RAF trooper sues for £100k claiming ‘noisy’ aircraft left him deaf
An elite RAF trooper left so deafened by “incredibly noisy” aircraft and gunfire that his friends and family accuse him of ignoring them is suing for up to £100,000.
Alastair Bidwell, 55, served for 12 years in the RAF Regiment – a unit tasked with defending air bases, supporting special forces and providing forward air control and ground combat support.
The regiment, nicknamed the “Rock Apes”, was formed during the Second World War to prevent attacks by German paratroopers. Celebrated former RAF troopers include football legend Brian Clough and actor Brian Blessed.
Mr Bidwell, now a plastering and project manager, left the services in 2000 after years spent training with “incredibly noisy” aircraft and firing thousands of rounds from guns ranging from infantry rifles to heavy machine guns and missiles whilst serving in zones such as the jungles of South America, Bosnia and Kuwait.
He is now suing the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for tinnitus and hearing loss so bad “it appears as though he is ignoring his family and friends when he cannot hear them properly”.
He is claiming up to £100,000 compensation on the basis that military bosses should have been aware of the need to limit noise exposure, including by providing adequate ear protection, and should also have given warnings about the potential hazards.
In court documents, his barrister, Rachit Buch, said the former RAF man was “persistently exposed to dangerously high levels of noise” while on duty at the firing ranges or on exercises, leaving him with long-term “permanent noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus”.
Mr Bidwell’s exposure to extreme noise started soon after he began basic training at RAF Swinderby, in Lincolnshire, when he carried out range training with an infantry SLR assault rifle, firing roughly 80 rounds per day.
While on the range, he was issued with “standard issue green ear defenders”, but the weapon noise was still audible, claimed his barrister.
Later, he progressed to training with a general-purpose machine gun, live grenades and mortars, firing off thousands of rounds of ammo.
“On range, he used push-in grommets which appeared to do very little, if anything, to reduce, noise levels,” stated Mr Buch.
“He wore no hearing protection most of the time on exercise.”
When subsequently serving with a ground defence unit, Mr Bidwell had to train for long periods with a Harrier jet fighter squadron, “using small arms and at times creating a 50-metre perimeter to the aircraft”.
Other combat training included firing rocket launchers, as well as carrying out jungle warfare deployment in Belize, “with a large amount of small arms fire and pyrotechnics without hearing protection for the majority of the time”.
“He undertook fighting in built-up area training, primarily with small arms, but also with pyrotechnics – grenades, thunderflashes and schmoolies, hand-launched flares – often in confined spaces such as hallways, stairwells and rooms,” explained his barrister.
During another posting, he carried out training with small arms and also Rapier surface-to-air-missile, but often had to “lift up one ear of his ear defenders”.
On subsequent tours of duty in the Gulf, he was exposed to a “huge amount of aircraft noise”, said his barrister.
“Throughout his service, he flew in a variety of aircraft, some of which were incredibly noisy,” claimed Mr Buch, highlighting his exposure to the din created by massive Hercules transport planes and the Gazelle helicopter.
Mr Bidwell, of Trearddur Bay, Holyhead, Wales, claims compensation for tinnitus and hearing loss from the MoD on the basis that he was not sufficiently protected from suffering injury to his hearing.
Explaining his condition, Mr Buch stated: “He suffered what he thought was temporary ringing in ears or muffled hearing while serving.
“Hearing loss has become more severe, as it appears as though he is ignoring his family and friends when he cannot hear them properly.
“This is worse where there is background noise, such as in shops or restaurants, hampering his ability to take part in social activities.
“His phone is turned to maximum volume and need for hearing aids has been advanced by around 10 years.
“He struggles to hear colleagues at work. His tinnitus affects his sleep, leaving him tired during the day times and at work.”
In its defence to the action, MoD lawyers are asking for the case to be stayed, pending the outcome of a cluster of similar “test cases” relating to deafness caused during service, which are due to be heard in the High Court later this year.
The MoD also says it will be asking Mr Bidwell to prove any hearing loss that he has suffered and loss that has resulted from it.
UK set to be hotter than Athens this week as temperatures soar to 21C
Parts of the UK are set to be hotter than Athens this week as temperatures soar to 21C across the country, according to the Met Office.
