WHAT is the Archbishop of Canterbury for? I sometimes think he’s just here to tease us, to wind us all up.

After 9/11, he wrote a book which seemed to say that the terrorist atrocities in New York were the fault of the Western democracies.

Even the sympathetic author of a new biography of Rowan Williams says: “As an old leftie he is prone to post-colonial guilt and his writings about 9/11 have been consistently rather more understanding of the terrorists than of those Americans whose lives and outlook have been shaped by the attacks.”

Then, last year, the Archbishop suggested that parts of Sharia law might be incorporated into British law. Now, he has broken into print again in The Times where he says that “the systematic humiliation” of MPs in the expenses scandal is threatening to undermine our democracy.

I was pleased that Lord Campbell-Savours denounced this statement as “rubbish” on the radio last Saturday. An archbishop, of all people, should understand that democracy has nothing to fear from the truth. Yes, the truth might be painful, but facing the truth is always strengthening in the long run.

What are the consequences of Dr Williams’ call for an end to the naming and shaming of MPs? The logic of his demand that their exposure in the press should cease must be that he thinks they should be allowed to get away with their misdeeds. This is plainly immoral.

He has admitted he is afraid voters may desert Labour and Conservative and turn to the smaller parties in the European and local elections on June 4. However, their choices would not be an undermining of democracy, but an example of democracy in action. I would not like to see anyone vote for the BNP, but there are plenty of decent parties to vote for apart from the disgraced mainstream.

Furthermore, democracy is strengthened when wrongdoing is identified so that we can begin to try to put things right. Again, the logic of Dr Williams’ statement is that it is better to let sleeping dogs lie in order to avoid “systematic humiliation”.

But surely it is right and just that those who have done wrong should be made to pay?

I believe that disgraceful shenanigans, fiddling, should be exposed and condemned and that any MP who is discovered to have broken the law should be prosecuted.

What is it about Rowan Williams? He is delightful and charming, but he preaches like some Regius Professor of Obfuscation and his books read like English as a foreign language.

Supporters say he is so clever that the rest of us find it difficult to understand him.

This is rubbish, too: for it is the very mark of intelligence to make oneself understood.

They excuse him by saying he is dealing with complicated issues. But so were St Augustine, David Hume and GK Chesterton and they are models of lucidity. Does he launch into his politically-inept pronouncements on everything from international terrorism to MPs’ expenses merely as a moment’s relief from academic turgidity, or what?

I must say I have been proud to be a member of the British press these past two weeks.

Journalists have revealed the corruption of our governors on the grand scale. They have done what newspapers at their best have always done, and that is to hold government to account. Those MPs who have dealt dishonestly deserve every last drop of “systematic humiliation”.

■ Peter Mullen is Rector of St Michael’s, Cornhill, in the City of London, and Chaplain to the Stock Exchange.