It is the fate of many speeches by bishops in the House of Lords to escape notice but it would be our loss if we didn’t take on board a really important contribution this week by Lord Chartres, the former bishop of London. In a contribution to a discussion on education in the King’s speech, he got straight to the heart of what is missing from the Government’s focus on core subjects and technology skills.
“Education for the long term”, he said, “has to recognise that the great question for the 21st century centres on the meaning and value of human life and to encounter the already powerful current of thought that sees human beings as little different from machines, or, even worse, as rapacious bipeds bent on consuming the planet.”
