Three Free Church Christian denominations in the UK are urging voters to take a clear stand against racist and extreme political parties as election day for local councils in England and Wales draws nearer.

The UK government will sponsor student trips to Auschwitz concentration camp in an effort to keep the message of the Nazi Holocaust alive and relevant to younger generations, say reports in Deutsche Welle, The Times and the BBC.

Backers of Lydia Playfoot, the schoolgirl who unsuccessfully asked the High Court to be allowed to wear a silver ‘chastity ring’ to a school where it broke the uniform policy, have still not decided whether to go to the European Court.

The Archbishop of York, has placed an advert in his local newspaper urging voters to come out against racism and the far-right British National Party in Thursday's English local elections.

The uncomfortable fact is that the church's Christendom ('Christian country') assumptions put it into the position of arguing the same political point about national identity as the BNP. A different way forward is needed.

A senior Church of England bishop who has a number of British National Party (BNP) councillors in his diocese, has written in an anti-fascist magazine, urging Christians to vote against the party in the forthcoming local elections.