Odd Silences

Odd Silence 1: there is normally a rapid response unit at WATCH and Reform (CofE lobby groups) to any statement on women bishops by the Men in Purple. At the time of writing, despite a meeting and press release yesterday there are no press statements by either group. I must say I'm delighted, well done everyone, I've wondered aloud before whether the debate was being taken over by the lobby groups, and whether it might be better if they went quiet and just let people pray and listen to each other. Could this actually be happening? Or is it that, like me, they don't actually know what the latest amendment really means?

(Update: it couldn't last, there is now a statement from WATCH, oddly it's on their Facebook page, though still no sign of it on their website. But nobody should read it, you can make up your own mind without someone else doing it for you)

Odd Silence 2: having kept Gordon Browns 'bigots' comment hanging over his head for the rest of the election campaign, the BBC have gone strangely quiet on Nick Clegg. Not a peep in the Politics section of their website since Tuesdays row, despite a letter of apology to church leaders in the meantime. Ok, he didn't actually say the word, but it could easily have been made into a running story, a 'beleaguered Clegg' ahead of the party conference.