Turbulent priest v Transport Secretary
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NICHOLAS Ridley, Transport Secretary, may echo the words attributed to Henry II when he went off Thomas a Becket: "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" He will certainly not endorse Henry VIII's comment on another archbishop (Cranmer): "This man hath the right sow by the ear." His adversary is the Rt Rev David Jenkins, Bishop of Durham, whose controversial utterances extend from virgin birth to the Bus Bill. The Bishop has ascribed to the Bill the porcine quality of encouraging greed — an argument that eludes me completely.
To the Bishop, Nicholas Ridley's silk purse is a sow's ear. Certainly, if, as critics forecast, the Bill denudes rural areas of buses, there is going to be a glut of trotters.