BRIEFING
TUC urges ban on umbrella companies and ‘scandalous practices’
THE TRADES UNION CONGRESS (TUC) has called for umbrella companies to be banned, as it publishes a new report on their increasingly widespread use in the UK labour market. The union body says the scandalous workplace practices associated with umbrella companies have...
Mercenaries must leave Libya to pave way for peace
UN EXPERTS HAVE CALLED for all mercenaries and mercenary-related private contractors to leave Libya, saying their departure is long overdue, and is a vital precondition to peaceful elections scheduled for later in 2021. “Nine months after the ceasefire agreement...
Covid-19 has created ‘perfect storm’ of health inequalities
COVID-19 HAS CREATED a ‘perfect storm’ of existing inequality and disease, leading to higher rates of coronavirus infections and death amongst the most disadvantaged people, the Local Government Association in England has warned. A lack of access to skills and...
Monopolies make vaccinating the world more expensive
THE COST OF VACCINATING the world against COVID-19 could be at least five times cheaper if pharmaceutical companies were not profiteering from their monopolies on vaccines, campaigners from the People’s Vaccine Alliance have said. New analysis by the Alliance shows...
Sentamu to be new Chair of Christian Aid
JOHN SENTAMU, the former Archbishop of York, has been announced as the next Chair of the board of international development agency Christian Aid. Dr Sentamu – who has been outspoken on issues of poverty and justice in the UK and globally for many years – served as the...
COMMENTARY
On disability, the gulf between UK Government rhetoric and reality persists
SOMETIMES EVENTS COINCIDE in a way that speaks volumes. On 28 July, the UK Government published its National Disability Strategy, complete with a characteristically grandiloquent foreword by the prime minister. Mr Johnson wrote, “if there is one thing more than any...
Is it time for prospective MPs to sit an exam?
THE COLLEGE which provides training for civil servants has just introduced a new course. ‘From Backbencher To Minister’ aims to give new ministers the skills to manage a department with hundreds of employees and a budget of billions. Some might think this is long...
Methodists, equal marriage and wider social acceptance
THE METHODIST CHURCH IN BRITAIN will allow ministers and congregations to celebrate marriage for same-sex couples, if they wish. The Methodist Conference also called for a ban on conversion therapy which attempts to change people’s sexual orientation or gender...
Review: The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists graphic novel
ACCORDING to George Orwell, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is a book everyone should read. It is often named by people on the left as the book which has had the greatest influence on their politics. However, there is no denying that unlike Animal Farm or 1984,...
Armed Forces Day: pageantry, pity, poetry and truth
ON SUMMER SATURDAYS, the quiet of the village where I live is sometimes broken by the unmistakeable throb and growl of a Merlin aero engine. On these occasions, I run outside and am occasionally in time to see a Spitfire or Hurricane looping and diving before...
MEDIA
UPDATES
Thursdays in Black: against rape and violence
THE NEWS THAT the US television star Bill Cosby, convicted of sexual assault and rape, is to be set free not because he is innocent, but because of a previous deal he struck where he admitted in a deposition to drugging women, is shocking and shameful. The Montcopa...
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...
