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Business Secretary Vince Cable has condemned corporate tax avoidance as ‘completely unacceptable’, saying there are ‘appalling stories of abuse’. He told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show UK authorities should do more to stop it. However, he said that tackling the issue required international agreement as well as domestic action. His comments came after executives from Starbucks, Google and Amazon were grilled by MPs, although the firms say they operate within the tax rules. The executives were questioned earlier this month by the Public Accounts Committee about how they used favourable European tax jurisdictions for their UK businesses. Starbucks, for example, has made a taxable profit only once in its 15 years of operating in the UK. As a consequence, the company is thought to have paid just £8.6m in corporation tax over the period. Mr Cable told Andrew Marr: ‘The best off in society have got to contribute more, and that includes companies.’
Pray: that our Government will be successful in dealing with companies who avoid their full corporation taxes. (Mk.12:14)
More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20384428
The Bishop of Hereford has asked people to think about who and what they value most in the light of recent headlines. Responding to the abduction of April Jones and reports of abuse by Jimmy Savile, Bishop Anthony Priddis said the terrible headlines underlined the need for people to love and care for each other, particularly the young. ‘So often we can give the impression that money or material things or fame come first, rather than people,’ he said. ‘Few of us really believe that, but we can easily live as though that appears to be the case.’ He urged people to put others first and do everything they can to let them know how valued and loved they are. ‘This is the responsibility and joy for all of us as parents and grandparents, but it needs us also to care for those not just in our own families but among our friends and wider community,’ the bishop said.
Pray: for the Bishop’s words to be heeded and that we will all more openly practice such values in our daily lives. (Mtt.6:19)
Former Premiership footballer Linvoy Primus believes churches can use football to reach out to their communities just as they did when the first teams and leagues were formed in the 1800s. Many famous clubs have their roots in churches, like Aston Villa, Everton and Southampton. Speaking at the Christian Resources Exhibition (CRE) this week in Esher, Surrey, Primus told his personal story of how he found fame and money through football but still felt that something was missing. He encouraged churches to get more involved in football because people come together around sport, especially young men. "If we are to reach our communities we must do it with an agenda that meets a need in the community," he explained. Primus is using the beautiful game to reach young people through the charity he supports, Faith and Football. The charity uses football as a platform for building relationships and providing young people with positive role models.
Pray: for the charity Faith and Football that they will extend the Gospel message through football. (Isa.55:11)
More: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/using.the.beautiful.game.for.gods.purposes/32548.htm
Ended up with something you didn't want this Christmas? One charity is asking Brits to donate that unflattering jumper or umpteenth bubble bath set and help the homeless. Any unwanted Christmas gifts donated to Anchor will be sold on and 100% of the profits put towards its work with the homeless. The gifts will be sold through eBay and the proceeds used to sponsor a room for a homeless person. Additionally, people can sell their unwanted gifts individually and donate the amount to Anchor. Anchor House is helping thousands of homeless from its base in Canning Town, in the east London borough of Newham, the third most deprived ward in England and Wales. The centre provides accommodation for up to 180 single homeless people each year. A wide range of accredited vocational training courses are on offer to residents and the local community in construction, electrical, plumbing and distance learning.
Pray: for the success of this initiative and that many would be helped. (Ac.2:45)
More: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/unwanted.gifts.help.the.homeless/29068.htm
Nearly half of the children born today will be living in broken homes by the age of 16. The sharp increase in unmarried couples having children is to blame for the rise in parental separation rates, a study from the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) claimed. The report calls for a major shift in policy to reassert the ‘vital’ importance of marriage as a more stable form of commitment than cohabitation. It followed concerns from Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, that society pays a 'heavy price' for separation, in terms of the cost of crimes committed by children from broken homes, lost taxes and rising benefit bills. In 1980 there were one million single parents, but this has now doubled. Mr Duncan Smith, who founded the CSJ, has suggested that the true cost of family breakdown to the UK economy, including benefits, lost taxes and crime, was up to £100 billion a year.
