Displaying items by tag: United Kingdom

On 1 March, MPs Jim Shannon and Norman Lamb led a debate on Christian freedom in the House of Commons. Earlier this month Barnabas Fund published a booklet entitled ‘Turn the Tide’ showing how religious freedoms in the UK are being eroded. It quoted the Magna Carta: ‘The English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired.’ The booklet gave many examples of the various ways in which religious freedoms in the UK have been eroded by political correctness and anti-Christian prejudice in universities, schools, social work, prisons, NHS, street preaching and much more. Barnabas Fund is calling for a new law ‘which positively affirms all aspects of freedom of religion that have been written into our laws’. View the debate at

No UK area has escaped snow showers, icy roads, or blizzard conditions. Please pray for the homeless at this time. Many charities and churches have opened their doors, but it is believed that some vulnerable people might have slipped through the nets of compassion. Some areas will soon see snow easing, but freezing rain threatens to make conditions even worse. Pray for safety on our roads when people resume their normal travelling arrangements. When weather causes havoc, the NHS’s workload rises as fractures from falls, chronic flu, and chest infections increase. The elderly are more susceptible to hypothermia. If people go outside in extreme weather, the heart works harder to keep them warm, leading to increased heart rate (causing more heart attacks) and higher blood pressure, risking strokes. Pray that our hospital departments, police, fire and all emergency services can cope with the added workload, and for all those driving in bad road conditions.

Ken Livingstone's suspension from the Labour party over anti-Semitism claims has been extended indefinitely pending the outcome of an internal investigation. The former London mayor's suspension had been due to expire on 27 April, but in his last official act as Labour general secretary, Iain McNicol signed off on an indefinite extension, the Huffington Post UK has revealed. Mr McNicol employed a rarely-used procedure to impose an ‘administrative suspension’ on Mr Livingstone. Mr Livingstone said he had been ‘suspended for stating the truth’.

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) recently called for doctor-assisted dying to be legalised, ‘to reflect public support’. They said assisted suicide works well in other countries. However, there are increasing reports of involuntary euthanasia in countries like Belgium and the Netherlands, and euthanasia is being extended to minor and non-life-threatening conditions. Consequently the elderly and vulnerable are now fearful of going into hospital. In the UK, doctors are said to be 2:1 against the legalisation of assisted suicide. However a poll on the BMJ website asking whether doctor-assisted dying should be legalised claimed that 59% voted Yes and 41% No. It is possible that this figure was manipulated to produce the desired result; some responders voting No were told their vote was not accepted due to a technical hitch. Activists are calling for doctor-assisted dying to become legal for those with six months to live, even though it is difficult to predict life expectancy.

NSPCC reports that child sex crime allegations have reached a record high in the UK, with an average of 177 cases recorded every day in 2016-17 - an increase of 15% on the previous year. Offences included rape, sexual assault and grooming. In almost 14,000 cases, the complainant was aged ten or under, with 2,788 of the alleged offences perpetrated against children aged four or under. In 10% of cases, there was an online element involved. NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless said, ‘This dramatic rise is extremely concerning and shows just how extensive child sexual abuse is. These abhorrent crimes can shatter a child's life and leave them feeling humiliated, depressed or even suicidal. Every single child who has endured abuse needs support so that they can learn to rebuild their lives.’ Online groomers are a major problem.

The Brexit secretary, David Davis, has hit back at negative suggestions that Brexit will lead to an Anglo-Saxon race to the bottom, saying that fears are based on neither history, intention, nor interest. International trade secretary Liam Fox has warned EU leaders that imposing new tariff barriers with the UK would make their economies less competitive, and stressed the benefits of the high UK standards of goods. Meanwhile a letter to Theresa May signed by sixty Tory MPs insisted that the UK should make a clean break with the EU, stating that the UK must be able to negotiate trade deals with other countries as soon as it leaves the EU, and must gain full ‘regulatory autonomy’. Both speeches and the letter set out key Brexit issues ahead of the MPs’ ‘away day’ at Chequers on 22 February. Pray that all decisions made there will lead to a new, fresh positive team of British MPs standing strong behind Theresa May for frictionless change.

On 1 January a petition calling for the banning of medical intervention to change gender surgically or medically by hormones for people below the age of 18 was sent to the Department of Health and Social Care. Responding to the petition on 20 February, the department appears not to have changed its policy, stating that a person under 16 is competent to give valid consent to a particular intervention if they have sufficient intelligence to enable them to understand fully what is proposed. There are no such sentiments when it comes to protecting under-18s from making choices they might in the future regret with regard to purchasing tobacco and alcohol; also, sex under the age of 16 remains a criminal offence.

The 14th annual Israeli Apartheid Week takes place globally between 19 February and 17 April. People will stage various events to raise awareness of what they say is ‘Israel’s apartheid system over the Palestinian people’. Students in UK universities are urged to choose a week between these dates in which to demonstrate. However, staging such events contravenes the International Definition of Antisemitism (IDA) that the UK signed up to. IDA states that describing the existence of the State of Israel as ‘a racist and illegitimate endeavour’ is anti-Semitic. Many fear such events in our universities will not only be anti-Semitic but will impact the next generation’s understanding of Israel. Our nation’s future political leaders, doctors, journalists, teachers, business people, and professionals are being encouraged to demonise the Jewish State. See also

Simon Coveney, Tánaiste (Irish deputy leader), has said that through the Brexit negotiations Ireland wished to see the creation of the closest possible future connection between the EU and the UK. He said, ‘A key strategic objective is to ensure that the outcome of Brexit does not undermine the hard-won gains of the peace process, as exemplified by the Good Friday Agreement. Despite the efforts of both governments in recent months, and especially in recent weeks, it is deeply regrettable that there is at present no power-sharing executive in place. However, we will not give up - we cannot give up. We urgently need to see the restoration of the Northern Ireland executive and assembly, to harness greater and broader input into how to make the best of Brexit.’

New research from Newcastle University published in the academic journal Environmental Research Letters reveals that nearly sixty UK cities will battle flooding by 2051, with Glasgow and Aberdeen among the worst-hit. The changes in flooding, droughts and heatwaves for European cities are blamed on climate change and the effect of greenhouse gases on global temperature. Experts are now calling for improved flood defences in order to prevent severe damage in future. The most optimistic scenario showed that 85% of UK cities with a river would face increased flooding. Some areas in the UK and Ireland could see the amount of water per flood as much as double.