The forecaster said temperatures will climb gradually this week and could peak at 21C on Thursday in the south of England.
South Wales and Somerset could reach 20C and may be hotter than Athens and Barcelona on Thursday, where highs of 17C and 16C are forecast.
Met Office spokesperson Stephen Nixon said: “It is a fine dry and sunny day for many through the day on Monday, with temperatures well above average for the time of year and that theme is set to continue for much of the week.
“There will be a settled period for the UK’s weather and temperatures will possibly get as high as 21C on Thursday.”
Mr Dixon said high pressure is set to be near or over the UK in the coming week and into the weekend, leading to warm and dry conditions.
He added: “On Tuesday morning there will be the start of some low cloud in some parts of the Midlands and central England but will clear up quite quickly.
“Through the middle of the week it will be a touch breezier in the South West, but it will still feel much warmer than average.”
“On Friday and Saturday we are likely to see a touch of fog in eastern Scotland and north-east England which will subdue temperatures in these areas,” Mr Dixon added.
Although temperatures are likely to gradually drop on Saturday, they will still hover around the mid-teens and are likely to be higher than the average maximum temperature of 12C for the UK in April, forecasters said.
The warm weather still falls some way short of the record high in April of 29.4C, which was recorded Camden Square, London, in 1949, Met Office records show.
The Met Office said the dry weather is likely to persist into the weekend and early next week, though there is less certainty when forecasting much further into April.
Rather cloudy in the northwest with a little light rain, mainly in the far north of Scotland. Otherwise, a chilly start followed by a dry and bright day with long, warm sunny spells and generally light winds.
Remaining dry and fine this evening, though becoming increasingly breezy along the south and west coasts overnight. Feeling chilly too, with a local frost likely in sheltered rural spots.
After a chilly start with a little patchy frost and fog, it’ll be a fine day. Dry with long sunny spells, although rather breezy in the south and west.
High pressure continues to bring widely dry and fine conditions this week. Plenty of warm sunshine by day, but chillier by night. Although generally breezier than of late.
Man, 84, dies after XL Bully attack while walking home
An 84-year-old man who was viciously attacked by two XL bully dogs has died over a month after he was rushed to hospital with serious injuries.
Police were forced to shoot the dogs 19 times in Warrington, Cheshire, after they escaped an owner’s house and attacked the pensioner while he was walking home.
A 30-year-old man has been charged for owning a dangerously out of control animal that caused seriously injury, and possession of an illegal dog.
Since February last year, it has been a criminal offence to own an XL bully dog in England and Wales without an exemption certificate.
It was introduced under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 after 16 deaths by dog bites in 2023 – more than double the six fatalities in 2022.
Former prime minister Rishi Sunak declared the XL Bully dog a danger to communities, placing it on the list of prohibited breeds that include the Pit bull terrier, Japanese Tosa Dogo Argentino and Fila Braziliero.
Accorded to Defra, around 60,000 certificates were issued before 1 February, while compensation was paid out to owners for euthanasia in 326 cases.
More than 800 XL bully dogs were also put down by police forces, according to the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC).
Detective Inspector Simon Mills, of Cheshire Police, said: “This was a tragic incident, and our thoughts are with the family of the victim at this difficult time.
“The victim has fought so hard since the attack but sadly his injuries were too much, and despite the best efforts of the specialist medical teams who have supported him since the attack, he has now passed away.
“To endure such pain and anguish at the hands of an animal is unimaginable, and I cannot begin to comprehend the distress that his family are currently suffering following such an horrific incident.
“Nobody should have to go through what they have experienced, and our specialist officers are providing them with the support they need at this truly awful time.”
How TikTok became the world’s most controversial app
After amassing more than 170 million users in the US in less than seven years, TikTok is now facing a complete ban if a deal is not made with its parent company ByteDance before 5 April.
TikTok has already disappeared from Apple and Google app stores ahead of the law taking effect on Saturday, which requires ByteDance to sell the video-sharing app to a US owner due to national security concerns.
President Donald Trump gave TikTok a 75-day reprieve from the ban after he took office in January, however ByteDance is yet to secure a buyer.
The US is not the first major market for TikTok to cut off the video-sharing app. In 2020, India issued a complete ban of the app that cut off around 200 million users. The Indian government cited security issues with the app, claiming that alleged ties between ByteDance and the Chinese government posed a threat to India’s sovereignty.
