Churches urged to start benevolence funds
A Christian economist has urged churches to consider setting up benevolence funds to help members struggling with the cost of living as inflation proves more persistent than expected. Former IMF economist and government debt manager Dr Paul Mills said the step was needed for those on fixed incomes or losing their jobs. He was speaking after an economic advisor to the Chancellor said the Bank of England may need to spark a recession to finally get rising prices under control. The bank's target from the Government is to get inflation down to 2%, but the public has yet to see the pain that is coming through the economy from interest rate rises. On 22 June the base rate increased to 5%, a bigger increase than expected. Dr Mills said it would help to pray for the nation, and for medium- to long-term steps to turn things around.
Headaches for Rishi Sunak
As another scandal hits the Tory party, its MPs are even more gloomy about how the Prime Minister can project the government as honest and professional. MPs endorsed a report saying that Boris Johnson lied over Partygate. But 225 of Boris’s former Conservative MP colleagues were absent, including Rishi Sunak who has not said if he agrees or disagrees with the report’s findings. See Eight months into Boris’s leadership, he faced Covid. Eight months into Rishi’s leadership, he struggles to distance himself from the Conservative chaos and deliver a government of ‘integrity, professionalism and accountability’ as he promised in October. A former cabinet minister said, ‘We can’t sell a vision to the public if Rishi doesn’t have one himself. He needs to think big, be creative, and articulate a dream the public will want to live by.’ Pray for Rishi Sunak to have heaven's wisdom in the current crisis.
Growing public distrust in British media
Data compiled from 2018 to 2022 by Reuters showed the BBC experiencing a decline in public trust from 75% to just 55%. Other mainstream TV broadcasters and newspapers suffered a similar decline. The UK is in 26th position, ahead of only South Korea and Japan in terms of public faith in media. British people have among the lowest levels of trust in journalists, with only 37% of those surveyed saying that they trusted them, versus the global average of 47%. Only two out of every ten people feel that the news media is ‘independent from undue political or government influence most of the time’. This ranks the UK 16th among the 24 nations surveyed, on a par with Romania. Our much-vaunted media landscape is not the envy of the world as we are often led to believe. See also
Children with eating disorders
Eating disorders and self-harming have been rising among children and young people for a number of years. Before the pandemic there was a gradual decline in mental health among teenagers and young people, and five children in every classroom had a probable mental disorder. Between 2020 and 2022 around 3,862 thirteen- to sixteen-year-olds had eating disorders. In the same age group, 9,174 cases of self-harm were recorded. During the pandemic, prolonged access to social media, more focus on body image and less face-to-face contact may have led to feelings of low self-esteem and psychological distress, particularly among adolescent girls. Nevertheless, the NHS is currently treating more children and young people than ever before, with healthcare professionals under huge amounts of strain. Tom Quinn, director of external affairs at charity Beat, says there is a postcode lottery for care and everyone needs to get the help they need as quickly as possible.
