Look at where our bishop lives.’ “Do they really say that in the housing estates around Durham, or outside the railway station, where the Big Issue is sold? Is it what they said in Chelmsford in 1996, when John Perry became the local bishop and announced that his new palace was inadequate? Never mind that the six-bedroom Edwardian mansion was the only bishops’ residence to have a swimming-pool. He wanted something nearer to the city, to make it easier for visitors. Critics suggested he send his driver to pick them up.The Bishop of Bath & Wells lives in a modest part of his palace, and allows the rest to be opened to the public. “The great advantage [of the palace] is that it’s classless,” his secretary once told the Church Times. “If you put the Bishop in a five-bedroom house in the gin-and-Jaguar belt it would identify him with a particular class of people, but this is almost unreal – who lives in palaces these days – so anyone can approach without feeling intimidated.

Two of them never watched television, and one never read a newspaper They are, of course, all men Some may be gay, but won’t admit it in public. What has the spiritual care of the people of Liverpool, say, got to do with Tony Blair? Not much, really – but then he is also choosing a parliamentarian.Sometimes they use their privilege in an effective way – the bishops’ opposition took the edge off Michael Howard’s inhumane asylum Bill – but their voice is mostly stifled by a desire not to lose influence. You don’t get to be a bishop, still less sit with those in the House of Lords, by being a dangerous radical.Two years ago, a survey of the 43 bishops in charge of their own dioceses revealed that not one would admit to reading a tabloid or listening to Radio 1. What its members say is usually out of touch, watered down or undermined by internal disagreement, but still we take this rag-bag of sad, middle-aged managers seriously. Indeed, we ignore or condemn other churches – where there is often life and good works – and seize with glee on the failings of inept and confused bishops, like parliamentary cartoonists discovering a row of their lordships fast asleep.Unfortunately, the bishops are still important. There are 24 of them active in the House of Lords, a representation denied to any other major faith or Christian tradition. So who are these people?They are not elected by those they serve, or accountable to anyone but themselves, and they are appointed by a committee that meets in secret.

These proposals must be ratified by Parliament and the Queen, a process that has reawoken the debate about Establishment, that archaic and finely woven link between Church and State.This unjust relic informs the attitude taken by much of the media, which seems to believe that only the House of Bishops of the Church of England has anything to say about spiritual affairs. Two names are given to the Prime Minister, who can pass one on to the Queen or request more choice. “Hands off my missus!” I heard him bellow to a fellow who tried to “chat up” his lady wife at the Savoy Grill the other day.Sex. At all events, we shirked our responsibilities and left a situation which a quarter century later is still unresolved.Of the Conservatives, both Winston Churchill and Harold Macmillan had American mothers. Macmillan’s mother was the most powerful influence on his life. He also thought he had a special relationship with Jack (as he called him) Kennedy.

This bore some fruit when Kennedy reluctantly provided Macmillan with Polaris at Nassau after the cancellation of the Skybolt missile by the US. On another occasion he asked Macmillan whether he did not find he had a headache if he went for more than 24 hours without engaging in sexual intercourse. As Macmillan found this activity – certainly its discussion – distasteful, and was in any case an elderly 68 at the time, he was unable to make any response.Lady Thatcher got on marvellously with Mr Ronald Reagan, mainly because he was happy to leave the talking to her, and she was even happier to oblige. They also between them – it pains me to admit this but in fairness it must be said – won the Cold War.Sir Edward Heath was the only recent prime minister who was chilly towards the US He was a committed European. He wanted to controvert his old adversary Charles de Gaulle, who had refused the UK entry into Europe because he considered that in any conflict between Europe and the US this country would take the American side.