Displaying items by tag: United Kingdom

Among 17-year-olds in the UK, one in ten will have used hard drugs, such as ketamine and cocaine, a study by the University College London suggests. Nearly a third of 17-year-olds had tried cannabis and more than half admitted to binge-drinking alcohol. Almost 20,000 young people, born between 2000 and 2002, were surveyed as part of the Millennium Cohort Study. Drug-use rates were higher among white teens than black teens. A quarter of 17-year-olds had assaulted someone, including shoving, slapping or punching, over the previous 12 months. Levels of vandalism and weapon use were similar to when they were 14 but shoplifting rose from 4% in early adolescence to 7% a few years later. It remains to be seen how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected engagement in these behaviours.

Christian MP Gregory Campbell has defended his claim that the BBC's Songs of Praise Gospel Singer of the Year Competition was ‘the BBC at its Black Lives Matter worst’. The semi-final featured five black singers and three black judges. He believes the singers were not representative of the best gospel singers in the country, the BBC is not diverse, and the show had ‘one colour scheme’. The presenter of the competition said very few white people applied, and the best singers were chosen. The MP then asked him if he was trying to make him believe there wasn't a single white person good enough when both black and white sing gospel. The presenter said the show celebrated a style of music that came out of black communities and black experience in this country; Campbell's comments show a lack of understanding and ignorance about gospel music.

The UK has experienced a week of dangerous snow and ice culminating in below -20C temperatures. Local councils are warning residents to take extra care while the cold snap lasts, as the weekend weather will turn ‘quite hazardous’. The Centrepoint charity for homeless young people is urging the public to contact them if they see people living out in the cold. Charities are also advised to offer anyone seen to be sleeping rough a hot drink, meal, blankets or clothing. Over 100 street cleaning and waste collection teams have been diverted from regular duties to clear snow from footpaths and routes to medical centres to enable COVID immunisation to continue. On 11 February nine flood warnings indicated flooding is very likely; a further 88 flood alerts indicate that flooding is possible as the snow melts and further freezing rain continues.

The EU is expected to ask for more time to ratify the Brexit trade deal. UK’s chief Brexit negotiator, David Frost, claimed that a resolution to EU/UK strained relations required a ‘different spirit’ from the EU. Frost blamed tensions on the bloc struggling to get used to a ‘genuinely independent actor in its neighbourhood’. He also pointed to ‘niggling border issues’ of the EU placing barriers on live UK shellfish exports. Brussels has told British fishermen they are barred indefinitely from selling live mussels, oysters, clams and cockles to EU member states. The ban is affecting restaurants on the continent as well as British fishermen. Boris Johnson has refused to rule out a trade war with Brussels if it didn’t back down in the escalating row. There is no legal barrier to this trade continuing, on animal health grounds and on public health grounds. There is legal provision within existing EU regulations to allow UK trade to continue.

The NSPCC says the amount of counselling for loneliness provided by its Childline service has risen by 10% since the pandemic started. Pray for isolated and lonely children to receive the counselling support they need. Health visitors supporting parents and young babies are worried about the impact on newborns. The first two to three years of a baby's life are the most crucial period of development. This is known as the 1,001 days agenda. If children fall behind, they could have a lifelong disadvantage. Pray that no more babies fall behind in their development, and for more health visitors to be allocated to support new families. There are a million disabled children with special educational needs (SEN), with complex conditions requiring home care from specialists who have now been redeployed. Pray for adequate support and respite for families with SEN children. Pray also for protection for children whose parents have drug/alcohol dependency or severe mental health issues.

The UK government, which hosts a climate summit this year, has allowed a coal mine at Whitehaven to go ahead. The leading climate scientist James Hansen has warned Boris Johnson that he risks ‘humiliation’ over plans for the mine to extract coking coal from under the Irish Sea. Dr Hansen, formerly Nasa's leading global warming researcher, urged the PM to halt production. No 10 said the UK was a world leader on climate change, but would not reverse the local council’s decision on the mine. They have stressed that industries such as steel production require coking coal - which would have to be imported if it were not produced in the UK. The mine will produce a grade of coking coal for steel-making; 85% of it is destined for export to Europe. Government sources hinted that the need for continuing domestic steel production was another reason for not opposing the mine.

Covid-19 and the lockdowns have brought a wide range of new challenges for church leaders in a short space of time, and a significant number are feeling the effects. Savanta ComRes, in partnership with the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK), surveyed 201 leaders of different denominations during the period between the two lockdowns. They were asked to think about the two years before Covid, then about the period since restrictions began, and to assess their mental health during that time. 93% of them said that in the two years leading up to March 2020, they had very good or fairly good mental health. It is impressive that church leaders overall reported this level of happiness with their mental health. But in the period since then, that went down to 85%, and 15% said it was poor or very poor.

London City Mission (LCM) is helping churches to reach out to people who belong to socially-excluded groups - prisoners, those who are homeless, trafficked into the UK, or with addictions. For many who experience rejection and hostility, a crippling sense of shame and unworthiness is a far greater obstacle to coming to church. Imagine that you’d like to go to church but have not been able to access a shower and clean clothes for the past ten days. How might people react to you? Gently edge you to one side, outright reject you, or offer awkward sympathy? To overcome this fear of rejection, LCM is helping churches to look outward, stepping beyond their comfort zone and seeking ways to connect with people far beyond the church community. They also want to help the church to consider how it can improve their welcome to people who have experienced social exclusion and help them feel comfortable amongst Christians.

Care home visitor bans have been branded a human rights breach by some MPs, who are demanding a new law allowing visits and have given the government a two-week deadline to act and stop residents dying in isolation. A committee of MPs and peers has called on government ministers to legislate against blanket bans on care home visits in England, which they argue is a breach of the basic right to family life. We can pray for all residents to receive visits from a close relative or friend. This is what happens in Ontario, where they changed the law to allow access to care homes and mental health hospitals for a relative who is a designated caregiver and part of the home/hospital’s care team, provided they test negative before each visit. Harriet Harman heads up the team of MPs who have asked Matt Hancock to ‘consider our proposal as a matter of urgency and respond to us by 17 February’.

Urgent testing for the South Africa variant of coronavirus is beginning in Surrey, London, Kent, Hertfordshire, Bristol, Walsall, and Birmingham after cases were found with no known links to travel or previous cases. The variant, which was identified as part of Public Health England's random checks on tests, prompted fears there may be community transmission of the virus. It is not known how many cases have been identified. Mobile testing units have been dispatched to a number of neighbourhoods where the cases have been identified.