We hate to be uncharitable on the eve of Christmas. This is, after all, the season of goodwill to all men.
Still, it is impossible not to raise a puzzled eyebrow at King Charles’s decision to bestow a personal honour on the Archbishop of Canterbury simply for doing his job.
It’s true, of course, that in the past year or so, Justin Welby has played a particularly prominent role in the life of our nation.
The monarch is no doubt grateful that on an intensely emotional day in September 2022, he presided over the late Queen’s state funeral with calm dignity.
And that eight months later, as the Church of England’s leading cleric, he helped to ensure that Charles’s coronation went without a hitch.
The King evidently felt this creditable service worthy of special recognition. Consequently, he has made Dr Welby a knight of the Royal Victorian Order, a rare honour at the discretion of the sovereign.
The monarch is no doubt grateful that on an intensely emotional day in September 2022, he presided over the late Queen’s state funeral with calm dignity
King Charles has made Dr Welby a knight of the Royal Victorian Order, a rare honour at the discretion of the sovereign
However, some may feel uncertain about the merits of this extra gong. He is supposed primarily to be a humble servant of God. Tossing him an extra secular honour for good conduct puts him in the same bracket as time-serving Whitehall mandarins.
There is also a risk that Charles could be seen to be performing a political act. In his time as supreme primate, Dr Welby has been outspoken and sometimes divisive.
His views are generally woke and fashionable and he is certainly no friend of the Tories.
He has opposed them on almost every political issue from Rwanda, through Brexit to welfare dependency. No wonder the Church of England has a reputation for being the centre-Left at prayer.
It’s bad enough that the Archbishop of Canterbury sees fit to dabble in the dangerous world of adversarial politics. The King must beware doing so too.
As sovereign, His Majesty must be scrupulously impartial. If not, he will lose the respect of at least some of his people.
His mother knew to rise above the political fray. Charles must learn the same lesson.
Border bunkum
Even for a Government that has made a fine art of screeching U-turns, the dilution of measures to cut soaring legal migration happened with disturbing speed.
Three weeks after pledging to raise the amount a British citizen must earn before bringing a foreign relative here to £38,700, the Home Secretary has bottled it and reduced the threshold to £29,000.
So much for listening to voters angry that unsustainably high migration is putting pressure on public services. At the first salvo of opposition from the business lobby, ministers have waved the white flag.
Three weeks after pledging to raise the amount a British citizen must earn before bringing a foreign relative here to £38,700, the Home Secretary (pictured) has bottled it and reduced the threshold
The crackdown also faces legal challenges because – yes, you’ve guessed correctly – it could breach families’ human rights.
If ministers can’t even make a dent in the small numbers applying for family visas, how will they curb the countless thousands of students and workers arriving?
The Tories vowed to control our borders. There can be no more deceit. Those unequivocal promises must be honoured.
Economy’s life signs
No one is pretending that all is rosy with Britain’s economy. Indeed, new ONS figures showing output shrank this summer are deeply disappointing.
But listening to Labour and the BBC, you’d think the financial system had imploded and people were being forced to barter coal and chickens just to survive.
The truth is, a raft of other indicators suggest the gloom over our economy is lifting. Inflation is tumbling, retail sales are buoyant and the Chancellor is talking about tax cuts. Economists are increasingly confident we will avoid recession.
It proves that while the doom-mongers are desperate to declare it dead, there is still plenty of life left in the economy yet.