Displaying items by tag: United Kingdom

The Christians in Parliament team write, ‘Our programme of chapel services started with an Easter service looking at the Hope of the Resurrection, and will continue weekly for the rest of the term. Please pray that parliamentarians and staff will be strengthened and encouraged to fix their eyes on Jesus and live out their faith in Parliament. Please pray for new attendees to come, and for the speakers as they prepare. We are looking forward to the 2019 national Parliamentary prayer breakfast. The Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, will be speaking on ‘building unity in a world of difference’. The breakfast will be chaired by Baroness Sherlock, and prayers will be said by members of both houses. Pray for increased numbers of MPs and peers attending, particularly those who have not been before, and for strengthened relationships between church leaders and MPs.

Stressed civil servants are encouraged to talk to counsellors about the pressures they are under. Some believe that quite a few MPs may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as they cope with coffins dumped at their constituency surgeries, smashed windows, death threats, round-the-clock negative social media, and endless cancelled plans, putting their relationships and health under huge strain. Brexit anxiety is having a detrimental effect on people's mental health. See and

13-year-old Nadia Sparkes is called ‘Trash Girl’ for encouraging her peers to clean up their environment. Upset by street litter, she began picking up items and binning them at home; collecting 3,000+ litres of litter. However, school bullies called her ‘Trash Girl’, threatened her with a knife, and chased and punched her. Once she sat in class covered in orange juice that had been thrown in her face. Unafraid, she used the ‘Trash Girl’ name in a positive campaign to encourage others to take action on litter through an online community group that was celebrated by Greenpeace, WWF and Keep Britain Tidy, with online followers of 4,000+. Local artists depicted her as a superhero character, which is being shared in schools to educate students on litter prevention, but Nadia was not championed at her own school and had to leave. However, this term she had a ‘brilliant’ first day at her new school.

Blood transfusions in the 1970s and 80s infected 4,800 patients with hepatitis C or HIV. As a public inquiry into the contaminated blood scandal begins this week, the victims and families of the 2,000 who died want justice and the Government held to account. The stigma attached to HIV meant that victims received hate mail and death threats, and the scandal was hushed up. This inquiry will finally give people the opportunity to tell their stories as evidence is heard. One victim said, ‘They will be horrified to hear what happened’. The UK relied on blood products from America manufactured from blood from thousands of paid high-risk donors (prisoners and drug addicts). Campaigners say there is evidence that the health service knew the blood was contaminated but carried on giving it, and there have been allegations of a government cover-up.

A US study found that teenage suicide rates increased after the release of a Netflix drama called ‘13 Reasons Why' - a story of a high-school girl who kills herself. Researchers estimated an additional 195 suicide deaths among 10- to 17-year-olds in the nine months after its release, an increase of 29%. The additional deaths mainly affected boys. In New Zealand recently hundreds marched to Parliament for teen suicide awareness because the government has not done enough to stem the trend. The marchers pushed through barriers set up at Parliament to place photos of their loved ones at the top of the steps. They then sang a waiata (a traditional Māori song) as hundreds more watched and filmed. In England, Rachael Warburton said her 12-year-old daughter, Jessica, left a suicide note with six reasons to kill herself after watching a Netflix show. See:  and

Women who have had a brush with the law are turning their lives around by making luxury handmade chocolates at a community interest company called Positive Changes. People with criminal records face barriers to employment - no qualifications, low self-esteem. Grace Chocolates, based in a church hall, is breaking their cycle of re-offending by giving them a job. In twelve months, six volunteers working with women one day a week made 19,000 chocolate truffles. Mary, an ex-drug user, said, ‘I was put on a court order and got involved with Positive Changes. It’s more than just a chocolate-making company. Words cannot easily describe how my life has been turned round 360o. When I started the course I was quiet and withdrawn. But my self-esteem and self-confidence is now sky-high by comparison. Rev Dan Harper said, ‘Positive Changes is freeing ladies to grow into the people that God made: wonderful, worthwhile people capable of love, compassion and hope.’

Following a summit held at Lambeth Palace with representatives from Ofsted, the National Farmers Union, the Prince’s Countryside Fund, and council and education leaders from across England, the CofE’s lead bishop for education, Stephen Conway, said that there needs to be a cross-governmental rural strategy. The delegates at the summit looked at ways to safeguard schools in the countryside. Bishop Stephen said, ‘We have been reassured that the Government has a presumption against the closure of rural schools, which is a positive foundation for the future.’ Last month, the Department of Education report on running rural primary schools efficiently suggested that primary schools should share headteachers. But this is difficult when some headteachers in small schools also do a lot of the teaching. Rural schools also have challenges with funding, and getting discounts on equipment.

The National Security Council discuss intelligence coordination and defence strategies. But information from one meeting was published in the Daily Telegraph. Defence secretary Gavin Williamson was suspected of, and sacked for, allegedly leaking discussions around giving Chinese telecoms firm Huawei contracts to build UK infrastructure to support future networks. These networks would allow people to control their home (lights, washing machines, etc), allow driverless cars to operate, control infrastructure, water and air-quality monitoring systems, traffic lights, and display live departures at bus stops and train stations. Other governments around the world, concerned over security, have blocked Huawei technology from their next-generation networks. British telecom giants BT and EE are removing equipment made by Huawei from core parts of their 3G and 4G operations, and plan to exclude it from bidding on future 5G contracts. Huawei said it would never hand information to the Chinese government, but there is scepticism over whether it would have a choice. Meanwhile Mr Williamson, one of the few ministers with good relations with the DUP, has been sacked despite his strong denial of any involvement in the leak. See

Over-fifties could pay £300+ a year extra National Insurance, to ‘fund a fairer social care system’. The idea proposed by Damian Green is part of a range of measures to fill a funding gap for pensioners. The Pilgrims’ Friend Society said that while some people might struggle to make the payments, they supported it because ‘we know as Christians that we're giving to the general good. For some people who are barely getting through, that would mean the difference between paying the rent or not. But for people who are managing, it would be OK. It should be for everybody because everybody is going to become old unless they die young.’ The proposed model of state pension is that everyone will be entitled to a basic safety net of support, with individuals encouraged to top up this provision from their own savings or housing wealth. Proposals including winter fuel allowance tax and surcharges have been labelled ‘a tax on getting old’.

A report by victims' commissioner Baroness Newlove warns that anti-social behaviour is being ignored by authorities across England and Wales. She said police, local councils and housing providers were downplaying the harm caused by crimes, and victims being repeatedly targeted were left to ‘suffer in silence’. Meanwhile police chiefs and local government associations said they took anti-social behaviour seriously; but their resources were under strain, and they needed more funding to tackle the problems. People are scared, whether in their homes or in the streets; syringes are buried in children's sandpits, and there are huge increases in 'petty' council fines. Victims say they often feel persistently targeted by their perpetrators, and ignored by those with the power to prevent and intervene. Anti-social behaviour such as vandalism, street drinking, prostitution-related activity, and nuisance neighbours is often treated as a series of isolated incidents, rather than taking into account the cumulative effect it has on victims; affecting mental health, sleep, work and relationships.