Pray: that the nation reasserts the bedrock of family to be in Christian marriage. (Job 21:19)
Over the past decade, Saudi Arabia has been the largest source of donations from Islamic states and royal families to British universities, much of which has been to the study of Islam, the Middle East and Arabic literature. A large share of this money has been used towards establishing Islamic study centres. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal donated £8 million to Cambridge and Edinburgh respectively for this purpose. Over recent years Oxford received Saudi support of £2 million to the Ashmolean Museum and £1 million to the Middle East Centre. There are many other donors. Oxford’s £75 million Islamic Studies Centre was supported by 12 Muslim countries. Sultan Qaboos bin Said, of Oman gave £3.1 million to Cambridge to fund two posts, including a chair of Arabic. The Saïd Business School at Oxford University was set up by a Syrian-Saudi businessman, with a £23 million donation.
Pray: for Universities to be able to tap a variety of lucrative sponsors without abandoning established national syllabus and ethos.
More: http://www.arabnews.com/british-universities-receive-saudi-funds
England's universities have become breeding grounds for extremism and terrorist recruitment, according to a government report. Officials have identified 40 English universities where ‘there may be particular risk of radicalisation or recruitment on campus’. A soon to be published report, prepared by Home Office officials, – seen by the Daily Mail – will point to a string of examples of students going on to commit terrorist acts against this country or overseas. It warns of hard-line Islamic groups specifically targeting universities which have large numbers of Muslim students in order to peddle a message of hate. It says the universities are not doing enough to respond to this threat to national security. Fewer than half of universities are engaged with the police. Universities UK replied saying that universities ‘are places where ideas and beliefs can be tested without fear of control’, and that they act as a safeguard against ideologies that threaten Britain’s open society. Pray: that, if these finding prove to be true, measures will be taken to curtail such activity. (Isa.1:16) More: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1394625/40-UK-universities-breeding-grounds-terror.html
Up to half a million disabled people and their families stand to lose out under the government's proposed Universal Credit, a report says. The Children's Society, Citizens Advice and Disability Rights UK say 100,000 households with children could have incomes reduced by up to £28 a week. They are urging ministers to reconsider their plans. But the government called the report ‘highly selective’ and said it could lead to ‘irresponsible scaremongering’. The Universal Credit will replace Jobseeker's allowance, tax credits, income support, employment and support allowance - formerly known as incapacity benefit - and housing benefits with a single payment. The system will be ‘piloted' in parts of north-east England next April and will come into force across Britain for new claimants from October 2013. Existing claimants will be transferred to the new system in stages until 2017. Universal Credit will be capped at £26,000 per household.
Pray: that the Government will reconsider their plans affecting disabled and children and adults from low income families. (Job.6:29)
Justin Welby, the Bishop of Durham, described unemployment as a “tragedy” with parallels to losses on the battlefield, which wears down “all but the bravest and toughest”. His comments come amid controversy in some quarters over George Osborne’s depiction of some benefit claimants as people lying in bed while their “striver” neighbours go to work.
He also issued a series of stinging criticisms of Government policy, accusing it of giving the North East of England a “grossly unequal” share of some building funds in an 'out of sight out of mind' attitude. The comments came in highly unusual form for a bishop – as he took over as a newspaper editor for the day. Bishop Welby, who becomes Archbishop next month, spent the day guest editing the Northern Echo, which is based in his Durham diocese, focusing on efforts to combat unemployment.
Pray: for all those who face the devastating effects of unemployment. (Ecc.3:13)
More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/9796906/Unemployed-not-just-statistics-says-Justin-Welby.html
Parts of British cities are becoming no-go areas where drugs gangs are effectively in control, a United Nations drugs chief said this week. Professor Hamid Ghodse, president of the UN's International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), said there was 'a vicious cycle of social exclusion and drugs problems and fractured communities' in cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. The development of 'no-go areas’ was being fuelled by threats such as social inequality, migration and celebrities normalising drug abuse, he warned. ‘In many societies around the world, whether developed or developing, there are communities within the societies which develop which ones become no-go areas. 'Drug traffickers, organised crime, drug users, they take over. Examples are in Brazil, Mexico, in the United States, in the UK, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester.’ The INCB's annual report for 2011 found persistent social inequality, migration, emerging cultures of excess and a shift in traditional values were some of the key threats to social cohesion.
Pray: for authorities to be enabled to take charge of these ‘no-go’ areas and transform these communities. (Ro.12:2)