Displaying items by tag: United Kingdom

Many are made homeless from ‘no-fault’ evictions when their landlord decides to sell. The Government promised to ban these types of evictions in 2019 but has not done so yet. Evicted families are placed in temporary accommodation. On 31 March almost 105,000 households, with over 131,000 children, were in such accommodation (hotels or bed and breakfast). This latest figure is the highest since records began. Sitting outside a hotel in Plymouth earlier this month, the BBC found several homeless families keeping each other company. When people are in temporary accommodation, there is nowhere for them to move to. The root of the problem is lack of housing, exacerbated because local housing allowance rates have been frozen for the past three years. Amid soaring rents, that choice has left much of the country unaffordable for any household needing housing benefit to help pay their rent.

A reporter posing as an economic migrant found immigration law firm staff briefing clients how to lie to the authorities to stay in Britain. They were willing to help him get refugee status despite being told he had no legitimate reason to stay in the UK. One lawyer asked for £10,000 to invent a backstory for him, including claims of sexual torture, beatings, slave labour, false imprisonment and death threats making him suicidal and compelled to flee to the UK. He promised a doctor’s report to back up the story and antidepressants to give to the Home Office as ‘evidence’ of mental trauma. Another lawyer promised to ‘create the evidence’ to make it appear the reporter had a genuine fear of ‘persecution and assassination’ if he returned home. He boasted of a success rate of over 90% with similar asylum cases. Immigrants face jail for making false asylum claims, whereas solicitors facilitating and profiting from them only face professional sanctions.

‘I have been a doctor for forty years working in a broken system. Endless demands with inadequate resources have been costly. But will striking work? Does Jesus want me to strike? I’m conflicted. Philippians says, ‘Don’t look out only for your own interests, take an interest in others, too with the same attitude of Christ.’ If I strike someone else will cover. They’ll be taken from routine work, making the queue of suffering grow. Nevertheless, when all is said and done, the NHS is not playing fair; they expect everything and erode my salary by stealth. The BMA says a strike in August will show the government we mean business. Colossians says I should think I work for you Lord, not them. Do I really have to trust you to meet my needs? Or must I agree with BMA’s next strike over pay and conditions?’

The Co-op has warned some communities could become ‘no-go’ areas for shops due to crime hitting record levels, increasing by over 1/3rd in the past year. There were about 1,000 shoplifting and anti-social behaviour incidents every day in the past six months. A Freedom of Information request revealed 71% of serious retail crime had not received a police response. Many police forces do not prioritise retail crime. The Co-op has called for an ‘urgent change’, and for all forces to target repeat and prolific offenders in cities where organised criminal gangs operate - it could be described as looting. Criminals come in with bags, sacks or clothing which can conceal hundreds of pounds’ worth of stock - coffee, meat, spirits; others clamber over the kiosk and just tip products into their bags. They know the police don't have the resources or can't attend quickly enough.

Christian Aid have cut ties with Barclays over the bank’s investments in oil and gas industries. The bank is known to be one of Europe’s leading funders of fossil fuels. Sarah Edwards from Just Money Movement said, ‘I think charities, companies, churches, and individuals are all having to think now more about what our money is doing, and the kind of world that our money is shaping. I think that's a really positive step. And we're really pleased that Christian Aid have done this. Money shapes the kind of world we want to see. Banks don’t just sit on our money when it is in a current or savings account, they invest it, they lend it, and use it in different ways. Some of those ways we might not be happy with.’ Barclays said it will set an ambition to become net zero by 2050, as addressing climate change is an urgent and complex challenge.

Residents of St Ives have raised £1m to buy Edward Hain Memorial hospital after the NHS closed it. They feared it would be sold to developers to provide holiday flats. It will be a new hub for health and wellness, providing accessible and (wherever possible) free services to residents of St Ives and west Cornwall. Charities and health groups will provide support for people with conditions such as Parkinson’s, dementia and offer wellbeing and preventive services like food quality awareness, yoga and exercise. The League of Friends decided to try to buy it, so fundraising events including music gigs, balls, coffee mornings, afternoon tea and golf competitions were held. 92-year-old Enid, who was a nurse there in the 1950s, did a sponsored walk to help save the building. Fundraising will continue to pay off a £400,000 mortgage that helped them reach the target, plus the renovations and upgrades that are needed.

The polls say politicians are incompetent, and people are losing hope that they will fix the issues besetting us. Politicians tend to look to the next day's headlines, seeking quick fixes that will boost poll ratings rather than setting out sound strategies that may not reveal benefits immediately. We've all heard of the acronym NIMBY, but perhaps the blight of political leadership is NIMTO: Not in My Term of Office. We can pray for God to raise up a generation of leaders for such a time as this - men and women who are not affected by ‘NIMTO’-ism, people prepared to look at the details and discuss the complexity and costs, people who are able to sell the long term benefits to a population that is losing faith in everything.

The fire that fell on Pentecost was Holy Spirit fire. We can ask Father God to pour His Holy fire over us today, so that Jesus has complete lordship over all His churches. Father God, please raise up ministers who have gone through your Spirit’s cleansing fire. Refine them as gold is refined, purify them as silver is purified, and may all they do glorify You. Father God, bring about Your purposes for all your people, create a church that resists temptations of good ideas or worldly wisdom and chooses to call on you for the vast wisdom and strength You promise to all who ask in Jesus’s name. May we reflect the unity of Your Spirit according to Jesus’s prayer, ‘The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one’ (John 17:22-23).

The following is for our economy, elections, and transformation. Proverbs 11:14 says that where there is no wise, intelligent, guidance, the people go off-course like a ship without a helm. But with wise and godly counsellors there is victory. We pray wise and Godly counsel for all those making policy decisions at this time, whether in Parliament, the Bank of England, the Health Service or any sphere of influence in our land; for those deciding whether to stand down in the next general election, and also those of God’s people considering standing for the first time; and over the London mayoral elections in 2024. We decree and declare that success is found by those who welcome Godly counsel. Lord God, we ask that across this nation, from the corridors of power to families struggling with issues of finance, children or marriage, the cry for Godly wisdom and advice will arise; and as that cry rises Godly advisors, carrying revelatory wisdom will be positioned in every section of society.

Christian churches and charities say the government’s Illegal Migration Bill is ‘senselessly cruel’ and will have a ‘devastating impact’ on lives. Almost 300 civil society groups and charities have signed a statement expressing concern over the Bill which will now become law after ministers overruled a series of House of Lords challenges. The bill will make claiming asylum in the UK via irregular routes illegal and pushes forward the plan to deport asylum seekers to third countries, including the planned Rwanda partnership. It turns our country’s back on people seeking safety, blocking them from protection, support, and justice, at a time that they need it most. It risks breaching international human rights treaties such as the Refugee Convention, while shielding the Government from accountability. The Government admits it cannot confirm if the act is compatible with our obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.