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In the News

  • Catholic Herald: British Government 'reluctant' to call persecution of Middle East faithful genocide
    October 27th, 2015
    The British government has agreed to consider if the slaughter and expulsion of Christians from the Middle East by Islamist terrorists constitutes genocide, but said it was reluctant to use the term.
     
    Baroness Anelay of St Johns, Minister of State at the Foreign Office, told the Lords that she would “reflect” on whether brutality inflicted on minorities by ISIS amounted to efforts to eradicate them completely.
     
    She said the Government acknowledged that ISIS was “persecuting individuals and communities on the basis of their religion, belief or ethnicity, and its murderous campaign has resulted in the most appalling humanitarian crisis of our time”.
     
    But she said the Government was reluctant to profess the view, held by Pope Francis, that the persecution was genocidal, but added: “I will certainly continue to reflect on that.”
     
    Her comments were a response to Lord Alton of Liverpool, the Catholic crossbench peer, who had asked what steps the Government was taking to uphold Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees religious liberty and freedom of conscience.
  • Mail: GCHQ rejected me over my loyalty to God, says chess star
    October 27th, 2015
    A Chess master claims he was turned down for a job at the top secret GCHQ intelligence base because of his 'devout' Christianity and 'loyalty to God over his country'.
     
    Charlie Storey insisted his admissions – which also included drug-taking as a young man - were behind his rejection for a highly prized job after he went through a gruelling selection process at the listening station in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
     
    He was eventually turned down for the job for 'national security' reasons, and later lost an Employment Tribunal case heard in Bristol before he launched an appeal against that decision.
  • Guardian: Efforts to combat campus extremism may worsen problem, says Vince Cable
    October 27th, 2015
    The onus placed on universities by the government’s new counter-extremism strategy will lead to inoffensive and bland campus debates without preventing any student radicalisation, according to the former business secretary Vince Cable.
     
    The former Liberal Democrat MP instead says that banning extremist speakers from universities may in fact exacerbate the problem by driving underground hitherto non-violent extremists.
     
    In a speech to the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies on Tuesday, the former coalition cabinet minister will say that the new obligation on universities to balance free speech with counter-extremism is highly problematic.
     
    “Instead of intellectual challenge there will be a bland exchange of views which are inoffensive and politically correct,” says Cable, according to an advance copy of his speech provided to the Guardian.
     
    “This will not stop terrorism or terrorist recruitment, and may make the problem worse by driving underground those who are regarded as extreme but are currently non-violent...."
  • Guardian: Family courts must open up to avoid 'outrageous injustices', warns Ukip
    October 26th, 2015
    Secrecy within the UK’s system of family courts is allowing social workers to “ride roughshod” over ordinary people and resulting in the unnecessary breakup of families and forced adoptions, the Ukip MP Douglas Carswell has warned.
     
    Outlining a Ukip policy paper on opening up the family courts, the Clacton MP said a “juggernaut” of legal process currently leads to “outrageous injustices” and is calling for greater sensitivity and openness in the courts system.
     
    Carswell said: “There is a scandal at the moment. Once the legal process starts it is like a juggernaut and it breaks up families. Most of the time that is justified but some of the time it is not.”
  • Federalist: Ex-transgenders and -homosexuals come out of the closet
    October 26th, 2015
    Standing for Truth is a first-time gathering of national experts, therapists, doctors, attorneys, religious leaders, former homosexuals, parents and friends of former homosexuals, children of homosexual parents, and those with transgender surgery regret who dare to speak the truth.
     
    About 20 speakers will be contributing to the day-long conference October 26 in Salt Lake City. I’m that last one in the list above: the one with transgender surgery regret. Detractors have called me a pseudo-celebrity but I find that preferable to living out my life as a pseudo-female or pseudo-female transsexual.
     
