Displaying items by tag: Safety

Migrants have returned to the accommodation barge Bibby Stockholm, which can house up to 500 individuals awaiting asylum decisions, after it was evacuated in August due to Legionella bacteria in the water supply. The Home Office has declared it ‘safe and secure’ following remediation efforts. Using it is part of a government policy to reduce the costs of housing migrants in hotels. Critics have raised concerns about the conditions on the barge, with Amnesty International likening it to ‘prison hulks from the Victorian era’. This comes after a legal challenge against housing asylum seekers on the vessel was dismissed in court. A further judicial review challenge regarding planning jurisdiction has been initiated. The Archbishop of Canterbury had previously called for a pause in the scheme for further consultation.

On 2 December England launched a three-tier system to combat virus spread, and the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine was approved for use. It is hoped the tier system will help safeguard the gains made recently in containing the virus, and that the vaccines will ultimately make it possible for the nation to reclaim livelihoods and regain quality of life. However currently over 55 million people are in the strictest two tiers and cannot mix indoors with those in other households. Many feel their position in the tier system is unjust. Pray for a government review of the ‘human geography’ to be made sooner rather than later, so that adjustments can be made where appropriate to avoid unlawful tier crossing in the run-up to Christmas. Also pubs in tier two can only function as a restaurant and serve alcohol at the table with a substantial meal. Pray for the Government to give appropriate support to the struggling hospitality industry.

Cannabidiol (CBD) is not marketed as medicinal cannabis. It does nott have a psychoactive element, and some studies indicate that it helps to control childhood epilepsy. Other people think it helps them too. Non-medicinal CBD is now on sale in High Street shops and chemists. Pharmacists are calling for better regulation of products supposed to contain CBD, saying that there needs to be clearer information and better checks on content. Currently, customers buying such products have no guarantees that they are safe, or even if they contain CBD oil at all. The oil is being added to water, chocolate, make-up, tea and coffee. It is illegal to print health claims on these products, but it is a grey area as to who checks the ingredients, or the amount of CBD oil actually in each item, many of which can be very expensive. UK sales are currently £300m.

Solving crime, seeing justice done, and working within communities to improve their lives is what motivates people to become police officers. Officers should not have to face assault when they take the risks of standing up to criminals and protecting people. However, after recent serious attacks on police officers and a national increase in officer assaults, an urgent review has been commissioned. It will hear from officers about their experiences and gather all the available evidence and research. It will focus on officer safety training, equipment, deployment and operational planning, investigations into officer assaults, the care provided after an assault, the response from the criminal justice system, and the extent to which it is providing a sufficient deterrent. The findings of this review will be considered at an extraordinary chief constables’ council in November.

Retired judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick has been chosen to lead the public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire. Eighty people are now presumed dead after the disaster in west London on 14 June. Born in Wales and educated at Cambridge, the 70-year-old is said to be highly respected in the profession and ‘intellectually superb’. But leading barrister Michael Mansfield QC, who has met survivors of the fire, has said it is ‘unbelievable that lessons are not learned’ from the earlier inquiry into child sexual abuse, which he claimed had not consulted the families or the survivors. ‘The same thing seems to have happened all over again’, he said. Local residents are unconvinced that the inquiry will attribute responsibility as well as identifying the cause of the blaze. Meanwhile, tests have shown inflammable cladding on 120 tower blocks in the UK, and that number is expected to rise. Aluminium composite cladding has been widely blamed for the speed with which the Grenfell Tower fire spread. See

Britain has a key role in the peace of Jerusalem. 100 years ago in late 1917, the British Army commanded by General Allenby entered Jerusalem and liberated it from the occupying Turkish and German forces. This then enabled the Balfour declaration issued earlier in the year to be implemented leading after many years to the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948. Psalm 122 tells us “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem may those who love you be secure.” Having seen a significant change in the military struggles in Iraq and Syria in recent weeks, attention is now turning back to Israel.

President Trump is significantly more pro-Israel than his predecessor and is planning to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This would be highly symbolic as Jerusalem is in disputed territory whereas Tel Aviv is in the land allocated to Israel in 1948. Until 1967 the city was divided with East Jerusalem in Jordanian hands, but the city was reunited in the six day war. The UN and most nations do not recognise the legitimacy of Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem. For many Muslims the status of Jerusalem is more important than the issue of the Palestinians. Jerusalem is their holy city.

Jerusalem is an emotive and controversial issue. Any changes to its status will have consequences. There have been recent terrorist attacks on the city but with Muslim and US relations deteriorating, changes to Jerusalem could create many serious issues.

So we go back to the scripture - pray for Jerusalem. Pray for God’s sovereign purposes, for His will for this important city and pray for the city’s safety in these increasingly uncertain times.