Other countries and areas, including the UK and European Union, have put partial bans in place, which prevent government workers and military personnel from installing the app on their devices.
Various federal and state TikTok bans are already in place in the US, with lawmakers citing national security concerns. These fears have done little to stem TikTok’s growth in the US. The app has proved to be one of the most popular both in America and globally last year with 52 million downloads in the US and 733 million worldwide – despite more than 3 billion people around the world being blocked from downloading it.
This has helped bring the total number of TikTok users around the world to above 2 billion, with only India’s ban nearly three years ago slightly slowing its growth – but only temporarily.
A survey poll from the Pew Research Center last year found TikTok to be the fastest-growing platform in the US, as users beyond the social media app’s typically young demographic began to adopt it.
US adults who have TikTok accounts are increasingly using the app as a source of news, with roughly a third of people aged 18-29 regularly using it to consume news in 2023.
The FBI claims that Chinese state ties to parent company ByteDance could allow the app to “manipulate content” in order to spread harmful propaganda.
Fears around national security have been countered with questions about censorship, with the Electronic Frontier Foundation describing the prospect of a ban as a “seed of genuine security concern wrapped in a thick layer of censorship”.
The US digital liberties group has called on people to “resist a governmental power to ban a popular means of communication and expression”.
In its filing with the Supreme Court in January, TikTok alleged that banning the app would “shutter” one of the most popular speech platforms at a highly political moment.
“The act will shutter one of America’s most popular speech platforms the day before a presidential inauguration,” TikTok wrote. “This, in turn, will silence the speech of applicants and the many Americans who use the platform to communicate about politics, commerce, arts, and other matters of public concern.”
Under the law passed last year and upheld on Friday by a unanimous Supreme Court, the platform had until Sunday to cut ties with its China-based parent or shut down its US operation to resolve concerns it poses a threat to national security.
The United States has never previously banned a major social media platform.
President Trump said over the weekend that he believed a deal would be made before Saturday’s deadline.
Virgin poised to announce challenger to Eurostar
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has declared its readiness to launch passenger train services through the Channel Tunnel, following a key regulatory decision.
The company said “no more major hurdles” remain after the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) announced the potential availability of capacity at Eurostar‘s Temple Mills maintenance depot in north-east London.
Access to a suitable depot for train maintenance and storage has been a significant obstacle for potential competitors to Eurostar.
The ORR’s announcement follows an independent report commissioned to investigate this very issue, bringing Virgin’s cross-Channel ambitions significantly closer to reality.
The regulator said: “Eurostar’s London depot would be able, if required, to accommodate additional trains.”
It added: “Changes to operational and maintenance arrangements at the depot, as well as possible alterations to infrastructure, would be required to access extra capacity and allow more trains to be stabled/maintained there.”
Eurostar holds a monopoly in running passenger services through the Channel Tunnel, which opened in 1994.
A Virgin Group spokesperson said: “Finally a green signal for competition. The Temple Mills depot is the only facility in the UK which can accommodate European-style trains and claims suggesting it was at capacity have been blocking Virgin from coming to the line.
“Virgin is therefore very pleased with the outcome and we thank the ORR for commissioning this report, which will now unlock competition on the cross-Channel route for the benefit of all passengers.
“There are no more major hurdles to overcome, and Virgin is ready to take up the challenge, given its award-winning experience in the train industry and track record for building globally successful travel brands.
“We expect to be able to make an announcement very soon. Watch this space.”
Virgin Group said earlier in March it was aiming to challenge Eurostar’s dominance with a £700 million fundraising effort to launch its own cross-channel rail service.
Spanish start-up company Evolyn, and Gemini Trains – chaired by Labour peer Lord Berkeley – are also hoping to run trains through the tunnel.
Virgin Group was the majority owner of Virgin Trains when it ran domestic services on the West Coast Main Line from 1997 to 2019.
The Barbados edit: Best experiences, from festivals to foodie feasts
There’s always something happening in beautiful, beachy Barbados, so whether you’re a carnival fan, firm foodie, or love live music, you’ll find incredible experiences to suit every passion. What’s more, travellers heading to Barbados this year can enjoy incredible discounts of up to 65 per cent on select hotels and an array of attractions and activities across the island, while indulging in the island’s vibrant culinary scene through exclusive menu offers from participating restaurants.
