Christmas is like the NHS. Most of us have some local contact with it, and most of us like what we get. But most of us remain convinced that the institution is endangered, pushed to the point of extinction by politically-correct town-hall councillors or the health-and-safety mafia.
When death comes, as it inevitably does, inheritance tax can make the grieving process even more painful. Death duties, as they are often known, have been around since 1796 but there have, over recent years, been growing calls to scrap them. Should we?
The lunchtime break at a conference can be so much more revealing than the conference itself.
Unite/The College of Health Care Chaplains (CHCC) has called for urgent government action, following the publication of new research by Theos which revealed cuts to the chaplaincy service throughout England.
Radio 4’s Sunday programme recently discussed new Theos research into hospital chaplaincy. The research found that there have been significant cuts to the amount of chaplaincy available in 1 in 4 trusts in England, cumulatively mounting to a loss of over 54,000 hours (p/a) since 2005. In one NHS Trust, chaplaincy provision had been cut by over half in the last two years.
We are at last, it seems, becoming a nation of scoundrels. Once the prerogative of the last night of the Proms and the Conservative Party Conference now everyone is a patriot.
A week or so ago I discussed my new book Darwin's Angel (a riposte to his God Delusion) on the BBC's Today programme with Professor Richard Dawkins. The exchange lasted barely six minutes, but the debate has continued on a variety of websites (including, hopefully, this one).
The civic catechisms and canticles of our day still celebrate Thomas Jefferson's experiment in religious liberty. To end a millennium of repressive religious establishments, we are taught, Jefferson sought liberty in the twin formulas of privatizing religion and secularizing politics. Religion must be “a concern purely between our God and our consciences,” he wrote in 1802. Politics must be conducted with “a wall of separation between church and state.” “Public religion” is a threat to private religion, and must thus be discouraged. “Political ministry” is a menace to political integrity and must thus be outlawed.
Two months ago, Lydia Playfoot, a teenager from West Sussex, took her school to the High Court over her right to wear a chastity ring. Last month she lost.