Displaying items by tag: debate

After receiving 430 letters of concern over proposed new regulations for Relationships and Sex Education, the House of Lords will now publicly debate the issue first, rather than just voting. The House of Commons voted to pass the new regulations on 27 March, but the Lords still have the power to prevent them from becoming law. The date of the debate has not yet been set. Pray that as the Lords debate the proposals, they will recognise the concerns of Christians and many other parents about the steady erosion of parents’ freedom to determine how to teach their children about morals, sexuality and gender ‘in conformity with their religious and philosophical convictions’. This freedom is guaranteed by the first protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Ruth Davidson - who is the leader of the Scottish Conservatives - has been speaking out following the comments by Boris Johnson about the Burka. The Christian MSP suggested we should defend the right of Muslim women to wear the burka in the same way we defend the right of Christians to wear a cross. She was speaking after the former foreign secretary compared the burka to a letter box and women who wear it to look like bank robbers. Theresa May asked him to apologise. With no apology forthcoming, founder and president of the Conservative Muslim Forum Lord Sheikh said the party should take ‘severe action’ against Mr Johnson. On the other hand, Christian, Jacob Rees-Mogg, said there was no need for Mr Johnson to apologise and an imam who has previously criticised the burka said Mr Johnson should not ‘apologise for telling the truth’. The debate continues.

On 21 September, the day before Theresa May delivers her first major Brexit speech in Florence, she met with her Cabinet to discuss her terms for Brexit. The last time she addressed the EU was in January, at Lancaster House, when she set out her original vision for Britain outside the EU. Now, with negotiations deadlocked over the ‘Brexit bill’ and the role of the EU courts, Europe is looking for a major policy intervention. Boris Johnson says the media is talking 'nonsense' about MPs having split allegiances while he and Philip Hammond, at opposite ends of the soft/hard Brexit debate, attempt to present a choreographed show of unity. However, some believe Friday's speech will not generate 'an immediate breakthrough' in Brexit talks.