You might almost have missed it – especially if your favourite spiritual sport is Welby Wanging, which is open to all people irrespective of age, sex, sexuality, race, creed, religion, nationality, and beliefs about the EU. The Archbishop of Canterbury made quite an important speech about freedom. Actually, he’s made two or three important speeches of late, which, considered apart, merit a few dutiful column inches in the MSM because he is who he is. But, taken together, there are nuggets contained within them which really ought to mollify hyper-critical minds and mitigate the carping of those who believe they have eyes and ears but are really quite insensible to the signs of the times and the way the wind is blowing.
In the News
-
November 29th, 2016
-
November 29th, 2016
A school has apologised to a Christian teaching assistant it disciplined for sharing her views on gay relationships with a 14-year-old student.
Victoria Allen, 51, threatened to take Brannel School in St Austell, Cornwall to tribunal over the matter.
The dispute was settled out of court earlier.
-
November 29th, 2016
A former director of an NHS trust is suing Jeremy Hunt for religious discrimination after he was effectively barred from applying for positions following his public opposition to gay adoption.
Richard Page has lodged a claim at the employment tribunal, saying his televised comments in 2015 that it was in the best interests of a child to have a mother and father stemmed from his Christian faith.
His remarks led to him being sacked as a magistrate in March for serious misconduct, after 15 years on the bench. Two years earlier, the lord chancellor and lord chief justice reprimanded Page after finding his religious beliefs, rather than evidence, had influenced his decisions during a family court hearing.
-
November 29th, 2016
The morning-after pill should be sold straight from shop shelves alongside aspirin, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) has said.
The charity is calling for price cuts to end a "sexist surcharge" on emergency contraception, with British women paying up to £30 for pills that cost as little as £6 abroad.
The charity said the price difference was such that for some women it could be cheaper to fly to France to buy the morning-after pill than to purchase it on their local high street.
-
November 29th, 2016
The morning after pill should be available to buy straight off the shelf without the need for an "unnecessary and embarrassing" consultation, a leading reproductive rights charity has said.
The current requirement for women to speak with their pharmacist before they can buy emergency contraception is "patronising and insulting," according to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas).
Bpas also demanded a drop in the price of the morning after pill, which usually costs around £25 to £30 at chemists, to bring the UK in line with other European countries where it is cheaper.
-
November 29th, 2016
This morning Jim Wells MLA will be presenting to the Speaker of the Assembly 300,000 petitions collected by Precious Life on behalf of the pro-life majority in Northern Ireland. This is in response to Clare Bailey MLA presenting to the Speaker of the Assembly last week 45,000 petitions in support of Amnesty International’s campaign for legalised abortion in Northern Ireland.
Bernadette Smyth, the director of Precious Life, who will be at Stormont this morning to listen to Mr Wells MLA present the 300,000 petition to the Speaker, argues that Amnesty’s claim of a "45,000 strong petition" holds no weight and should not be taken seriously, and that MLAs should instead pay heed to the overwhelming evidence presented before them today that their voters do not want abortion in Northern Ireland:
"Anyone from anywhere in the world can ‘sign’ Amnesty’s online petition. A person ‘signing’ Amnesty’s online petition is only asked to provide his or her name and email. These petitions hold no weight and should not be taken seriously by the Northern Ireland Assembly."
-
November 29th, 2016
A culture of hardcore pornography and sexual pestering of girls is prevalent in schools, the Government admits today.
Primary school children are learning about sex through porn while some headteachers are allowing the sexual harassment and abuse of girls to become 'accepted as part of daily life'.
In an official response to a report by MPs, ministers paint a bleak picture of a prevailing culture in schools which seemingly condones sexual harassment as being 'just banter'. This is leading to 'very disturbing evidence about the sheer volume of sexually predatory and abusive behaviour experienced by young girls'.
-
November 29th, 2016
The wife of a policeman left in a 'vegetative state' after being knocked off his motorcycle sobbed today as she asked a court to let him die because he is 'living for no reason'.
Lindsey Briggs, 40, from Merseyside, told a judge that her husband Paul's life support treatment should be withdrawn so he can die with dignity 16 months after he was put in a coma by a novice driver.
She told the Court of Protection in Manchester that when she looked into his eyes she saw 'at best, nothing there, or at worst, distress or suffering'.
-
November 29th, 2016
A woman who has asked a court to withdraw life support treatment for her husband broke down in tears as she described his condition.
The court of protection heard police officer and Gulf war veteran Paul Briggs, 43, from Merseyside, was in a minimally conscious state following a car crash in July 2015.
The father of one, who is being treated at the Walton Centre in Liverpool, suffered a bleed on the brain, five fractures in his spine, bruising to internal organs and several other severe injuries in the collision.
-
November 29th, 2016
Following the passing of the Investigatory Powers Bill, the British government is on a roll; and its latest privacy-busting measure, the innocuous-sounding Digital Economy Bill, was last night waved through by MPs without a vote.
The bill takes the U.K. back to the prudish days of the 1960s when a lawyer was able to ask a court, in all seriousness, whether Lady Chatterley’s Lover was the kind of book 'you would wish your wife or servants to read'.