Going back a month or two, you may remember that when asked, Boris Johnson promised that if necessary, the armed forces would be made available to help with the effort against COVID-19. This led to predictable headlines and tweets about troops on the street and people claiming that the Government was using the pandemic as… Continue reading Learning to see – the full picture
Category: ethics
Swallows and Vaccines
Yesterday was a good news day in the battle against COVID-19. The twin announcements of a mass testing trial in Liverpool and the positive results from vaccine trials were signs op hope. However, in the Prime Minister’s statement last night, we were reminded by him and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer that there is still… Continue reading Swallows and Vaccines
Beware of using experiments to support your argument
I am a firm believing in the helpfulness of both empirical evidence and forecasting models to help us make decisions. However, during COVID19, we seem to have run into problems whenever results are shared and there hasn’t been great care to understand what they are meant to be telling us. So, for example we get… Continue reading Beware of using experiments to support your argument
Bounced
Too often we can feel bounced into announcing and taking action before we are ready to. I’ve seen it in church life where someone suddenly pushes a major decision to a vote well before all of the information is on the table and before people are ready, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually to make a discernment. … Continue reading Bounced
The problem with Christian Exceptionalism and the distinction between submit and support
From this Sunday, church buildings in England will be closed again for public worship due to a second lockdown. I expect that most church leaders will comply with this, all with a heavy heart. Some will do this quietly. Others will have raised objections through blog posts, letters to MPs, petitions and possibly a legal… Continue reading The problem with Christian Exceptionalism and the distinction between submit and support
#BeliefWeCanChangeIn
In my article about election choices the other day, I mentioned the option of “write in votes” and then referenced a tongue in cheek attempt on twitter to get an Australian elected as the US President. Well, that campaign has provided a little light-hearted distraction from the grind of lockdown life for some of us. … Continue reading #BeliefWeCanChangeIn
The deeper infection that has contaminated our political system
Let me just remind you again of the EHRC charge sheet against the Labour Party “The Party is responsible for three breaches of the Equality Act (2010) relating to: political interference in antisemitism complaints failure to provide adequate training to those handling antisemitism complaints harassment”[1] I want to ask you to consider the unprecedented seriousness… Continue reading The deeper infection that has contaminated our political system
Why we still have an anti-Semitism problem
It would be easy to sit back now and say “well that’s it, anti-Semitism is dealt with.” After all, it was a small problem affecting a few extremists in the Labour Party for a short period in their history. I am not convinced. I think the problem runs deeper and here are a few reasons… Continue reading Why we still have an anti-Semitism problem
The election that affects us all
Often it is those most affected by a decision who get the least say in it. Think about the London Mayoral election. The Mayor has been able to impose a congestion charge and also has powers over how the London Underground functions but who is most affected by those decisions? Well arguably it is the… Continue reading The election that affects us all
We’re all in this together
I love the story of Ruth in the Old Testament. Not so long back we spent a few weeks working through it together as a Home Group. The story is of a family who leave Bethlehem during a famine for Moab. It’s a story about economic migrants. They settle in Moab and the sons marry… Continue reading We’re all in this together
