Lord Phillips calls on charities to lead a renaissance of moral values in Britain

Tim West
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Charity law supremo Lord Phillips has called on the charity and social sectors to lead a renaissance of moral values – in an emotive speech at about the state of modern Britain.

Giving the Social Change Lecture for the annual Social Change Awards, the Liberal Democrat peer and doyen of charity law argued that Britain's charities are 'points of light in an ever darkening world'.

Lord Phillips began his analysis of the current state of British society with an indictment of some corporate business. 'There has been a staggering corruption at the heart of the City and other financial centres, which will never come to light,' he said. 'Many don't know the full extent of the collapse in values in this country. We must recognise the anti-social costs that big business can have on communities.'

Turning his fire on fellow politicians, he argued that 'we parliamentarians kid ourselves that passing endless laws which are rarely reviewed or implemented solves social problems’.

He went on to say that 'the totality of what we do in Parliament is too often demoralising and counter-productive’, and he looked to a bottom-up, individual-led revival.

Lord Phillips concluded with a call to action for Britain's charities and social activists: 'Charity is still legally built on values of altruism, and there are many who are trying to build a new community based on those values. Above all, our sector believes in the profoundest equality of all people. Equality is the sine qua non of charity.

'All of us must work for a renaissance of moral values – our British reputation for integrity should still enable us to take the lead.'

He then closed by describing the charitable sector as ‘the treasury of this country's great values’.

Lord Phillips went on to present five winners and ten runners-up with their Social Change Awards, in the annual ceremony run by the Directory of Social Change.