    No matter how uncomfortable or inconvenient it may be to LGBT people and their supporters, the rates of transgender regret and suicide remain high and therefore cannot be dismissed as unimportant. Research has shown that more than 60 percent of transgenders suffer from comorbid disorders. To me, that proves transgenders are misdiagnosed a majority of the time. Comorbid disorders are a direct cause for the staggering and shameful attempted suicide rate among transgenders of 41 percent.
  • Life News: 412 babies spared from aborted as 40 Days for Life campaign enters final week
    October 26th, 2015
    Ready for some great news? Well … here it is! As we enter the final week of this 40 Days for Life campaign, our local leaders are reporting… 412 babies spared from abortion (that we know of)!
     
    You offer up your simple prayers to the Lord … and He responds with love and mercy. Here are just a few examples of His hand at work in this campaign.
     
    “Miracles are happening!” said Laura in Louisville. “Volunteers witnessed the following and wanted to share it.”
     
    While vigil participants were praying outside the abortion center, a woman came out and walked over to speak to them … telling them she had decided not to abort her baby.
     
    “I saw a sign that someone was holding,” she said, “and realized I just couldn’t do it!”
  • BBC: Rise in 'anti-abortion protests' in England and Wales
    October 26th, 2015

    There has been an increase in US-style anti-abortion protests outside clinics in England and Wales, research seen by BBC News suggests.

  • BBC: Gloucester bishop Rachel Treweek to take seat in Lords
    October 26th, 2015
    The most senior female bishop in the Church of England is set to take her seat in the House of Lords.
     
    The Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Rev Rachel Treweek, will be introduced as one of 26 Lords Spiritual by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Bishop of London Richard Chartres.
     
    As a diocesan bishop, she is the first woman with enough Church seniority to be appointed to the House of Lords.
     
    She will take the parliamentary oath before taking a place on the benches.
     
    Bishop Treweek sent back the first version of the writ of summons because it termed her a "right reverend father in God". Instead, it will describe her as "bishop".
  • Guardian: Philip Nitschke banned from promoting voluntary euthanasia as a doctor
    October 26th, 2015
    The controversial voluntary euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke will no longer be able to promote voluntary euthanasia after the Medical Board of Australia imposed strict conditions on his medical registration following a long-running investigation.
     
    The restrictions make his position as head of the voluntary euthanasia group Exit International untenable, and mean a tribunal hearing scheduled for November will no longer proceed. Guardian Australia has been told Nitschke will now turn his attention to a career in comedy, off the back of the success of his show about euthanasia at Edinburgh fringe in August.
     
    The Medical Board suspended Nitschke’s registration in an emergency meeting last year, after allegations that he had counselled a depressed but otherwise healthy 45-year-old Perth man, Nigel Brayley, to take his own life. The supreme court overturned that decision in July, allowing him to practise again in the Northern Territory.

    Under the 25 conditions imposed by the board on Monday, Nitschke can still practise medicine but can no longer give any advice or information to any member of the public, including patients, about how to take their life. This includes through workshops, books, videos or online.
     
    He will also have to refer patients interested in suicide to a registered health practitioner or to a local mental health service, and can only practise under indirect supervision for the next two-years.
  • Guardian: Sainsbury's chief attacks proposal to change Sunday trading laws
    October 26th, 2015
    One of the country’s leading retailers has criticised the government’s planned changes to Sunday trading laws, saying they are open to abuse.
     
    Under plans first revealed in the July budget, the government wants to hand new powers to local councils and mayors in England and Wales to relax rules that currently restrict the number of hours large stores can open on Sundays.
     
    The changes would also allow local authorities to create special zones in which longer opening hours would apply.
     
    Mike Coupe, the chief executive of Sainsbury’s, said the proposals were too complex and not something customers wanted. Retailers were divided over whether there should be relaxation of Sunday trading hours, he said, but all agreed the current plans were “not a sensible way of going about it”.
     
    The proposed laws “are open to interpretation and open to abuse. There’s a lot of complexity in the way it’s being framed,” he said.