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In the News

  • Times (£): Children put in care after Met’s extremist hunt
    October 30th, 2016

    Up to 50 families have been taken to the family courts by counterterrorism police and in some cases children who were feared to be at risk of being radicalised have been removed from their parents, one of Britain’s most senior officers has revealed.

    In an interview with The Sunday Times, Mark Rowley, assistant commissioner for specialist operations at the Metropolitan police and head of national counterterrorism policing, said it illustrated the scale of the threat of home-grown Islamic extremism.

    Read more.

  • Mail: Does your child really need to know how 'Ben' became 'Amy'? Furious parents slam 'damaging' BBC sex change show aimed at six-year-olds
    October 29th, 2016

    The BBC has been accused of acting recklessly after targeting children as young as six with a programme about a schoolboy who takes sex-change drugs.

    Parents are angry that the show, available on the CBBC website, features a transgender storyline inappropriate for their children.

    And concerned campaigners said it could ‘sow the seeds of confusion’ in young minds. The programme, Just A Girl, depicts an 11-year-old’s struggle to get hormones that stunt puberty, making it easier to have sex-change surgery in the future.

    Read more.

  • Guardian: Toby Young to take over as head of New Schools Network
    October 29th, 2016

    Toby Young, the controversial journalist turned educationalist, has been appointed as the head of a government-funded charity to promote free schools in England.

    Young will take over as director of the New Schools Network (NSN) in January, to run the charity backed by the Department for Education to lobby for more of the schools to be opened and assist with the application process.

    Read more.

  • Guardian: NHS to offer safer Down's syndrome test to pregnant women
    October 29th, 2016

    A safer test for Down’s syndrome that allows pregnant women to be screened without the risk of miscarriage is to be introduced on the NHS.

    The non-invasive procedure will be launched in 2018, ministers told the Guardian, and will mean most women at higher risk of a Down’s baby will be able to avoid amniocentesis, which involves removing a tiny amount of fluid from the womb.

    But the change has already created controversy, because it is expected to lead to a greater number of terminations as more women agree to be screened.

    Read more.

  • Times (£): Tell us your views, says abortion assembly
    October 29th, 2016

    The chair of the citizens’ assembly is appealing to the public to make submissions on the Eighth Amendment.

    The civic forum has also stated it will not be held accountable for any “misleading” statements included in the public submissions.

    The assembly, chaired by Ms Justice Mary Laffoy, which includes 99 randomly selected members of the public, was set up by the government to consider the need for a referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment and relax Ireland’s strict anti-abortion laws.

    Read more.

  • Parliament: Early day motion 619
    October 28th, 2016

    That this House notes that while same-sex couples are able to form a civil partnership, different-sex couples cannot; further notes that on 2 and 3 November 2016 the Court of Appeal will hear Rebecca Steinfield and Charles Keidan's appeal against the decision of the High Court to reject their application to form a civil partnership; notes that there are an estimated 3 million cohabiting different-sex couples and 1.8 million dependent children who could benefit from the extension of civil partnerships; believes that the current legal situation which prevents different-sex couples from gaining a civil partnership is unfair and prevents many different-sex couples from getting legal recognition and protection for their relationship in a way that matches their values; and supports efforts being made to extend civil partnerships to different-sex couples.

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  • Spectator: The BBC wins a landmark victory in the fight against Islamic extremism by Douglas Murray
    October 28th, 2016

    Shakeel Begg is an influential extremist who is also chief Imam of the Lewisham Islamic Centre. His radical views are readily available and well-known. But despite these downsides a chap like him also possesses certain considerable advantages. Not least is the fact that he lives in a society which is only very slowly waking up to the threat that people like him pose.

    Read more.

  • Independent: Religious segregation in faith schools is 'dreadful' says catholic leader
    October 28th, 2016

    Government proposals to allow faith schools to be entirely segregated are “dreadful”, the education head responsible for the opening of new Catholic schools in England has said.

    Speaking to TES magazine, Catholic Education Service (CES) director Paul Barber argued that religious selection in faith schools would be of no benefit to pupils, since students of different faiths can share the same values.

    Read more.

  • Christian Today: Mystery Over Whether Gay Vicar 'Outed' The Bishop Of Grantham
    October 28th, 2016

    A gay campaigning vicar has admitted that he spoke to a Sunday Times journalist about the Bishop of Grantham's sexuality before that newspaper was set to run a story on the subject.

    Andrew Foreshew-Cain, who is well known in church circles for his forthright views on what he claims are fellow gay clergy who are not yet known about publicly, denied being the source behind the planned Sunday Times story when asked by Christian Today.

    Read more.

  • Reuters: U.S. Supreme Court takes up major transgender rights case
    October 28th, 2016

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed for the first time to rule on transgender rights in a case in which a Virginia public school district is fighting to prevent a female-born transgender high school student from using the boys' bathroom.

    The justices agreed to hear the Gloucester County School Board's appeal of a lower court's April 19 ruling that transgender students are protected under U.S. laws barring sex-based discrimination. The case involves a 17-year-old transgender student named Gavin Grimm, who identifies as male and sued in 2015 to win the right to use the school's boys' bathroom.

    Read more.