Press review @ 9.50 am
Police confirm arrest in vicarage murder
Telegraph – Avon and Somerset Police have arrested a 43-year-old man in relation to the murder of Rev John Suddards at the vicarage in Thornbury, Gloucestershire.
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9084650/Police-confirm-arrest-in-vicarage-murder.html
PM vows to tackle booze Britain
Belfast Telegraph – David Cameron has declared war on booze Britain during a visit to a hospital. The Prime Minister pledged to tackle the growing “scandal” of alcohol-fuelled disorder when he met doctors, nurses, paramedics and local police at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle to highlight the cost of alcohol to the NHS. He toured the hospital – which has a policeman on duty every Thursday and Friday night to handle incidents of drunken disorder on the wards – with matron Angela McNab and paramedic Paul Fell.
Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/uk/pm-vows-to-tackle-booze-britain-16117886.html#ixzz1mXD6D7id
Children are being ‘failed on a grand scale’
Telegraph – Children are being ‘failed on a grand scale’, due to poor standards of literacy and huge inequalities which have left Britain lagging behind other European countries when we should be number one, the author of a landmark report claims. Prof Sir Michael Marmot, on the second anniversary of his major review into how wealth affects health, disclosed that four in ten children are failing to master the basic skills expected of a five year-old. The number of failing pupils in poorer areas is almost double the number in wealthier suburban parts of the country meaning children’s lives are being ‘blighted’ from an early age by inequality, Sir Michael, Director of University College London, Institute of Health Equity, said.
Read more – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9081670/Children-are-being-failed-on-a-grand-scale.html
No secularism please, we’re British
Independent – Arguments about the role of religion in national life have recently acquired a new urgency. Peter Popham reports on a modern version of an old debate… Of course, this being Britain, much of the secularist campaigning has been good-natured and eminently reasonable: why should believers have a lock on Radio 4’s Thought for the Day when there are plenty of non-believers with ethical points to make? And the atheist bus campaign delivered a gentle shock to those who may have long-since ceased to believe but who are still in the grip of irrational fear and guilt.
Read more – http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/no-secularism-please-were-british-6917549.html?google_editors_picks=true
Britain has gone from God-fearing to God-jeering
Telegraph – The Church of England is on course to disappear from these isles within three generations, unless there’s a miracle. Adele is the very best of British. A frank, down-to-earth girl who seems in no danger of going the Gwyneth Paltrow acceptance-speech … There is inspiration in this reporter’s experience.
Read more : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9084295/Britain-has-gone-from-God-fearing-to-God-jeering.html
Queen highlights Church of England’s duty to all faiths
BBC – The Queen has spoken of her belief that the Church of England has “a duty to protect the free practice of all faiths” in the UK. In a speech at London’s Lambeth Palace, she argued the Church’s role was not to “defend Anglicanism to the exclusion of other religions”. She added the concept of an established Church was “occasionally misunderstood” and “commonly under-appreciated”.
Read more – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17047885
Faith and the state: turn the other cheek
Guardian editorial – The Queen, who is also supreme governor of the Church of England, found herself echoing Baroness Warsi, chair of the Conservative party, yesterday. Each was defending the significance of faith in British society and, in particular, the cultural importance of Christianity, against what both regard as the threat of militant atheism. When the formal and the political branches of Anglicanism take to the public podium on consecutive days, it is time to consider quite what is going on.
Read more – http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/15/faith-state-turn-the-other-cheek-editorial