Father Oliver McTernan, whose opinions are opposed to George's on almost any subject conceivable, has been sacked at the same time. It would appear that the real difficulty for the producers in that the pool of religious talent in Britain is pretty shallow. Even journalists on daily newspapers have now been approached to contribute to Thought for the Day. If preaching were wanted, the general standard is pretty ghastly, and anyone who edits a column like this will know all too painfully how dreadful are most of the submissions received Actually the problem is more subtle than that. Most priests and even theologians are educated people doing jobs they think worthwhile that bring them into contact with a huge range of human experience.

They have a great deal to say and can express themselves well - so long as they are not asked to exhibit these gifts in public. The private letters that I get are almost without exception thoughtful, cogent and enjoyable. The stuff meant for public consumption is not.Perhaps the problem is the time slot. Presumably, for a Christian broadcaster, the model Thinker would be Jesus: young, charismatic, impeccably orthodox - but above all a master of the pithy parable.