The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights recently undertook a 12-day tour of some of the poorest areas of the UK as part of an investigation into poverty in Britain. Professor Philip Alston is one of the legal global experts in the field of economic and social …
Following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi the UK must halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia
In August of this year Saudi Arabia faced an international outcry when dozens were killed when a Saudi missile hit a school bus in Yemen. However, the UK continues to do multi-million pound deals with Saudi Arabia, selling Typhoon jets for use in Yemen as well as other high end weapons …
Asia Bibi is free but religious minorities continue to suffer violence, discrimination and abuse in Pakistan
After 8 years held under sentence of death the Pakistan Supreme Court has acquitted Asia Bibi of the charge of blasphemy. Many members of our Churches have campaigned for her release and against the oppressive blasphemy law in Pakistan. False accusations of blasphemy have particularly harsh …
2 Minute Briefing: Will money fix Universal Credit?
Is the Budget enough to save Universal Credit? The budget delivered two tranches of extra money for Universal Credit (UC) - £1.7bn to improve Work Allowances and £1bn to help people moving onto UC from the old system. While the numbers are large they are not sufficient to reverse even the 2015 …
Real Hope for the Climate
Not just damage control: why we can have real hope as we act for our climate The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently announced that Governments must urgently increase their current pledges if we are to avoid a rise in global temperature greater than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial …
Meet Your MP: Using our voices
In a guest blog, Revd Katy Thomas, a Methodist minister from Wilmslow in Cheshire, writes about her experience of arranging a meeting with her MP last month. At the Methodist Women in Britain Conference earlier this year, Rachel Lampard from the Joint Public Issues Team spoke about Universal …
The things you need to know about Universal Credit
Universal Credit: the bad, the worse and the ugly Universal Credit has been failing badly. Over the past few weeks, press and politicians have begun to notice that the next stages of Universal Credit (UC) could bring real disaster – and that something needs to be done and quickly. By the end of …
Conservative Party Conference: the pastoral and the political
Send your spirit upon them Lord, strengthen them for the task to which they are called. But let us not forget, that though others may do the task, we cannot abandon it to them, that we must support them. This is an extract of a prayer from our Faith in Foodbanks resource. …
Introducing Beth
I am really excited to be joining the Joint Public Issues Team in my new role as the Public Issues Enabler for the Baptist Union of Great Britain. I’ve moved into this job from pastoral ministry; previously I was the minister of John Bunyan Baptist Church, a multicultural church in east Oxford who …
Churches launch new initiative to Meet Your MP
A new initiative is being launched in England and Wales to encourage church congregations to build a relationship with their local MP. Meet Your MP aims to help Christians to engage with the representatives who make the political decisions that affect the country and our everyday lives, and to …