Women must be entrusted with greater positions and responsibilities. Many calamitous decisions might have been avoided, had woman been directly involved in decision-making! We are committed to ensuring women are increasingly respected, acknowledged, and involved!
Pope Francis, Twitter, 27 October
Sometimes courageous or foolhardy, obstinate as well as inspiring, saints are human beings who somehow have an irreducible desire to travel towards the centre of things, to the dwelling place of God. Like a journey to the centre of the earth, saints will come close to the heat and the dust of living at the core. . . Saints are human beings who essentially make you think: “I’ll have what they’re having.” Any person has the potential to live like this
Lucy Winkett, Thought for the Day, Radio 4, All Saints’ Day
The great tragedy is the lack of vocational education in schools. Not everybody is designed for the academic. I feel this has been forgotten for a long time
The King, The Repair Shop, BBC1, 26 October
May the United Kingdom continue to observe the rule of law and international obligations to the stranger in our midst. May we all do to them in many ways what we would have them do to us. I salute this country, which gave me refuge
John Sentamu, former Archbishop of York, House of Lords, 27 October
Surely there is more agreement about immigration than is often suggested [that] (1) the present system is not working (2) we need to find a way of processing people much, much faster. This is the job of Government. Most people I hear of can agree on that
Mark Bryant, former Bishop of Jarrow, Twitter, 31 October
Given the shortage of labour and the longing for growth in the UK, what would be so very wrong with employing (& training/reskilling/acknowledging the skills) of asylum seekers & refugees rather than seeking to lock them up? This is an easy win for all, surely?
Rachel Mann, priest and writer, Twitter, 31 October
My Lords, I think many of us in this debate will have a feeling of déjà vu. No matter how many pieces of legislation come through here granting the police additional powers, it seems that they are never enough. It seems we are always one more public-order provision away from solving the problem
Alan Smith, Bishop of St Albans, House of Lords, 1 November
Liberal democracies inspire progress because they bring morality within the purview of reason rather than revealed truth. Contrast this with illiberal states, religious and secular, where gay people are still being persecuted, tortured and killed in their thousands
Matthew Syed, columnist, The Sunday Times, 30 October
My Lords, as it happens, I was confirming in His Majesty’s Prison Holme House on Monday. One of the people I confirmed was an IPP prisoner. We talked about the desperate impact on family and children of the uncertainty that he has faced. He had been recalled, not for having committed an offence but for breaking conditions. It is very complicated. In looking at this, will His Majesty’s Government look at the impact on children and family and the support from not just the probation service but other organisations, such as, in the north-east, Nepacs and Junction 42?
Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham, House of Lords, 27 October
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