Homelessness at Christmas
Solicitors working on legal aid housing contracts have to turn people away every day, but there is nowhere to send them, so many become homeless (see). In Scotland on 8 December, Sleep in the Park saw 12,000 people sleeping rough, to raise money for the homeless. Although homelessness legislation in Britain means children should never have to sleep rough, it happens. A video of a child sobbing after being told she must spend her third Christmas in a hostel (watch) has highlighted the plight of young victims of Ireland's housing crisis. Please pray for the work of Crisis, the Salvation Army, Shelter, the Big Issue Foundation, Centrepoint, St Mungo’s, Emmaus UK, Homeless Link, and all churches and agencies who work tirelessly to help the homeless.
UK courts’ ‘medieval mindset’ on assisted dying
Assisted dying is once again being discussed in the media and could be discussed again in Parliament, after terminally-ill Shropshire man Noel Conway told his local paper that the UK courts have a medieval mindset over assisted dying. Mr Conway, 68, who has motor neurone disease, lost a Court of Appeal challenge in June against an earlier High Court rejection of his case that the ban on assisted dying was an unjustified interference with his human rights. He sought to challenge that at a Supreme Court hearing, but Lady Hale, Lord Reed and Lord Kerr declined permission for an appeal. Now he wants MPs to step in to overturn that decision. He wants a legal assisted death even though he has less than six months to live.
Grenfell Tower at Christmas
MP Emma Dent Coad’s seat includes Grenfell Tower. She has urged the government to delay the launch of Universal Credit in the area, as it could leave many of her constituents without money over Christmas. The scheme should come to North Kensington thirteen days before Christmas. A constituent assessed monthly and paid £60 for each Friday in that month would receive £300 in November, a month with five Fridays, but receive £240 in December which has four Fridays. Also they may have to wait the estimated five weeks for benefits to come through. A DWP spokesperson said there were special measures in place in preparation for Universal Credit roll-out in North Kensington. Last Christmas extra money promised to Grenfell Tower survivors and evacuees to help cover the cost of Christmas did not arrive in time for 18 households. Pray this will not be repeated in 2018.
Raising awareness of climate change
An artwork was unveiled in London on 11 December, to coincide with the climate change conference taking place in Poland. Centuries-old Greenland icebergs weighing between 1.5 and 6 tonnes keep melting. This installation seeks to bring the effects of climate change closer to home, putting people in direct contact with its effects. The icebergs remind us we have only twelve years to limit the worst effects of climate change, and they also represent another 10,000 blocks of ice which are falling from the same ice sheet in Greenland every single second. ‘People need to face the tangible consequences of their actions’, states the artist on his website. Meanwhile NASA has detected new signs of large glaciers in East Antarctica losing ice. This area has long been considered more stable than West Antarctica.