Here we delve into just some of the best activities, events and unmissable adventures you can enjoy on this wonderful, welcoming island.
The Crop Over festival transforms Barbados into an island-wide party with music, parades and dancing everywhere you look. More than 100,000 people take part in this annual gathering, which traditionally marks the end of the island’s sugar cane season. This year, the fun kicks off in July and the excitement peaks on the Grand Kadooment Day, featuring costumed revellers in bands, parading and dancing to great calypso songs blasting from the music trucks driving along the sizzling streets. The Crop Over festival is where Rihanna “got her style groove” according to fashion writers. You may just find yours there, too.
Read more: Best adults-only hotels in Barbados
If you’d prefer a smaller but equally fun celebration then Holetown Festival on the West Coast of Barbados is your friend. It’s a bouncy, colourful and family-friendly jamboree that celebrates the arrival of the first settlers to the island back in 1627. With a steel band concert, nightly shows, and a floodlit tattoo and night parade, the week-long event showcases the rich cultural heritage and traditions of Barbados.
Read more: Best family hotels in Barbados
The Barbados Reggae Festival is your chance to plunge yourself into the beating heart of reggae music. Renowned local and international reggae artists gather on the island in April to conjure up a rhythmic menu of reggae and dancehall. The music is only part of the fun: there are several beach parties and themed get-togethers across multiple events, including Reggae On The Hill. This year is the 20th anniversary of this festival, so the vibe is set to be better than ever.
Read more: Best beach hotels in Barbados
Culinary fans should book their trip to coincide with the vibrant Barbados Food and Rum Festival. This event has been named the Caribbean’s Best Culinary Festival at the World Culinary Awards two years running. Held annually in October, food lovers from around the globe descend to enjoy the island’s famed culinary experiences, with local and international chefs joining the eminent local mixologists to serve up fine food, drink and Bajan hospitality.
Another foodie must-experience is the Oistins Fish Festival, held annually over the Easter weekend in the pretty fishing village of Oistins, on the south coast. It celebrates the local fishing industry, with music, crafts and delicious local food. Dubbed one for the whole family, it includes an Easter bonnet competition, egg and spoon races, a fish boning competition and a hilarious contest where youngsters compete to reach the top of a greased pole.
By day, Harbour Lights on the stunning Carlisle Bay is a popular beach club, with loungers, umbrellas, and turtle and shipwreck snorkel tours, but at night, it transforms into a thrilling venue offering pulsating steel pan rhythms, stilt walkers, costumed dancers, and a live band. On Friday evenings you can party under the stars as the venue turns into an open-air nightclub.
For bar-hopping, head to St Lawrence Gap, known as ‘The Gap’ by locals. Here you can watch the sunset with a cocktail at On The Bay or Mimosas Trattoria and Bar, or head indoors for a great dining experience at Cocktail Kitchen, and finally take your pick from the late-night bars where you can party into the small hours of the morning.
Barbados lives and breathes cricket, and you can hear the sweet sound of leather on willow in villages across the island. The cream of the action is at the celebrated Kensington Oval, where you can take in an international Test Match or a One-Day match, soaking up the incredible atmosphere with music, dancing, drinking and delicious food. No one does cricket quite like the Barbadians.
For more adventurous sports fans there’s the Barbados Open Water Festival, with a variety of open water swim races that are open for all ages and abilities, as well as fun social events where the athletes and spectators can rub shoulders. It’s held in November at the Barbados Yacht Club in the tranquil, crescent-shaped Carlisle Bay. If boating is more your drift, Barbados Sailing Week in January promises incredible sailing experiences, races, beach parties and delicious Bajan food and drink. The perfect way to explore the island, cuisine and culture.
For travel information and inspiration and to discover hotel, experience and culinary offers, head to Visit Barbados
Who is fighting in Whitehall’s spending wars?
There’s no respite for Rachel Reeves after her spring statement. As well as worrying whether Donald Trump’s tariffs will blow her economic strategy off course, the chancellor must now divide up a shrinking cake among Whitehall departments before her spending review concludes in June.
