Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" wailed King Henry II back in the 12th Century.

The priest, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, had provoked Henry once too often.

He was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 by a quartet of knights, responsive to their king's every whim.

It was a swift and effective solution. The tricky relationship between Church and state, or Church and monarch, has never been easy.

There will be many echoing King Henry's words of frustration this week after the inappropriate intervention by South Africa's former Archbishop of Capetown, Dr Desmond Tutu, in the process for finding a new Archbishop of Canterbury. He wants a non-Englishman for the job.

Given the list of candidates, this would mean the Pakistan-born Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, currently Bishop of Rochester.

Whenever writers deal with Dr Tutu, there is a knee-jerk reaction to add the phrase "one of the world's most respected churchmen".

I would not know about that but he has always been a mischievous and manipulative politician who shares a thespian's delight in hogging the spotlight.

He is a classic example of a contemporary "turbulent priest" with his own politically correct agenda.

The Church of England is awash with troubles not least of which are disaffected and dwindling congregations, an over-supply of churches (500 or so across Sussex alone), the financial problems their upkeep imposes, funding priests' pensions ... The list is a worrisome one.

We must assume all the candidates have the managerial abilities to take on the job. But what, above all, the C of E needs is an inspired leader who can find a way to reach out to those disenchanted members of the flock and attract them back to the church.

Any renewed fervour of congregations will have to be matched by a higher quality of priests than many currently in place.

While Britain may be described, mistakenly, as a multicultural society, the ethnic minority is about seven percent of the population of whom only a small proportion are Anglican.

At the risk of provoking those who will want to label me racist, I would suggest this is not a time in the C of E's history for playing politically correct games.

It is a crucial moment for saying unequivocally an Englishman must run the English church - in spite of the perverse interference of the "turbulent priest" from South Africa.

Importantly though, the Archbishop of Canterbury's other function is to be an international focus of unity for the 70 million Christians of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Perhaps this dual role should now be separated.

Also, Tony Blair should keep his fingers out of the selection process. There are already calls for him to be stripped of the controversial power to reject candidates.

Perhaps this is the moment to reverse the infamous events of 1170 and send four willing knights round to Downing Street.