The power of endorsement is an incredible thing.  When you see the ridiculously large amounts of money companies are willing to pay someone like David Beckham to have his face in the same picture as a drink, sunglasses or even a permanent marker, you can’t deny the value of it. If the letter to this […]

The Riots, Communities and Victims Panel’s independent report on the causes of last summer’s riots is officially published today, but having been leaked to Sky News yesterday, the launch is now a complete non-event.  I suspect they may be a bit annoyed by this. The part of the report that has gained most attention is this […]

This is my second post reviewing the new government paper entitled ‘Social Justice: Transforming Lives’ launched by Secretary of State, Iain Duncan Smith.  The first post is entitled: The breakdown of our society in numbers. Social Justice: Transforming Lives seeks to address the challenge of lifting families and individuals out of poverty in our country.  In particular […]

A few interesting links… Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, was interviewed in Saturday’s Telegraph.  In part of the interview he discussed his opposition to gay marriage.  This is a short extract: “I don’t think it is the role of the state to define what marriage is. It is set in tradition and history and […]

A few days after the government’s benefits cap defeat in the Lords, mainly thanks to the Lords Spiritual, the story still rumbles on.  Top of the bill yesterday was former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey’s front page piece in the Daily Mail.  As I was researching for my article on Monday, I spent a good […]

I’m sitting here typing this having just seen that the government has been defeated by the Lords in a vote on its plans to cap benefits for a household to £26,000 per year.  The amendment to exclude child benefit from this cap proposed by Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, the Rt Rev John Packer, was […]

Following on from my recent piece considering the Archbishop of Canterbury’s thoughts on the riots in England last summer, I received a comment that criticized it for not focusing enough on the need for justice and not sufficiently condemning the criminals who took part and their vandalism and destruction.  One of the aims of this […]