A Mucky Business with Tim Farron
Oct 20, 2026 · 28 min · 15 segments
This week, Tim continues his mini-series on Burnhamism by looking at one of the biggest promises in Andy Burnham’s conference speech: replacing the pensions triple lock with a “double lock” to help…
Tim FarronHost
Steve WebbGuest
Can we afford the society we have created? Well, next week, the Chancellor, John Healey, delivers his first budget, and the headlines are full of speculation about possible tax rises and spending cuts.
Defence spending is pledged to increase and the government is considering expensive proposals to fund social care.
Meanwhile, our population is ageing whilst birth rates and immigration decline, so fewer people are paying into the pot.
So is spending spiralling out of control? Should the state be doing everything we expect of it? Or can we simply no longer afford the society we have created? Our public services were created for a different time, when a smaller population lived shorter lives.
Today we have a large and complex society and there are tensions between the need for compassionate welfare and the desire to promote personal responsibility.
Those on the right might call for benefits to be slashed, while those on the left cry for wealth taxes on the rich.
Christians will legitimately take different approaches regarding the role and size of government.
From a biblical perspective, our starting point is that all humans are made in God's image, with innate dignity and worth.
First, how can government enable people, as far as possible, to fulfil their God-given potential? And how do we address the causes as well as the consequences of society's challenges? For as Paul Johnson, the former director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, reminds us, the benefits system does not just provide for the poor and vulnerable, it also, and I quote, cleans up the mess that we have made elsewhere.
So we should expect our politicians to consider how best to give people agency and opportunity in their own lives.
We should support systems that treat people as human beings rather than numbers to be crunched or problems to be
If we believe the state does too much, it will need to empower other parts of society to do more.
Many local organisations have withered in recent years and many people feel they have no stake in their communities and no power to change things.
Can we afford the society we have created? Well, next week, the Chancellor, John Healey, delivers his first budget, and the headlines are full of speculation about possible tax rises and spending cuts.
Defence spending is pledged to increase and the government is considering expensive proposals to fund social care.
Meanwhile, our population is ageing whilst birth rates and immigration decline, so fewer people are paying into the pot.
So is spending spiralling out of control? Should the state be doing everything we expect of it? Or can we simply no longer afford the society we have created? Our public services were created for a different time, when a smaller population lived shorter lives.
Today we have a large and complex society and there are tensions between the need for compassionate welfare and the desire to promote personal responsibility.
Those on the right might call for benefits to be slashed, while those on the left cry for wealth taxes on the rich.
Christians will legitimately take different approaches regarding the role and size of government.
From a biblical perspective, our starting point is that all humans are made in God's image, with innate dignity and worth.
First, how can government enable people, as far as possible, to fulfil their God-given potential? And how do we address the causes as well as the consequences of society's challenges? For as Paul Johnson, the former director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, reminds us, the benefits system does not just provide for the poor and vulnerable, it also, and I quote, cleans up the mess that we have made elsewhere.
So we should expect our politicians to consider how best to give people agency and opportunity in their own lives.
We should support systems that treat people as human beings rather than numbers to be crunched or problems to be
If we believe the state does too much, it will need to empower other parts of society to do more.
Many local organisations have withered in recent years and many people feel they have no stake in their communities and no power to change things.
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