Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[celedhring]

So, I didn't learn until today that Burnham is Catholic.

300 years ago that would've been enough for a couple beheadings and a protracted Civil War. You guys are losing your touch.

[Sheilbh]

So, I didn't learn until today that Burnham is Catholic.

300 years ago that would've been enough for a couple beheadings and a protracted Civil War. You guys are losing your touch.

A Northern Catholic descending on London - very Pilgrimage of Grace.

Of course, absurdly, technically our first Catholic PM was Boris Johnson... And I Tony Blair was definitely basically a recusant. He had to be told by the Pope to stop taking communion at Westminster Cathedral, had a long private meeting with the Pope in his resignation tour and basically immediately converted on leaving office.

[Razgovory]

So, I didn't learn until today that Burnham is Catholic.

300 years ago that would've been enough for a couple beheadings and a protracted Civil War. You guys are losing your touch.

A Northern Catholic descending on London - very Pilgrimage of Grace.

Of course, absurdly, technically our first Catholic PM was Boris Johnson... And I Tony Blair was definitely basically a recusant. He had to be told by the Pope to stop taking communion at Westminster Cathedral, had a long private meeting with the Pope in his resignation tour and basically immediately converted on leaving office.

How is it you keep getting Catholic prime ministers?  Catholics are like 10% of the country.

[Sheilbh]

How is it you keep getting Catholic prime ministers?  Catholics are like 10% of the country.

I wouldn't read too much into it But generally we're quite religiously plural. So the largest single group is Christianity at about 45% followed by no religion at 35-40%. But obviously that Christian group contains lots. The Catholics are about 7% of the country - but the Church of England is only 12% (and in terms of attendance Catholics definitely have the lead).

Burnham is very much a cultural Catholic - from the most traditionally Catholic part of England, with Irish ancestry (and the most Irish bit of England too). In part it maybe just reflects the fact that Labour (and befor them, the Liberals) were traditionally the party of all forms of non-conformism and their heartlands traditionally overlapped with non-conformist areas. I don't think there's much more to it than, say, Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan were PMs for 12 years of the 60s and 70s and both came from Baptist backgrounds (except that those "chapel" other protestant traditions have largely died outside migrant communities). Liverpool, Lancashire, Irish heritage bits of the North-East and (before the rise of the SNP) Glasgow provide a fairly solid stream of Labour MPs.

I think it's fair to say Johnson's Catholicism (baptised Catholic, confirmed Church of England, third marriage in a Catholic Cathedral) is fairly lightly worn Blair is the outlier in both being deeply religious and a convert.

Although religion doesn't play a big part of our politics (though historically it's absolutely central including in how it's structured). As Tony Blair's spin doctor used to say in interview that threatened to touch on question of faith: "we don't do God". So I think Burnham is culturally Catholic - from a particular tradition - in much the same way as I think Cameron was culturally Church of England and not really a person "of faith" like Blair or Sunak (of recent PMs).