way out of recession
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:48 AM on 18th December 2008
The Archbishop of Canterbury has hit out at Gordon Brown's plans to combat recession by boosting spending and has likened them to an 'addict returning to the drug'.
Rowan Williams also said the credit crunch is a welcome 'reality check' for a society that has become driven by unsustainable greed.
The head of the Church of England's outspoken comments came as he delivered a scathing assessment of moral failings in Britain's economy.
In an interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he insisted the country had been 'going in the wrong direction' for decades by relying on financial speculation to generate wealth quickly rather than 'making things'.
Dr Rowan Williams said the credit crunch was a welcome reality check for a society driven by unsustainable greed
In an interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he insisted the country had been 'going in the wrong direction' for decades by relying on financial speculation to generate wealth quickly rather than 'making things'.
He said the UK had backed itself 'into a corner', and must now rediscover 'patience' and re-think the way it viewed material gain.
Dr Williams said the effect of the global financial crisis on the economy had been beneficial because it acted as a reality check.
'A reminder that what I think some people have called fairy gold is just that - that sooner or later you have to ask: "What are we making or what are we assembling or accumulating wealth for?",' he said.
Dr Williams went on: 'I would like to think that in this sort of crisis people would be reflecting more on how you develop a volunteer culture, how you develop a culture of people willing to put their services at the needs of others so that there can be a more active, a more vital civil society.'
The archbishop called on the Government to give more of a lead on 'how the civil society is created and expressed concerns over the Prime Minister's fiscal stimulus package, which included cutting VAT to get the public spending again.
Questioned on whether increased spending was the right way to tackle the downturn, he said: 'It seems a little bit like the addict returning to the drug.
'When the Bible uses the word repentance, it doesn't just mean beating your breast, it means getting a new perspective, and that is perhaps what we are shrinking away from.'
The archbishop added: 'It is about what is sustainable in the long term and if this is going to drive us back into the same spin, I do not think that is going to help us.'
He said people should not 'spend to save the economy', but instead spend for 'human reasons' - to provide for their own needs.
Dr Williams admitted that he was likely to face criticism for giving economists 'advice' on how to tackle the crisis but said he wanted to ask where the moral questions were in the economic discourse.
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