David Cameron has declared that "Britain is a Christian country and we should not be afraid to say so", in a speech to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/16/cameron-king-james-bible-anniversary?newsfeed=true). Britain - in my memory of growing up in the 60s and 70s - certainly WAS a country where we seemed to live by a kind of sub-Christian moral code: there was a grester feeling that people cared about other people, and an expectation that such an attitude was valued and correct. To this day I'm grateful for a number of people who helped me and showed an interest when they really didn't have to. On the other hand, many fear that an attempt to talk about morality would be a disguise for an ecclesiastical power-grab (http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/nelson-jones/2011/12/religion-christmas-dawkins). But, after riots, under a regime that seems to encourage hopelessness, in a week when an official report highlighted the lack of care for dementia sufferers, can we doubt that something is lacking in the way we nurture expectations in contemporary Britain (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8960735/Dementia-care-quality-report-is-shocking.html)? And might not taking some more informed notice of Jesus - with or without the trappings of institutionalised religion - be a rational response?