Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s notes | 11 February 2016

Also in Charles Moore's notes: why Nigel Farage would not want Britain out; more on Bishop Bell

Here is a thought for all those Tory MPs calculating their personal advantage in the forthcoming EU referendum: unless the vote is an absolutely overwhelming Remain, the next leader of the Conservative party — whose day is no longer so far off — will come from the Leave camp. This will happen, obviously, if Leave wins, but also if Leave loses but does well, because most party supporters will only back someone who feels their pain and can reconcile them afterwards.

Another thought: why would Nigel Farage want Britain to vote Leave? Then he would be redundant. Study him in the light of this thought and you will see that it explains his behaviour in the campaign.

It is surprising that the mob of assorted witch-hunters and iconoclasts now scouring the country for monuments to dead worthies to knock down have not yet lighted on Christ Church, Oxford. In the cathedral, which is also the college chapel, there is an altar in memory of Bishop George Bell. Bell, who was both an undergraduate and a don at Christ Church, was a famous Bishop of Chichester, courageous both in aiding German Christians against Hitler when most English ones stood idly by, and then for attacking the Allied bombing of German civilians during the war. His stand on the latter point is thought to have cost him the Archbishopric of Canterbury. Last year (see Notes, 7 November) his former diocese declared that Bell, who died in 1958, had abused a young child about 65 years ago. He was immediately airbrushed. Bishop Bell House in Chichester was renamed. Bishop Bell School is following, as is the University of Chichester, which is in such a frenzy because it has a Bishop Bell hall of residence that it is renaming all its halls.

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