'Is our society broken? Yes, I think it is'
By Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson
15/09/2007

Interview: Rachel Sylvester and Alice Thomson find the Archbishop of Canterbury in a reflective mood

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

Have your say: Is our society broken?

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

In his four years as head of the established Church, he has shied away from being a moral arbiter and rarely given an interview. When we meet him, however, he talks frankly about everything affecting society, from Pop Idol to gang culture. the rest