The Treasury hoped this process would be more harmonious than previous reviews, but it is not, as cabinet ministers fight hard to defend their budgets. The “protected” departments, health and defence, will get a larger share of the cake, so the slightly bigger cuts announced by Reeves on Wednesday will fall disproportionately on those whose budgets have not recovered since George Osborne’s austerity.
Housing and local government is already down 46 per cent on its 2009-10 level, while culture is down 38 per cent, work and pensions 29 per cent, environment 22 per cent, transport 20 per cent, and justice 19 per cent. Despite that, the Treasury has told these departments to model cuts of 5.7 per cent and 11.2 per cent over the three-year review period.
Several ministers tried but failed to persuade the chancellor to change her fiscal rules earlier this month. She doubled down on them this week, judging that the financial markets would not tolerate higher borrowing. Reeves will be relieved that the bond market dog did not bark, but her decision makes the spending review even more difficult.
Tensions between the Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions led to this week’s last-minute announcement of a £500m cut in universal credit after the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) fiscal watchdog ruled that the government’s £5bn worth of welfare cuts would save only £3.4bn. OBR officials complained that the rushed, late figures had not given them enough time to work out the precise savings.
The £500m worth of cuts in injury time gave the game away: for all the talk of (admittedly needed) welfare reform, these rushed savings were really about making the chancellor’s sums add up. History suggests that hurried measures save less than expected.
Despite all the uncertainty in the global economy, Reeves replaced the vanished £9.93bn of headroom against her rules with a new figure of precisely £9.93bn. Old Whitehall hands detect a Treasury trick of keeping the headroom low to redouble the pressure on ministers to rein in spending. But it could come back to bite Reeves if her cushion disappears again by her Budget in October.
There’s also bad blood between the Treasury and the Department for Education. They blame each other for a leak suggesting that Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, was ready to end free school meals for infants and reduce spending on schools by £500m. A classic “bleeding stumps” move in the Treasury’s eyes – putting up something so gruesome it would be knocked down – as Reeves duly did on free meals.
“Complete rubbish,” replied Phillipson’s allies.
Whitehall is not a happy place. Reeves wants to save £2.2bn by reducing administration costs by 15 per cent by 2030. She has earmarked £306m for redundancy payments, and up to 50,000 jobs could go – a lot more than the 10,000 she trailed.
The chancellor promised that some savings will be switched to frontline services, but civil servants insist that such a cull will harm service delivery. Again, there’s a long history of headline-grabbing efficiency savings that do not live up to their billing.
Ministers are right to encourage underperforming officials to leave rather than be shuffled to their next Whitehall job. But their unnecessarily hostile language, like Keir Starmer’s talk of “an overcautious flabby state”, has alienated civil servants – many of whom voted Labour and, wearing their professional hat, welcomed the fresh start of a new government. “A lot of people are disillusioned; they did not expect this from Labour,” one senior official told me.
Sue Gray, Starmer’s former chief of staff and previously a Whitehall lifer, had a point when she used her maiden speech in the Lords to urge politicians to avoid phrases like “blobs”, “pen-pushers”, “axes” and “chainsaws”.
But Starmer and Reeves have a point too. There are now 513,000 civil servants – 90,000 more than at the start of the pandemic. In 2023, productivity in public services was 0.3 per cent lower than in 1997.
Reeves delayed her cuts until the later years of this parliament, and Whitehall whispers suggest she hopes some will not be needed if she secures greater economic growth. But such hints are not bankable as ministers squabble over their budgets.
Many Labour figures are alarmed that the welfare cuts will push 50,000 more children into poverty. Even though the OBR said the planned housebuilding boost could add 0.2 per cent to GDP, Labour backbenchers are starting to wonder whether Reeves will avoid a “doom loop” in which no or low growth forces more cuts or tax rises, which then further harm growth.
As one MP, a Reeves loyalist, put it: “She has put all her chips on growth. But what if we don’t get it? We’ll lose the next election.”
Welby’s forgiveness of abuser shows further lack of judgement
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has emerged from his self-imposed period of silent reflection to declare that he is “utterly sorry” to victims and survivors of child abuse in the Church of England. He feels “a deep sense of personal failure” about not doing enough about the scandals that have so afflicted the Church in recent years.
