As Sir Keir Starmer delivered his keynote “six government priorities” speech this morning  it was perhaps apposite that the location he chose was Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. Created in the 1930s on the estate of Heatherden Hall by millionaire flour magnate J. Arthur Rank, Heatherden was a discrete and rural location just 18 miles west of London had long been a favourite meeting place for diplomats and politicians. It was here in 1921 that agreement was reached to create the Anglo-Irish Treaty that ended the bitter civil war in Ireland. Today it’s state-of-the-art facilities and high reputation have been home to countless legendary film franchises including James Bond, Alien and many wartime British film units. Undoubtedly it was these shoulder that our PM was hoping to stand on as he delivered his ‘reset’ of Labour government policy just a few months after coming to power.

Sadly, the iconic ‘first 100 days’ of the Starmer era have been somewhat less than epic, and no doubt many a journalist listening to this morning’s new narrative might have been keen to point out that Pinewood was also home to the Norman Wisdom and Carry On franchises! It has ever been the job of journalists, commentators and even social and public theologians to point out the anacronyms, contradictions and hypocrisies of those who would suppose to be acting in the best moral and political interests of society, but one does eventually reach a point where the narratives have become so repetitive that criticism is simply exhausted.

Unlike journalists, theologians will always lean towards the positive as we’re far more concerned about building social and moral structures rather than dismantling them. So it should be said that the prime minister’s general comments about “building a Better Britain” are of course to be supported and commended but, as always the devil is in the details, or in this case the lack of them. Building new homes, finding more police officers and rebuilding our NHS are laudable, and obvious, but the exact mechanics of how these targets are going to be achieved is almost as important as the goals themselves.

For instance, the pledge to create more than 13,000 new police offers in a short period of time is sorely needed, but one must ask where these new candidates are suddenly going to be found. One of the reasons that respect for our police force has declined so deeply in recent years is the questionable behaviour of some officers towards citizens that is seen widely across social media. This has raised critical questions about how recruits are screened and what levels of training are being given. Sadly, the declining respect for law and order and the fragmentation of social cohesion (as was demonstrated so graphically in the aftermath of the Southport tragedy) has all but put Britain on the edge of civil war, and this is not the best environment in which to send out an open invitation to random citizens to join the police force.

The fact the prime minister was very specific that dealing with immigration was not going to be one of his government’s six new priorities was picked up, indeed focussed upon, by most of the journalists at Pinewood this morning, and sadly there were few meaningful responses from the PM. His retort that reducing and controlling immigration numbers was such a basic given for any government that it doesn’t even need to be discussed is a catastrophic and foolhardy misreading the present public mood, as the deteriorating situation across the country has moved this particular debate well out the extremist niche and into the far wider public zeitgeist.

Listening to the overall tenor of this latest policy presentation you couldn’t help but get a worryingly familiar feeling that this government is going to focus its efforts on long term strategic ‘mission-led’ goals and is going to leave he rest of us to pick up and deal with the social consequences. In real terms this means that Catholic charities and other social justice organisations will be among those faced with increasing challenges and demands for services that are already under severe pressure, and this at a time when vital donations from supporters are in many cases declining.

For us in the Catholic community in particular, how we manage and respond to these changes in the government/ citizen relationship – which seems to be set on a course of accepting almost every human agenda without scrutiny – is going to be little short of a ‘survive or evaporate’ assignment. Admittedly, in a society where the rights of the individual are becoming sovereign, it’s not going to be easy for the Catholic community to hold fast to either its traditional social outlook or even to its fundamental gospel teachings. Historically the English Catholic church has all too often tended to adopt a rather deferential approach to campaigning on social issues, which is part remnant from Recusant nervousness and part reasonable pragmatism. After all, if you don’t think you have the logistical strength to harness and galvanise public opinion, talking to government and legislators at every level possible is probably your best second option.

In many ways this has actually served the UK Catholic community quite well, as our strengths in the Catholic education sector have demonstrated; but equally our loss of adoption and childcare agencies, with many having to close down because of clashes with the government’s gender policies, should have served as fair warning that negotiating with governments is a strategy that has its limitations. We should also take due note of the fact that there has been little evidence so far that this new Labour government is going to adopt a constructive dialogue with Christian faith communities or recognise our ability to both serve and support the public good. To some this is down the Sir Keir Starmer’s atheism, but this is an all-to-easy play, as British history shows us that in fact some of Britain’s most atheistic legislators have also had the most constructive relationships with faith communities.

Sadly, it has also been the case that some of the ministers proclaiming the deepest faith convictions have actually been the least inclined to defend Christian principles when it comes to enacting public policy. One only has to think of the Pauline Margaret Thatcher on the one hand throwing out quotes from St Francis of Assisi whilst at the same time decimating UK employment, or the proto-Catholic Tony Blair thinking on the one hand that interventions in Iraq, Sierra Leone and Kosovo were all part of some pseudo-Christian crusade, whilst at the same time giving interviews in which he criticised the late Pope Benedict XVI for having “entrenched attitudes” to homosexuality.

However much we might hope and pray otherwise, the UK – and indeed the world at large – is travelling at an ever-increasing speed towards moments when those of us of faith will have to make difficult and even personally dangerous decisions about where we are going to draw the line in the sand when it comes to the divergence of our beliefs and government strategies. So much has been made in recent years of the concepts of inclusivity, diversity and tolerance and yet from our perspective there has never been less of such values evident in public policy – presumably because those who hold the reins of power are believing the myth that declining numbers within Christian faith communities corresponds to an equivalent lack of moral definition within the public at large.  At the very least that’s a failure of pragmatism on the part of a government that simply isn’t recognising the social services and societal cohesion that Christian faith communities bring to the common good.

The six key “milestones” that Sir Keir Starmer announced today will be achieved by 2029 and the likely next general election are:

• raising living standards in every part of the UK, as part of the government’s aim to deliver the highest sustained economic growth in the G7 group of rich nations
• building 1.5 million homes in England and fast-tracking planning decisions on at least 150 major infrastructure projects
• ending hospital backlogs to meet the NHS target that 92% of patients in England wait no longer than 18 weeks for planned treatment
• a named police officer for every neighbourhood in England and Wales, with the recruitment of 13,000 additional officers, Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and special constables
• increasing the proportion of children in England who are “ready to learn” when they start school at the age of five, to 75%
• putting the country on track for at least 95% clean power by 2030

Whilst these policies appear on the face of it to represent a determined effort to improve the general wellbeing of society, the plans and the language used speak far more to business goals – and of course increased net benefits to central government – than they do any commitment to societal or spiritual welfare.

When Pope Benedict XVI visited the UK in September 2010 he was invited to Westminster’s Central Hall to deliver a keynote address on the relationship between faith and politics. Standing just yards from the spot where Sir Thomas More famously stood trial for believing he was “the King’s good servant, and God’s first”, Benedict pointed out to the many gathered legislators that “the fundamental questions at stake in Thomas More’s trial continue to present themselves in ever-changing terms as new social conditions emerge.”

“The world of reason and the world of faith – the world of secular rationality and the world of religious belief – need one another and should not be afraid to enter into a profound and ongoing dialogue, for the good of our civilisation,” said Benedict.

“Religion, in other words, is not a problem for legislators to solve, but a vital contributor to the national conversation,” he added.

As we move forward through the difficult and challenging times ahead, it’s advice that everyone involved in current policy making decisions and the common good would do well to consider.

Joseph Kelly is a Catholic writer and theologian