This week Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt launched his Independent Review into Christian Persecution. Except nothing was actually launched. Nothing published, precious little announced, and it doesn’t look like much has been agreed between Foreign Office officials and the Bishop of Truro, Philip Mounstephen, who Hunt appointed to chair it.
Instead a picture is emerging of a Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) stitch-up.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the Foreign Secretary actually wants to do this. It won’t have been easy to get his new department to go along with the idea, and even harder to make the review independent. But government sponsored reviews are never truly independent. As the Bishop admitted at the non-launch: he is still agreeing ‘terms of reference’ with the Foreign Office. Some independence there.
And therein lies the problem. The FCO – not famed for its advocacy on behalf of persecuted Christians – doesn’t want the review to pack a punch.
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