Key Quotes - Social Issues

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Last update: Wednesday 25th March




The House of Commons on Tuesday evening debated a motion that invited the Government to consult on whether to put guidelines on assisted suicide prepared by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, on a statutory footing. Guidance issued in 2012 by Mr Starmer removed terminal illness, disability and degenerative physical conditions from the list of factor to be take into consideration in deciding whether or not to prosecute. The proposal was defeated.
Social Issues	The Church Times – March 2010



Visiting Olympic athletes, coaches and officials will be banned from marrying while they are in Britain because of Home Office concerns that they will exploit the Games to try to claim residency. Nearly 20,000 people from outside the EU will be issued with six-month visas that bar them from forming any civil partnerships or marriages. They will also be barred from applying for visas to study in Britain. The restrictions were imposed amid concerns that the Olympics will be a target for illegal immigrants and terrorists trying to get into Britain. Last year, two 16-year-old athletes from Cameroon absconded from Manchester airport after competing in the Commonwealth Youth Games, while at the 2002 Commonwealth Games — also in Manchester - almost all of the 30-strong Sierra Leone team disappeared.
Social Issues	The Daily Telegraph - March 28 2012



MPs have overwhelmingly backed legal guidelines limiting the chances of friends and family being prosecuted for assisting someone set on taking their own life. They have also backed an amendment calling for greater support for palliative care for the terminally ill. The Registered Nursing Home Association accused David Cameron of ignoring thousands of dementia patients because "not a penny" of the extra money he pledged to tackle the condition would help those in care homes. About 250,000 people with dementia in Britain - about a third of the total — are in care homes.
Social Issues	The Daily Telegraph - March 28 2012



A fixation with homosexual rights, feminism and separate racial identities is threatening to "fragment" society, the Archbishop of Canterbury has claimed. Dr Rowan Williams warned that identity had become a "slippery" word and, after years of good work in helping minority groups, it was time to focus on the common good. Discussing the issue of identity with a group of teenagers in Cardiff, the Welsh archbishop also appeared to accept the possibility that Britain could break apart as a result of growing nationalism. In a separate address to the Welsh Assembly, he attacked a culture of dependence on welfare payments, which he said was harmful to society; Dr Williams, who is stepping down as leader of the Anglican Communion later this year, signalled last week that he planned to use his final months in office to speak out forcefully on issues about which he feels deeply.
Social Issues	The Daily Telegraph - March 28 2012



A new row has broken out over abortion after the Government was accused of trying to rig a consultation on independent counselling for pregnant women. The Department of Health is considering radical reforms to the way advice is given to thousands of women seeking terminations. Clinics could be prevented from offering counselling and made to send women for independent advice. The document outlines three choices: keeping the current system that allows clinics to offer counselling; introducing a voluntary register of counsellors that could include clinics; or preventing them offering counselling - the option preferred by pro-life groups. But Nadine Domes, the Tory MP who campaigned for the change, said it lists potential objections to each scenario and that those for her option run to a page, far longer than for the first two. Ministers refused to be drawn on Ms Domes' claims yesterday. A Department of Health spokesman said: "Decisions must await the outcome of the consultation."
Social Issues	Daily Telegraph - March 25 2012



British Citizens who bring spouses, partners and dependants to settle in the UK are to be targeted in an immigration crackdown, a leaked Cabinet letter has revealed. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has proposed a tough new income threshold of £25,700 a year for those attempting to obtain visas for family members, in a move almost certain to be opposed by the Liberal Democrats. The moves - which also include a new five-year "probationary period" and a higher standard of English for spouses looking to settle in Britain - could reduce the numbers of people coming to Britain by 15,000 a year. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, has pledged to cut "net" migration to Britain -which is currently running at 250,000 a year - to "tens of thousands" by the time of the next election in 2015, a target which appears impossible to hit.
Social Issues	Daily Telegraph - March 25 2012



