I had the privilege of meeting John Cole in 1997 when he came to Hove Methodist Church to speak about “Faith in the City” a national report which had been published 12 years earlier while John was at the peak of his career. He challenged all of those present, people from a range of different churches to ensure their faith acted as a catalyst to improve the lives of people in Brighton & Hove in the same way that Faith in the City had challenged the Church of England to use their resources to improve the lives of people across the UK. The conference was a milestone for me personally, and led to me committing the next 15+ years of my life to working within the voluntary sector across Sussex. According to the Wikipedia entry for Faith in the City “The report created a large amount of controversy when it was published, as one of its conclusions was that much of the blame for growing spiritual and economic poverty in British inner cities was due to Thatcherite policies.” The report revealed a growing level of tension between the Conservative Government and the Church of England which had for many years been seen by many people as the Conservative Party at Prayer!

The death of John Cole was announced on Thursday, and inevitably this has led to a series of tributes from leaders of our political parties and their colleagues. Some of these men are the same people who are finding fault with the current generation of political journalists. Jeremy Paxman may not be in the same league as John Cole, and certainly his style is rather different, however he performs a similar role to that of his predecessor. One of the politicians interviewed following the death of John Cole was Michael Heseltine who made his views clear, that despite the views from others within the party (Grant Shapps was not mentioned by name) and all the other parties that the BBC has achieved a balance in all of its output for many generations in the work of all of its political journalists. As he pointed out, the parties would be in touch within minutes at the merest whiff of bias. It is clear that Lord Heseltine doesn’t agree with the Downing Street aide who wants an apology for Paxmans comments about the Prime Minister. Paxman is something of an authority on World War I, he will present a series on the Great War in 2014. Whilst the Prime Minister cannot be expected to match Paxman’s knowledge of the War that would end all Wars, it is understandable that Paxman was frustrated that Cameron compared the centenary of the War to the 60th anniversary of the reign of the Queen (another subject that Paxman has covered in his work).

In my view Rob Wilson MP, in his role as aide to No 10 Downing Street is incredibly foolish and naïve to suggest in his letter to the BBC that “This sneering and aggressive approach is one of the reasons many people are put off politics.” Of course it is a step forward for the Government to acknowledge that many people are put off politics and that we want a change. However as irritating as Jeremy Paxman is on occasions and no doubt in particular to senior members of all parties, he and his attitude cannot be blamed for the political malaise impacting our nation, at best he might deter some people from watching one late evening programme on BBC2. On the other hand the actions of Cameron, Clegg and Miliband and their party godfathers do require a great deal of scrutiny for the reason why people are put off politics during the other 164 hours a week.  Sadly it is now too late to ask John Cole what he thinks is to blame, but perhaps rather than blaming people such as Paxman and Brand, Rob Wilson could dedicate some of his time to asking people who feel disillusioned with politics, what they feel are the causes, just as Faith in the City began with the lives of people most affected by the issues concerned.