Tag Archives: Country: United Kingdom

Tim Worstall: Forbes: There’s been a lot of political pressure over here in the UK for Google GOOG +1.35% to “do something” about child pornography on the web. The argument seems to be, and it’s about as logical as most political arguments, that Google should make sure that the entire internet is wiped free of the horror that is that child pornography.

LifeNews: Two Glasgow midwives, who won a landmark legal battle to avoid taking any part in abortion procedures, may now have to return to court. Last April appeal judges ruled that the right of Mary Doogan and Concepta Wood (pictured) to conscientious objection meant they could refuse to delegate, supervise or support staff involved in abortions.

Telegraph: Openly gay clerics will be questioned about the intimate detail of their sex life on behalf of the Archbishops of Canterbury or York before they can be considered to be a bishop, the Church of England has disclosed.

Sky News: Researchers from Durham and Lancaster Universities say a foetus’ ability to show pain through facial expressions is a developmental process which helps the unborn baby prepare for life after birth.

Christian Concern: A Tory MP wants David Cameron ousted as party leader because he “marched us on to the guns” over gay marriage. Andrew Bridgen, MP for North West Leicestershire, says the issue has driven voters into the arms of UKIP.

Christian Institute: The Queen has been dragged into the debate over gay marriage because some MPs are demanding Parliament’s Anglican chapel be used for gay weddings.

Christian Concern reports: The Church of England has announced that it will no longer fight the same sex ‘marriage’ Bill.

Telegraph: Lord Feldman, the Conservative chairman, will today be personally challenged to stop David Cameron’s gay marriage plans to prevent more desertions by party activists.

Christian Institute: Diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections rose 5 per cent in England last year – leading to a warning that people are continuing to engage in risky sexual behaviour.

Religion Clause Blog: In Britain yesterday, the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee published a report titled The role of the Charity Commission and “public benefit”: Post-legislative scrutiny of the Charities Act 2006.  Britain’s 2006 Charity Act requires that to qualify as a charity, an organization must not only be created to advance one of a set of specified purposes, such as “advancement of religion,” but must also be “for the public benefit.”

Gatestone Institute: The proliferation of “temporary marriages” shows how Muslims in Britain are using Islamic Sharia Law to establish parallel forms of marriage that are otherwise illegal.

UKConstitutionallaw.org: Much progress has been made following the agreement of the Brighton Declaration on reforms to the working practices of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).  The Brighton Ministerial Conference in April 2012 prompted renewed reflections on the role and legitimacy of the ECtHR itself.

Christian Institute: There will be other votes in the Lords in coming weeks where Peers have the opportunity to pass key amendments, or vote against the whole Bill.

Guardian: National Secular Society takes Woking council to court over ‘worshipper-only’ free parking, which it claims is discriminatory.

Washington Post: In the United States, we think of church and state as two separate entities, sometimes controversially intertwined. But in Great Britain, a different framework unites church with state in the person of Queen Elizabeth.

Telegraph: After two days of intense debate, peers supported gay marriage by a margin of more than two to one.

This post may be updated.

Telegraph: Bishops are facing intense pressure from inside the Church of England not to use their votes in the House of Lords to block gay marriage, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.

BBC: Search engines such as Google should do more to restrict access to online pornography, a government adviser on child internet safety has said.

Christian Institute: In a letter signed by 15 MPs, including former children’s minister Tim Loughton and former defence minister Sir Gerald Howarth, Peers were told of the “varying degrees of coercion” when it came to the “free vote” in the House of Commons.

Telegraph: Peers expect the Upper’s House debate over same sex weddings will go through the night or even into a second day, with a key vote that could scupper the policy regarded as “too close to call”.

Christian Concern: The Grand Chamber of the Council of Europe has rejected a request for referral from three UK Christians, prompting serious concerns over legal protections for Christians in Britain.

Christian Institute: Lillian Ladele was claiming religious discrimination after being forced out of her Islington Council job over her conscientious objection to same-sex civil partnerships. She was seeking to appeal to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights after losing a 5-2 majority decision in January.

Liv&Ratt: On May 27, the European Court of Human Rights’ Grand Chamber Panel will consider whether to grant an appeal to Shirley Chaplin and Gary MacFarlane, both of whom lost in their respective parts of Edweida and Others v. The United Kingdom when the verdict was handed down on January 15 of this year.

Reuters: The Church of England published a plan on Friday to approve the ordination of women bishops by 2015, a widely supported reform it just missed passing last November after two decades of divisive debate.

Christian Institute: The coronation of the next monarch will include other faiths besides Christianity for the first time in a thousand years of history, the Sunday Telegraph has reported.

Christian Institute: “But I think it is right for Britain, like other countries, to take on this issue and to determine the right approach and that’s exactly what I’ve done and I’m proud of the fact that this legislation has now passed the House of Commons.”

The Sun: Last night Muslim sources identified Adebolajo – who is claimed to be from a devout Christian family but converted to Islam in 2003 – as the man in The Sun’s video taken minutes after the soldier was hacked to death.