It is not the first time he has attempted to apologise for his failings, and it may not be the last, but there was, as with his past attempts to exculpate himself, still something deeply unsatisfactory about them. It is, indeed, difficult to know quite what Bishop Welby, as he now is, thought he would achieve by granting an interview to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg. His expressions of remorse leave the organisation he so recently headed, with its 85 million “family” across 165 nations, hardly much better placed to face the future.
For a man to have risen so quickly to the top of the Church and then fallen so precipitously, Bishop Welby still seems to have difficulty with his sometimes unfortunate choice of language, which confirms the distressing lack of judgement that ultimately led to his demise. He is no doubt sincere in his Christianity but, particularly in deference to the victims and survivors of the serial abuser John Smyth, his plain declaration that he had forgiven Smyth – an immediate “yes” in response to Ms Kuenssberg’s query – could have been couched in a more empathetic manner, though he added it wasn’t about him but the victims. He comes across as a cold fish, even if he is not. The former archbishop’s mea culpa was, therefore, not quite as empathetic as it might have been.
Under invigilation by Ms Kuenssberg, he remains uncomfortable about the fact, freely admitted, that he had known, and known of, at least some of the allegations made against Smyth before and after he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 2013. However, Bishop Welby pleads, once again, that his regret about his lack of action in the Smyth case was because he did not know all the details until 2017. He repeated his line that he was insufficiently “curious” and not insufficiently “caring” and that he regretted failing to follow up on what turned out to be inaccurate information about a police investigation.
What remains missing is precisely why he was so incurious about Smyth, a man he knew. Implied, but not yet quite admitted, is that perhaps the then Archbishop Welby hoped the whole Smyth scandal and similar cruelties would just go away while he got on with more pressing matters. The stinging judgement of the Makin committee’s report into Smyth last year stands: “On the balance of probabilities, it is the opinion of the reviewers that it was unlikely that Justin Welby would have had no knowledge of the concerns regarding John Smyth in the 1980s in the UK […] it is most probable that he would have had at least a level of knowledge that John Smyth was of some concern.” The report also criticised the nature of Archbishop Welby’s subsequent outreach to the victims, also echoed by one prominent survivor in the BBC programme as a current issue.
What is new is Bishop Welby’s statement that the sheer volume and seriousness of the allegations that crossed his desk meant that he was so “overwhelmed” that he couldn’t deal with all of them and had to “prioritise”. That is surely the opposite of the correct response. If things were so bad out there, then some sort of inquiry should have been launched into this massive problem straight away. He also explained, fairly, that the police had told him not to interfere in live cases or legal proceedings, including against the appalling crimes of another, convicted, sex offender, Peter Ball, who’d risen to the post of Bishop of Gloucester. But those are not reasons to do nothing about the rest of the pile of allegations.
Bishop Welby stresses that none of this extra background to his lack of curiosity and fatal inaction constitutes an excuse, still less a justification, for his complacency, but he offers it by way of explanation. It remains partial and, thus, unsatisfactory. Bishop Welby sometimes seems almost to acknowledge that but cannot quite admit it publicly.
The lack of judgement exercised by Welby has proved enduring. It is just one apology after another. In his Kuenssberg interview, he even had to express regret about the defiantly jokey speech he made in the House of Lords after he had had to resign. He admits now that “it did cause profound upset, and I am profoundly ashamed of that […] I wasn’t in a good space at the time. I shouldn’t have done a valedictory speech at all.” Yet here he is, at it again.
The former archbishop has to live with the fact that he failed to stop the child abusers, failed to secure justice for hundreds of victims and survivors, and left the Anglican Church in an even weaker state than it was when he took over in 2012. That his wasn’t the only religious movement, or any other kind of environment, from Hollywood to politics, charities to the CBI, to have become scarred by sexual abuse scandals, is context but not full explanation. Yes, he was never, as he states, ever the “chief executive of the Church of England PLC” with untrammelled powers. There was only ever so much he could do.
But, for all his pleas in mitigation, the conclusion is that he and the governing General Synod have not even now implemented the kind of statutory duty to safeguard vulnerable people or the process of an independent investigation that might restore faith in the Church and prevent more children from having their lives ruined. That may sound harsh, but it is what Bishop Welby and the other leaders in the Church of England cannot quite bring themselves to concede, and it is wrong. As the Book of Proverbs has it, “pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall”.