House of Commons is frenetic; behind the wooden gates of the Archbishop of Canterbury's residence all is calm.

Not for long. As politics concentrates increasingly on moral questions, so the church has become ever more political. Rowan Williams met the new British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, last week for the first time and he clearly intends to get more involved in national debate. "Politics is so much about human issues now," he says. the rest