The majority of the British people say that the use of electronic balloting to vote for industrial action is appropriate, according to a poll commissioned from YouGov and published by the TUC yesterday, ahead of the second reading of the Trade Union Bill in the House of Lords next week.

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New research has found that more than one in four adults in Scotland who are responsible for paying rent or a mortgage are worried about covering the cost of their housing in 2016.

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Quaker work is often hidden from the public gaze. As the year draws to a close, Quakers in Britain have “lifted the curtain” for a look at some 2015 initiaives which have quietly made a difference to areas of conflict, or sowed seeds of change in local communities.

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Britain has begun the year by abandoning its strategy on the death penalty which had been in place since 2010, as executions in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan hit record numbers.

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A UK Government minister was repeatedly asked yesterday by Members of Parliament to condemn the execution of protesters last weekend in Saudi Arabia, and to publish secret agreements signed between the UK and Saudi governments, but refused to do either.

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The United Nations thas deplored the underground nuclear test announced by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling it “deeply troubling” and the UN Security Council vowing to immediately begin considering the “significant measures” it had vowed to take in the event of another nuclear test by the country.

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The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has phoned the Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia and Iran to urge both countries to avoid actions that could further exacerbate tensions after the recent Saudi executions, the attack on the Saudi embassy in Iran, and the rupture in diplomatic ties.

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Civilians are suffering a “terrible toll” in the fighting which is tearing Yemen apart, with casualties now topping 8,100, with nearly 2,800 fatalities, amid Saudi-led coalition airstrikes, shelling by Houthi groups and other clashes, the United Nations reported yesterday.

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Top United Nations officials have expressed deep dismay and regret over yesterday’s executions by Saudi Arabia of 47 people, including the cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, and called on the country’s authorities to commute all death sentences.

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Last night, (5 January) the Housing and Planning Bill was debated in the House of Commons, though anybody who wasn’t personally involved, or relies on broadcast media for their news, could be forgi

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A friend of mine, James Abbott, from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, often pokes fun at my eccentric approach to Twitter.

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It seemed a perfect illustration of the government’s inadequacy in the face of the northern floods.

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