(no subject)

Speaking against the adoption regulations that have caused such a kerfuffle recently, the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, began with a quote from Goethe:

What you have inherited from your forefathers, you must first win for yourself if you are to possess it.

Checking this quote on the internet, I found that the first hit, and quite a few subsequent ones, were for white power websites, who are using it as something of a battle cry—about as far from the agenda of the Archbishop, and, I gather, of Goethe, as it’s possible to imagine.

---

Also:

The Archbishop of York: In my maiden speech in this House I expressed the fear that we run the danger of spinning a legal spider’s web from which institutions, groups of civil society and members of local communities stood little chance of escaping. It now seems that a legal sausage machine is being creating by the regulations, requiring all of us to go through it and come out the other end, sanitised and with our consciences surgically removed.

Hopefully one day the Archbishop’s collected speeches will be available with illustrations by Richard Scarry.