Andy Burnham does not welcome an assisted suicide bill – Charity Commission investigates sermons – nurses cleared of “mis-pronouning” patients – and more…
by Andrew Halloway
Andy Burnham likely to oppose assisted suicide bill
New Prime Minister Andy Burnham would not welcome the reintroduction of an assisted suicide bill, according to the New Statesman. It reports that although Burnham supports assisted suicide in principle, he has previously stated: “[In] terms of the implementation of it, I would say there should be a kind of requirement that the hospices of this country get properly funded and sorted out before that law change comes in.”
Unlike former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, who called himself an atheist, Andy Burnham grew up as a Catholic and has said that he believes the catechism. In any case, Right to Life UK reports that the revived Leadbeater assisted suicide bill, introduced to Parliament by Lauren Edwards MP, appears on course to be defeated at Second Reading on 11 September.
NHS apologises to Darlington nurses
After winning their Employment Tribunal in January, seven nurses have since been exonerated by the NHS. The Tribunal ruled that Bethany Hutchison, Lisa Lockey, Karen Danson, Tracy Hooper, Annice Grundy, Carly Hoy and Jane Peveller suffered harassment and indirect sex discrimination when a biological man, identifying as female, used their changing room. They were disciplined for complaining.
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust apologised, paid them £187,000 in damages and agreed to single-sex changing facilities. But the Nursing and Midwifery Council is still investigating them.
Christian Concern, which continues to back the nurses, says: “We will… stand with these courageous nurses until…the nation once again uphold[s] created reality.”
The Telegraph reports that NHS hospitals still allow transgender biological men to use women-only facilities despite a Supreme Court ruling; and West
Nurse in pronouns dispute cleared of all charges
Christian nurse Jennifer Melle has been cleared of all professional charges after being suspended for refusing to use a paedophile patient’s preferred pronouns.
Supported by Christian Concern’s legal team, Melle was reinstated earlier this year and reached an out of court settlement with her hospital trust. Now she has been cleared after two investigations from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), which can strike nurses off the register.
Christian Concern stated: “Praise God that these two investigations have now been dropped, with the NMC saying that Jennifer had ‘no case to answer’” but “there is a long way to go before society upholds the truth about men and women in its laws and institutions.”
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said it was “a disgrace that they ever thought these charges were called for”.
News in brief…
Charity Commission begins to interfere with sermons
The Charity Commission has opened a case into an Essex church over its sermon content. The Evangelical Times reports that the National Secular Society made complaints about the Bread of Life Community Church’s sermons and online videos. Local council wardens recently tried to stop the pastor from mentioning hell or judgement in open-air preaching.
London Mayor aCCused of rape gangs cover-up
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has repeatedly denied that there are grooming gangs in London and has accused whistle-blowers of political motivation. Yet whistle-blowers told an independent rape gang inquiry, set up by MP Rupert Lowe, that “the scale of abuse was more catastrophic than anywhere else in the country”.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp MP has accused Khan of a cover-up. The inquiry report also says Keir Starmer has questions to answer because when he was Director of Public Prosecutions, 13,000 suspected rape gang members and paedophiles were let off with warning letters.
The BBC has not covered MP Rupert Lowe’s independent rape gangs inquiry. Its website admits that it has received complaints over this from the public and claims that the BBC has “frequently covered the issue” of grooming gangs and the Government’s national statutory enquiry into such gangs. Its only justification for ignoring Lowe’s inquiry is “complex choices made for editorial and practical reasons” which “should not be taken as indicative of bias”.
News channels avoid truth about Belfast attack
After the horrific attempted beheading of a Belfast man in June, the BBC, Sky and ITV merely called it a “stabbing”. Yet in the shocking video that went viral on social media, bystanders can be heard saying, “He’s trying to cut his head off!” It was also left to Christian news sites like Australia’s Daily Declaration to reveal that the Sudanese man cried “Allahu Akhbar”. Police chief Brendan Mullan may have made a Freudian slip when he told reporters: “This is a time for calm heads.”
Police arrested an asylum seeker for the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie, who was seriously injured and lost his left eye. As we went to press, there were fears he could also lose the sight in his right eye. The attack sparked riots in the city and exposed the ease with which a migrant could cross from the Irish Republic into Northern Ireland.
Liberals push same-sex marriage yet again at Synod
A call to affirm gay relationships at the General Synod has been defeated, due to a move by the Synod’s Evangel-
ical Group. The Group asked for a vote by houses, leading to the House of Bishops voting against the motion by 14 votes to 11, with four abstentions. The motion said there should be “no fundamental objections to being in a committed, faithful, intimate same-sex relationship” and that gay relationships “can be entirely compatible with Christian discpleship”.
The motion’s paper claimed it was not asking the Church to conduct same-sex weddings, yet if such relationships are approved in the Church’s teaching, then it is only a matter of time before same sex marriage is, too. There was also a fringe meeting where people shared testimonies of having changed from same sex attraction, despite an attempt by 81 synod members to cancel it.
Britain’s ‘lost boys’
Boys now lag behind girls at every stage of education and two and a half million children have no father figure in the home, according to three recent Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) reports. Among children (mainly boys) in custody, 76 percent have an absent father. And, shockingly, among men under 25, the marriage rate has collapsed by 98 per cent.
Andrew Halloway is a British freelance editor, writer and publishing consultant. He is also editor of Good News—a national monthly evangelistic newspaper (www.goodnews-paper.org.uk). Andrew has 18 years’ experience as an editor and publishing manager in the Christian publishing world, and holds a first class honours degree in Humanities. He has long had an interest in the creation/evolution debate, and is the contributing editor of ‘The Delusion of Evolution’, a magazine-style evangelistic booklet that has sold over 23,000 copies in the UK (available from www.newlife.co.uk).