The seven water firms due to impose hosepipe bans are losing almost 300 million gallons a day through leaks. The huge volume disappearing down the drain would be enough to supply the daily needs of 11 million people. Two of the biggest companies involved, Anglian and Southern, are introducing rationing despite the fact they have missed official leak reduction targets. Southern Water had a target of limiting leaks to 83 million litres -18.26 million gallons - per day in 2010-2011 and the actual leakage was 16 per cent higher at 96 million litres, 21.12 million gallons. Despite this, Southern will hit its one million customers with an 8.2 per cent price rise from April 1.
Social Issues	Daily Mail - March 17 2012



Polygamists in America are continuing their attempt to overturn Utah’s law against bigamy, it was reported in January. Kody Brown and his four ‘wives’ (who filed a lawsuit in July 2011) claim that Utah’s bigamy law is unconstitutional because it violates their right to privacy. Their lawyers are using historical Supreme Court rulings, such as a case from 2003 when judges ruled that homosexual acts in private were protected by the US constitution, to argue against the law.
Social Issues	Evangelicals Now - March 2012



The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly vote on January 25 on the Resolution for ‘Protection of human rights and dignity by taking into account previously expressed wishes of patients’ reaffirms and strengthens the stand taken by the Committee of Ministers a decade ago and is a clear statement against euthanasia by a European political institution representing 47 member states. The Resolution strongly affirms that ‘euthanasia, in the sense of the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependant human being for his or her alleged benefit, must always be prohibited’.
Social Issues	Evangelicals Now - March 2012



Margo Macdonald MSP announced in January that she is going to try again to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland, just over a year after her last failed attempt. She has unveiled a new consultation on the issue and among her proposals is a suggestion that ‘licensed facilitators’ would need to be present when someone is at the point of ending their own life to ensure that lethal drugs are ‘taken correctly’.
Social Issues	Evangelicals Now - March 2012



A report advocating the introduction of assisted suicide has been criticised as biased and failing to protect vulnerable people. The new report from the Commission on Assisted Dying found that allowing assisted suicide for people with less than a year to live is feasible, if the person to be killed is assessed by two doctors. Questions have been raised about its impartiality, because major groups who do not support the introduction of assisted suicide did not contribute, and it was funded by prominent euthanasia campaigner Sir Terry Pratchett.
Social Issues	Christianity - March 2012



It is not acceptable that Britain cannot deport a radical Muslim cleric who “poses a serious risk to our national security”, the Home Secretary said. Theresa May said she disagreed with a senior immigration judge’s decision to bail Abu Qatada, meaning he will be free and walking his child to school within a week. “The right place for a terrorist is a prison cell; the right place for a foreign terrorist is a foreign prison cell,” she said.
Social Issues	The Sentinel - February 8, 2012



The Church of Scotland has refused to back proposed legislation that would legalise same-sex marriage and allow the solemnisation of civil partnerships in churches. The proposal that civil partnerships could be registered through religious ceremonies, was rejected because ‘this would so fundamentally alter the nature of civil partnerships that they would cease to be such’. There was also concern about protecting ministers who do not wish to carry out such ceremonies.
Social Issues	Life And Work, February 2012



In a speech to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible on December 16, the Prime Minister called for Britain to return to Christian values and morality. Speaking at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford to an audience which included the Archbishop of Canterbury, David Cameron declared: ‘We are a Christian country and we should not be afraid to say so… The Bible has helped to give Britain a set of values and morals which make Britain what it is today, values and morals we should actively stand up and defend’.
Social Issues	Evangelicals Now, February 2012



The Royal Family will mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee by touring the globe in celebration, Buckingham Palace announced. Senior royals will visit the Queen’s 15 realms, nations where the sovereign is head of state, major Commonwealth countries, and other destinations with close links to the UK next year. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s trip to Malaysia, Singapore, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu on behalf of the Queen is likely to attract the most interest.
Social Issues	The Sentinel, December 15, 2011

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