ABC (AP): The legislation, backed by Prime Minister David Cameron, passed by a vote of 366 to 161 on Tuesday. The bill will now move to the House of Lords . . .

BBC: Plans to legalise gay marriage in England and Wales are to proceed unimpeded in Parliament after ministers reached agreement with Labour.

Paul Coleman at the Christian Post: The United Kingdom’s multitude of “equality” provisions will protect nearly anyone born with a disability, although it is perfectly legal to prevent disabled people from being born, up to the point of birth (simply because they have a disability). The U.K.’s abortion law is therefore an example of the most blatant and basic form of discrimination imaginable.

Christian Institute: In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, 17 ministers and one archbishop expressed their concern about the consequences if the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill is passed in its current state

Telegraph: David Cameron will rely on Ed Miliband’s help to force gay marriage laws through Parliament and in return accept a Labour plan to consider civil partnerships for all.

Christian Institute: The Government has said it will consider whether to allow heterosexual couples to have a civil partnership rather than a marriage, at a cost of up to £4bn. Equalities Minister Maria Miller hopes the promise of a review will buy off votes and give a smoother ride for the same-sex marriage Bill.

The Independent: report published by the Office for National Statistics revealed that the percentage of people following a Christian faith dropped from 71.7 per cent in 2001 to 59.3 per cent in 2011. More than one in 10 under 25s in the UK now describe themselves as Muslim.

Christian Institute: Two severely disabled men are pushing the courts to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide, while a ‘carefully timed’ Bill proposing a similar change was tabled in the House of Lords today.

Christian Institute: The Government is not going to offer armed forces chapels the same protections as the Church of England in its plans to redefine marriage.

Christian Concern: The Court of Appeal is this week hearing the cases of two paralysed men who are seeking to change end of life laws.

Guardian: A group of Conservative MPs has proposed a referendum to allow the public to vote on gay marriage in one of several amendments aimed at watering down the bill to legitimise same-sex weddings. More than 100 MPs may support the call for a referendum, sources said.

LifeSiteNews: Britain’s Royal College of Psychiatrists has been accused of bias and submitting “seriously flawed” and even “fraudulent” evidence to the government’s consultation on the gay “marriage” bill.

The Times: High Court judge Sir Paul Coleridge is unapologetic about his Marriage Foundation’s efforts to keep families together.

Christian Institute: A Christian-run GP surgery has been criticised for posting a notice saying some of its doctors do not prescribe the morning-after pill on grounds of conscience.

The Telegraph: Terminaly ill patients will be able to ask their doctor for a lethal dose of drugs to end their lives as part of a major new push to change the laws on assisted suicide.

Christian Concern: The local election results are showing massive losses for the Conservative party. This was by no means inevitable but David Cameron’s insistence on pursuing the same sex ‘marriage’ agenda has undoubtedly contributed to this dramatic result.

Christian Concern: According to The Times, the Prime Minister has been told that he must uphold traditional Conservative values to prevent core Conservatives from abandoning him for Nigel Farage.

LifeSiteNews: Almost 60 premature babies are born with cerebral palsy in England and Wales every year because their mothers had previous abortions. This is because 15% of babies born before 28 weeks develop cerebral palsy and 400 premature births before 28 weeks each year are attributable to abortion. 15% of 400 is 60. This calculation is based on the studies below.

Paul Coleman at Christian Post: Arguments offered in support of the British Government’s push to redefine marriage illustrate the illogical foundation on which the endeavor rests. In fact, the government’s own arguments show the true danger that marriage will face if those trying to redefine it are successful.

Christian Institute: The Conservative Party faces losing hundreds of seats at the local elections tomorrow because of the Prime Minister’s plans to redefine marriage, according to a new poll. The survey also shows that many voters are turning to UKIP over the issue.

Anglican Ink: The Anglican bishops of the West Indies have urged their governments to hold fast and resist pressure from Britain and the United States to legalize gay rights and gay marriage.

LifeSiteNews: In 2010, high school science teacher Robert Haye was dismissed from his position at Deptford Green School after he responded to questions from high school students aged 15-16 by saying that homosexual activity is a “sin.” Teaching authorities subsequently banned him “indefinitely” from teaching at any high school in the country, a ban that was later endorsed by Education Secretary Michael Gove.

AP: A woman desperate for another child forced her 14-year-old daughter to get pregnant using syringes of donor sperm, a British judge said.

Christian Concern: A special event has been held at the Council of Europe in relation to two UK Christians who are seeking a referral to the Grand Chamber in their religious freedom cases at the European Court of Human Rights.

Religion Clause Blog: In Britain yesterday, in the House of Commons, MP Kris Hopkins opened a debate on Sharia Law, questioning whether the government planned to recognize and provide resources for Sharia councils.

Christian Concern: Three Christians whose cases were rejected by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) earlier this year have requested a referral to the Grand Chamber.

AP: The legislation also permit an heir to the throne to marry a Catholic, though Catholics would still be barred from succeeding to the throne.

