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By Bagehot
SHORTLY before Christmas, Bagehot wrote a rather grumpy column about the Church of England, arguing that a time of national austerity and general economic soul-searching was a big test for the national church, which I suspected its leaders were currently failing. True, there were the Occupy London protestors camped out on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral, and yes, the Archbishop of Canterbury and assorted bishops were regularly making headlines by speaking out against public spending cuts, criticising the government and generally fretting about austerity.
