An Alice in Wonderland market system

I have a new Gospel Reflection on the MiLE website for Sunday's Gospel Reading. This reflection links up with the comments made by the Archbishop of York when addressing the annual dinner of the Institute of Worshipful Company of International Bankers at Drapers Hall in the City of London.

Dr Sentamu declared: "To a bystander like me, those who made £190million deliberately underselling the shares of HBOS, in spite of its very strong capital base, and drove it into the bosom of Lloyds TSB Bank, are clearly bank robbers and asset strippers."

He continued: "We find ourselves in a market system which seems to have taken its rules of trade from Alice in Wonderland, where the share value of a bank is no longer dependent on the strength of its performance but rather on the willingness of the Government to bail it out, or rather on whether the Government has announced its intentions so to do."

The Archbishop also spoke of the contrast between the bail outs being proposed for banks and the lack of funding for the Millennium Development Goals and drew attention to the plight of those outside the financial industry who would benefit from Government assistance at a time of need.

This contrasts with a fascinating comment piece by Matthew Parris in The Times where he argues that "Christian socialism has ambushed [socialism], subverting its original message and wrecking it as a viable philosophy of government in a market-driven age":

"Marx is about power. Christianity is about charity. Marx is about the authority of the collective. Christian liberalism is about the individual conscience. Marx is about justice. Christian humanitarianism is about mercy. The common causes in which Christians, liberals and socialists have tried to reconcile their differences - personal freedom, the redistribution of wealth and the beneficent State - have in Christian hands proved ruinous to the socialist idea: softening its head, picking its pocket, throwing good money after bad, nursing the weak and neglecting the winners, hearkening to disability and turning away from ability, and leaching its energies into a welter of simpering charitable causes. For most of the second half of the 20th century, Western socialism has hovered around the bedside of the victim, the loser and the marginalised. To win, it should have been outdoors, exhorting the strong."

Parris' comment is fascinating because he clearly understands the 'bias to the poor' within Christianity at the same time that he rejects it. As my Gospel Reflection seeks to set out, I stand with the Archbishop of York.

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The Clash - Working For The Clampdown.