The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is fixed in Europe – by tectonic-geographic reality and socio-cultural history. These constitute our inescapable frameworks of identity. Continue reading
Published by Reimagining Europe
The Bishop of Leeds, Nick Baines, says I challenged the Bishop of Guildford (and, by implication, the rest of the bishops) “to keep quiet” about their views on remaining in or leaving the European Union. I really didn’t. Continue reading
Published by Reimagining Europe
In a recent interview, the Bishop of Bristol, Mike Hill, said the Church wouldn’t tell people which way to vote in the referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union, but would instead encourage them to think wisely. Continue reading
Published by Reimagining Europe
By fortuitous geo-genetic accident of birth, I’m as English as Shakespeare. By historic political union and the national lottery of passport administration, I’m also British and thereby privileged to travel the world under the protection of Her Britannic Majesty. Continue reading
Published by Reimagining Europe
If coal extraction and steel production were held in common – pooled at source and distributed without borders – never again could one fractious state rise up against another. That was the theory. Continue reading
Published by Reimagining Europe
History is as multifaceted as truth is many-sided. In ages past it was written by the victors; today it is moulded by Bloggers, Vloggers, Tweeters and Tumblrs. Now we create our own democratic history on YouTube and forge our own relative truths on Facebook: the whole trajectory of social media is toward introspection, subjectivity, relativity and personal knowledge. What we say is honest and sincere, and whatever we believe is true. Continue reading
Published by ConservativeHome
“The majority of teachers are disillusioned by the way the Conservative Party has approached education in the United Kingdom,” declares Brittany Wright, a teacher of English in the Midlands who is also her school’s G&T coordinator (ie of students deemed to be ‘gifted’ and/or ‘talented’). Continue reading
Published by ConservativeHome
Weekends used to be a time for R&R. Even the Lord felt He’d earned a day off after putting in a six-day week. But such antiquated practices are on the way out in the latest NHS revamp. The Prime Minister has promised us seven-day access to our GPs for routine consultations, so seven-day access we shall have. Continue reading
Published by Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics
The United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) has made some significant electoral advances since the 2010 General Election, when they secured 3.1% of the popular vote. Not only did the party go on to win the 2014 Elections to the European Parliament with 24 MEPs elected on 26.6% of the vote, but they currently have 430 councillors across 76 local councils, and recently secured their first elected MPs to Westminster following Conservative defections and victory in two volitional by-elections. At the time of writing they are regularly scoring between 12-15% in opinion polls. Christians are deeply divided about the party’s perceived ‘undercurrents’ of racism, nationalism and isolationism which, some aver, put them beyond the pale of religious respectability. But despite episcopal denunciations(1), the party is attracting Christians from across the denominations, including the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church(2). Continue reading
Published by ConservativeHome
I know there’s a Lynton Crosby-decreed pre-election purdah on all matters NHS, but…
Dr Poulter: On long-term work force planning, the hon. Gentleman suggests that there is suddenly a crisis in GP recruitment—which I do not think is necessarily correct—but if the previous Government were serious about investing in general practice, they should have trained a lot more GPs than they did (Hansard, 5 Feb 2015: Column 442).
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