Daily Mail: Hymns have been dropped from assemblies at a Church of England school which has also introduced separate prayer rooms for girls and boys to cater to its mostly Muslim students. Daily assemblies at Slough and Eton Church of England Business and Enterprise College, where 75 per cent of pupils are Muslim, are not based specifically on the Bible, but may make reference to it alongside other religious texts.

FT Magazine: Don’t misunderstand: this is not a tieless, first-naming internet start-up; these are courts of law, and based on hierarchy and deference. But the grandeur and remoteness that were inevitable when the court was an adjunct to the Lords have been swept away.

Christian Concern: A 57 year old man is seeking a court order that would allow doctors to end his life after joining forces with the family of Tony Nicklinson. The two cases will be heard together in the Court of Appeal on 14 and 15 May.

Peter Smith at the Bell Towers: The Alliance Defending Freedom is an organisation familiar to many readers. It is in essence a well-run network of legal activists who share a common Christian faith and who are involved in many of the most contentious disputes in the United States today. It protects the religious freedom of ordinary Americans under the First Amendment, for instance, and advocates up to the Supreme Court and Congress on behalf of the unborn, those vulnerable to euthanasia, supporters of traditional marriage and family life, and, indeed, anyone who strives to live out their life as an orthodox Christian in the US.

Wesley J. Smith at NRO: Assisted suicide is not about terminal illness. It is about creating a legal right to be made dead. In the USA, this agenda is more hidden than elsewhere, but anyone with eyes to see can discern that truth.

Christian Concern: A Science teacher who was barred from teaching after expressing his beliefs on sexual ethics in the classroom has lost his case in the High Court.

The Christian Institute: Fiona Bruce, MP for Congleton, said in the debate on Tuesday that if they are to condemn the gender abortion practices of China and India, they must “be ready to condemn and challenge any suggestion that gendercide is taking place in the UK”.

Education News: One of the UK’s leading Islamic organisations has warned that plans to revise the school history curriculum risk ignoring the Muslim contribution to western civilisation – an omission that will only foster alienation.The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), which claims to represent more than 500 Islamic organisations, is calling for “everyone who cares about the education of British schoolchildren” to lobby the Department for Education (DfE) as the end of the consultation period on the plans looms.

Ruth Institute: You may consider the following headline from a leading US newspaper blog last week to be rather extreme: “The British Embryo Authority and the Chamber of Eugenics”. But when it is followed a week later by a news report in a British newspaper saying: “Lord Robert Winston warning over child ‘eugenics’”, should we then take more notice?

Wesley J. Smith at Life News: Centralized control of health care is catastrophic. The classic example is the Liverpool Care Pathway, originally created to ensure that NHS patients receive good pain control, under centralized control it often became a form of connect-the-dots medicine, even, back door involuntary euthanasia.

Guardian: The Church of England has ruled out offering blessings to same-sex couples, insisting that such public gestures belong only to heterosexual marriage.

Christian Institute: Unnamed Tory MPs have said they are being blackmailed by the Chief Whip for voting against gay marriage. The MPs say their expenses records are being used to “bully” and “victimise” them because they failed to support the Government’s unpopular policy.

UKSC Blog: One reason for the absence of legal contest over these issues in the UK is the lack of a mechanism for constitutional challenge to the validity of laws. The powers of parliament not being limited by a written constitution, there has traditionally been no way of testing the propriety of laws against general principles. However, things are slowly changing.

LifeSiteNews: An English Peer and fertility expert has warned of the growing danger of eugenics in the flourishing artificial procreation industry. Lord Robert Winston, himself a pioneer in the use and “genetic screening” of embryos, has long been a voice of caution, warning successive governments that current legal restrictions are insufficient to regulate, or even keep pace with the rapid growth of the industry.

LifeSiteNews: Ann Widdecombe, a former Conservative Party MP and social commentator, has written in the Daily Telegraph that British people are fed up with the increasingly unfunny and hateful barbs against Christianity in comedy programs.

NPR: Margaret Thatcher, who as British prime minister in the 1980s became known as the “Iron Lady” for her tough economic policies, her partnership with President Reagan in standing up to communism and the short war with Argentina over the Falklands, has died.

Catholic Culture: Metropolitan Hilarion, the Russian Orthodox Church’s chief ecumenical officer, has urged the new Archbishop of Canterbury not to support female bishops or same-sex marriage.

Christian Concern: One of Britain’s most influential family lawyers has attacked the Coalition’s same-sex ‘marriage’ plans, saying they go against principles established for thousands of years. Baroness Butler-Sloss said plans to redefine marriage would lead to the destruction of the meaning of marriage without giving same sex couples any significant new rights.

LifeNews: Great Britain’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which oversees fertility treatments and embryo research in that nation, recently approved fertility procedures that would amount to the genetic engineering of children through cloning (nuclear transfer) technology and germ-line modification, resulting in a “three-parent embryo” that would have genetic material from two mothers and one father.

Christian Concern: Downing Street called police today (28 March) to investigate a group displaying pictures of an aborted baby outside the Department of Health.

Christian Institute: Professor Lord Robert Winston said that current controls will not be able to keep pace, and people could want to modify their children to enhance desirable characteristics.