And who does the New Statesman blame?The Archbishop of Canterbury.
While Rowan Williams is undoubtedly used to being mocked, pilloried, criticised, condemned and unfairly judged by much of the media most of the time, it's a bit much when he's blamed even for the utterly insensitive and wholly inappropriate comments of England's Roman Catholic leader.
'Mud sticks' was Archbishop Vincent's message to the great and the good gathered at Mansion House yesterday (via the FT [£]).But all his talk on poverty and the importance of Christian values in the market place has been rather overshadowed by his unexpected comparison of the mud which has stuck to the bankers and financial sector as a result of the greed of a few with the mud which has stuck to the Roman Catholic Church as a result of paedophile priests: the reputations of both institutions, he observes, have been badly damaged.
Of course, we know that the love of money is the root of all evil.
But the mud which sticks to the financial sector as a result of the greed of a few selfish bankers is as nothing to the faeces, fungus, sewage and slime which sticks to the Roman Catholic Church as a result of many professing ministers of God who torture and rape children.
No, Archbishop, there is absolutely no comparison at all.
