This week in the House of Lords bishops spoke in debates on the Government’s Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill, corporate governance and employee shareholding, and the impact of Brexit on the arts. They asked questions about the death penalty and the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme. The Second Church Estates Commissioner answered a question on corporate engagement. Continue reading “Week in Westminster, 8th-12th October 2018”
Category: Blog
Opinion and comment pieces on parliamentary / political issues
Week in Westminster, 10th-14th September 2018
This week in the House of Lords bishops led a debate on women’s centres, and spoke in debates on antisemitism, problem gambling, and the Government’s Victims Strategy. They asked questions about gambling advertising, countering extremism, and the anniversaries of D-day and the Battle of Arnhem. Continue reading “Week in Westminster, 10th-14th September 2018”
Archbishop of Canterbury’s speech at the TUC
On 12th September 2018 the Archbishop of Canterbury addressed the Trade Union Congress at their annual conference.
A transcript can be read here.
Bishop of Gloucester Times article: Women’s centres give non‑violent offenders a chance for success
The following article by the Bishop of Gloucester appeared on The Times Red Box website on 12th September 2018:
Archbishop of Canterbury – Making the economy fairer will benefit us all
Originally posted on the Lambeth Palace website.
On the launch of the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice report, the Archbishop writes in today’s Daily Mail that we need a fairer society where everyone can flourish.
I’m proud to live in a country that is the world’s fifth largest economy. We have world-leading businesses characterised by extraordinary innovation, high productivity, strong exports, highly skilled jobs and good pay.
We have low unemployment, lower than for many decades. Economically, politically, and often morally, we remain a global power.
There is much of which we can be proud.
Yet despite these strengths, it is evident that for many people, the economy is not working. It no longer fulfils the promise of rising living standards. Continue reading “Archbishop of Canterbury – Making the economy fairer will benefit us all”
Letter: Honour Britain’s tradition of saving child refugees
The following letter appeared in The Sunday Times on 2nd September 2018. Signatories included two Lords Spiritual, the Bishops of Durham and Southwark, and the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Williams of Oystermouth:
Honour Britain’s tradition of saving child refugees
Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders call on the government to offer sanctuary
September 2 2018
Three years ago today Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old Kurdish refugee, drowned because he had no safe route to sanctuary in Europe. The lives of more than 9,000 people fleeing war and persecution have been lost in the Mediterranean since that little boy’s death.
This autumn Britain will mark a more hopeful anniversary. Eighty years ago the Kindertransport was launched, a rescue operation that saved 10,000 Jewish and other refugee children from Nazi persecution.
Now it is our turn to honour that legacy by helping more child refugees to find safety here. On this anniversary we call on the government to match the efforts of the Kindertransport and establish a lasting route to protection in the UK for 10,000 child refugees in future years. Continue reading “Letter: Honour Britain’s tradition of saving child refugees”
Britain is facing a ‘generational time bomb’ of children conditioned to think that gambling is normal, says Bishop of St Albans
The following article by the Bishop of St Albans, Rt Revd Alan Smith, was published in the Daily Telegraph.
Britain is facing a ‘generational time bomb’ of children conditioned to think that gambling is normal
Alan Smith
17 AUGUST 2018 • 9:30 PM
Ask any parent or teacher and they will tell you children play a lot of online games, including Fortnite which has taken the world by storm. What they might not know is that these games allow children to gamble quite openly – just without money.
This is all legal because of a loophole. And at the same time, whether on tablets or phones, children are bombarded with ads which make gambling sound like harmless fun.
The combined effect of these two factors is that, like Pavlov’s Dogs, a generation of children are being conditioned to gamble. Continue reading “Britain is facing a ‘generational time bomb’ of children conditioned to think that gambling is normal, says Bishop of St Albans”
