Brexit battle
Last week Labour lobbied 170 questions for the Government, all designed to throw stumbling blocks into the path of negotiations to get Britain out of the EU. As a nation we can come through this and see considerable prosperity in the future, provided we hold onto a steady negotiating path that seeks the ways of righteousness, truth and justice. Christians have a role to play in upholding in prayer all those who are involved in the negotiations. Not all of our negotiators, businessmen, lawyers or politicians are committed Christians, although some are, and we can pray that God will use their words to steer a clear path of truth and to be the most influential. God loves to use small numbers and those whom the world considers weak.
Police corruption
On 7 October the Scotland Yard unit dealing with sensitive police inquiries was found to be ‘corrupted’ by a firm of private investigators run by retired detectives who targeted former police colleagues to secure information about the progress of sensitive Met inquiries. Internal Scotland Yard documents described them as operating like ‘an organised crime network’. Last week police anti-corruption investigators arrested two fellow officers from Scotland Yard intelligence, following claims of a luxury car-hire company being used to launder money and make false insurance claims. Seven others were arrested as part of the operation. The detained police are a detective constable from the Met intelligence unit, on suspicion of money laundering, fraud by false representation, perverting the course of justice and offences under the Computer Misuse Act, and a constable on suspicion of fraud by false representation. See also:
Archbishop tells watchdogs, ‘practise what you preach’
Justin Welby is urging the UK’s financial watchdogs to ‘practise what they preach’ amid concern that regulation aimed at preventing another financial crisis is weakening. The Archbishop, who sits on the advisory board of the think-tank New City Agenda, is backing its report on the need for improvements in the regulatory culture of the Bank of England, Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority. The New City Agenda report warns that without this, the UK will be ‘sleepwalking into the next financial crisis’, and that ‘crucial change’ following the 2008 financial crisis ‘is already being watered down’.
Refugee children and UK response
The Calais clean-up mission is accomplished. In May the Home Office confirmed that 3,000 child asylum seekers had been returned to conflict-torn countries in the past decade: today many single-minded children are back, trying for a second time. On Thursday, British charity Calais Action said ‘We are begging the French authorities to actually do something about the refugee children, but nothing is done.’ 1,500 minors have been processed; the remaining under-16s are in a small fenced-off ‘container village’. Hundreds are to be brought from Calais in coming weeks, but one in four UK local authorities ‘cannot take responsibility for them’. On 19 November the bishops of Manchester and Stockport will host a conference aiming to equip churches and communities to respond practically to the needs of refugees and asylum seekers. The Church of England said that the ‘conference will help people explore how they might welcome more effectively people who have been displaced and are seeking refuge.’ See:
