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Welcome for rise overseas aid
THE PROPOSAL to raise overseas aid by 17 per cent a year, which was announced by the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, this week, has been welcomed by aid agencies. “Overall, development assistance will increase to over £9 billion in 2010-11,” CAFOD said. The UK could now meet its target of 0.7 per cent of GNP aid by 2013. “It is good news for Africa,” said the CAFOD head of policy, George Gelber.
Seven-year jail threat for homophobia
THE MINISTER for JUSTICE , Jack Straw, announced on Monday that he intends to extend the sanctions available against incitement to religious hatred to cover incitement to hatred because of sexual orientation. These include a seven-year prison sentence. The new law would also carry similar safeguards to preserve free speech (News, 5 October). Some religious groups, both Christian and Muslim, fear that it might be used against those who teach that gay sex is wrong.
Making both parents register birth ‘punitive’
CHURCH OFFICIALS have criticised a proposal by the Department of Work and Pensions that both parents register every birth as a confirmation they take responsibility for the child. Such a move would be oppressive, disproportionate, and potentially punitive, the Church’s Mission and Public Affairs Council said in a submission this week. Only 20,250 children are solely registered and not in contact with their fathers. Mothers who had genuine reasons for not wanting a joint registration would suffer, it said.
Archbishop laments childhood loneliness
DR WILLIAMS, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said in a video address to the Kids Company conference on Wednesday that “loneliness, absence . . . were the terrible inner facts of the lives of so many of our young people” with whom the charity worked. Young people were able to speak out through the charity, and society should hear them.
New head for Mirfield
THE new Principal of the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, is to be the Revd Dr Joseph Kennedy, at present Dean of Chapel, Chaplain and Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge. Dr Kennedy, aged 38, trained for the priesthood at St Stephen’s House, Oxford, and served curacies in rural Berkshire and Abingdon. |
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