From here:

Is Rowan Williams doing a George Carey? It’s been noticeable how Dr Carey obviously felt more able to speak his mind on controversial issues once he had retired. Since Rowan announced his retirement last week, he too has lost no time in addressing matters in public life more firmly and certainly with more clarity than usual. In fact, in the space of a week, this self-confessed “hairy Lefty” seems to have ditched many of the Left’s shibboleths and prejudices – “diversity,” for one.

Dr Williams said yesterday that “identity” has become a “slippery” word. He added, “Identity politics, whether it is the politics of feminism, whether it is the politics of ethnic minorities or the politics of sexual minorities, has been a very important part of the last ten or twenty years.”

He now thinks, “We are beginning to see the pendulum swinging back… and we have to have some way of putting it all back together and discovering what is good for all of us.”

Rowan may say the opposite next week, of course and he is still sticking by his pronouncement that “adopting parts of Islamic Sharia law would help maintain social cohesion” in the UK, so one shouldn’t set one’s hopes too high.