Thirty years on from Thatcher’s ‘Sermon on the Mound’, faith is sadly excluded from public discourse

May 22, 2018 by Jill

by Daniel Coughlan, Conservative Home:

In England the month of May, with its Morris dancing, is a time when people risk looking nuts. Thirty years ago today Margaret Thatcher was north of the border doing the very same. Not dancing with sticks but something even more disturbing: she was ‘doing God’ in public, and with bells on.

In what became known as the ‘Sermon on the Mound’, her address to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Thatcher explicitly spelt out her Judaeo-Christian worldview. She stands out in modern British politics in how she consistently and publicly witnessed to a firm faith in God.

All Prime Ministers since Macmillan have professed a personal belief in God. Yet one of the most devout, Tony Blair, confessed in 2007 – the year he left Downing Street – to keeping his faith quiet. He explained, “you talk about it [faith] in our system and, frankly, people do think you’re a nutter”. This is a sad indictment of the British political scene.

Politicians are still permitted to have had a religious upbringing, and even to maintain religious customs. Theresa May could happily launch her Conservative leadership bid as the vicar’s daughter, and as Prime Minster reveal that she was giving up crisps for Lent. But many voters seem uncomfortable with a politician drawing upon a belief in God.

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