Newspapers reported in January that hospitals are allowing male patients to share female wards if they self-identify as women, even if they haven’t had gender reassignment surgery. Dr Nicola Williams of Fair Play for Women said, ‘In an attempt to accommodate a minority, the state is sacrificing the needs of the majority at their most vulnerable.’ Last year the Government ran a consultation on transsexualism, asking whether current safeguards on changing legal sex were necessary. Over 100,000 responded, but how they responded was not published. Recently changes to recording gender data in the Scottish 2021 census were denounced by MSPs. The plan is to change the sex question on the census to include a non-binary option for those who say they are neither male nor female. Another proposal is to allow people to select the gender they identify with, rather than their actual biological sex. See https://www.christian.org.uk/news/plans-to-let-scots-choose-sex-in-2021-scottish-census-seriously-flawed/

Mental health units and units with people with learning disability are often full, operating under massive strain, having to make use of agency staff, risking violence, using force and restrictive interventions and even seeing patient-on-patient assaults. Last summer, NHS England announced £76.5million of investment in the Transforming Care programme, to move people with learning disabilities out of hospital and into the community. Experts, however, warn that unless funding is properly pooled between local government and the NHS, problems will continue and thousands of people stuck in hospital settings will continue to be left without protection and without a voice. People with learning disabilities are being forgotten. It is a hidden problem. We have a responsibility to treat everyone as equal citizens. It is intolerable for people with special needs to be locked up, breaching their human rights, when they are capable of living with support in the community.

In November 2018 we prayed for the Government to take the dangers of child problem gamblers seriously and make changes. New rules will come into force from 1 April. However Bishop Alan Smith, who has brought up the gambling issue in the House of Lords, said, ‘They haven't changed any actual rules, these are simply new guidelines. So far the gambling industry has shown itself either to be unwilling or incapable of self-regulation. We need to ensure that there are proper sanctions for the existing rules. When you look at other industry regulators - such as Ofcom - they not only have very great powers but they are able to fine people who transgress.’ The Christian lobby group CARE recently helped to fight for a reduced maximum stake at fixed-odd betting terminals, something the Government decided to adopt last year.

In Lyon a brawl between rival groups, fighting with fists, rocks, and sticks, highlighted bitter divisions among the ‘yellow vests’, who have now led anti-government protests for 13 consecutive weekends. The fighting is evidence of widening splits in the movement, that began over fuel prices then widened into uprisings against a political class ‘out of touch with common people’. The protesters are united in their opposition to President Macron while making radically different demands. A ‘yellow vest’ in Paris had four fingers blown off as police protected the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament. The assembly’s Speaker said a culture of violence engulfs French politics. Pray for hope to replace scepticism and concord to engulf those believing themselves to be failed by government.