BRIEFING
CPTPP trade deal would be ‘environmental vandalism’
TRADE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CAMPAIGNERS have warned that ministers are “on a mission to drive down standards and hand over power to transnational corporations”, as the UK begins talks to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership...
Jump in households hit by benefit cap
NEW FIGURES FROM THE DWP show the number of households subject to the benefit cap has jumped by 13 per cent since November, reaching 200,000 at February 2021. The households concerned are likely to have been capped because they have lost jobs or working hours to...
Affordable childcare inaccessible in many wealthy countries
AFFORDABLE, QUALITY CHILDCARE is inaccessible in many of the world’s wealthiest countries, UNICEF says in a new report. Luxembourg, Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Germany rank the highest on childcare provisions among high-income countries. Slovakia, the United States,...
Young people challenge Arctic oil drilling at European Court
SIX YOUNG CLIMATE ACTIVISTS, along with two major environmental organisations from Norway, are filing a historic application to bring the issue of Arctic oil drilling to the European Court of Human Rights. The environmentalists argue that, by allowing new oil drilling...
Letter to Prime Minister on Social Care reform
LEADERS OF ORGANISATIONS THAT REPRESENT adult social care in England have written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to urge the Government to act now on reform of England’s social care system and to publish its...
COMMENTARY
Wild at heart: encountering Chris Packham
CHRIS PACKHAM is a naturalist best known for presenting Springwatch on BBC2. “He should be in the ‘national treasure’ class,” said The Guardian, “but he determinedly is not.” Brian Draper went for a wander and conversation with him in the New Forest earlier this year...
On Northern Ireland, Brexit and the UK
THERE ARE ONLY three broad ways to solve the Brexit situation in Northern Ireland, assuming that the UK is not going to rejoin the EU. First, the current arrangement, which means checks in the Irish Sea, and an effective customs border between Northern Ireland and...
Religion and the integration of migrants
WITH SUFFERING SO OFTEN the root cause of migration, providing new arrivals with a safe and secure existence is of the utmost importance. But regrettably, arrival in the host country can throw up an array of new issues, from exploitative employment to social...
Monarchy and equality in the 21st century
IN 2019, RESEARCHERS at the University of Sheffield argued persuasively that the UK may be going through a process of ‘undevelopment’, which they defined as "the dismantling, rather than the building, of a viable, functioning political economy that satisfactorily...
The futility of deracinated politics
THE FURORE AROUND THE RECENT ELECTIONS for local councils, city and regional mayors, police commissioners and a parliamentary constituency in England has subsided. Politicians and much of the media have interpreted both the unexpected and the foreseen according to...
MEDIA
UPDATES
An evening with Satish Kumar: living in a time of ecological crisis
EKKLESIA IS PLEASED to be collaborating with the Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace (EICSP) in an online seminar featuring the renowned ecologist, writer and nonviolent activist Satish Kumar. The topic for the evening is 'What Works and What...
Northern Ireland on the brink?
ALTHOUGH Ekklesia does not have any associates in Northern Ireland at present, we are pleased to have policy and political analyst Peter McColl among a number of new and recent contributors to our comment section. Peter wrote a good, short explainer on the situation...
Opposing UK government aid cuts
EKKLESIA has been active in supporting the growing lobby against the UK Government’s proposed aid cuts, which will be disastrous for some of the poorest people in the world and which will undermine global action on the pandemic. We have pointed out that the Government...
