Labour’s crazy economics

Having commented from time to time on politics and the elections, I found it fascinating to see the rather muted response to John McDonnell’s speech at the Labour party conference. Reaction to the appointment of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader has mostly focussed on things he said in the past and terrible things he would … Continue Reading

Do we need male leaders?

Following my discussion about Synod elections and gender (sex) representation, I came across an article in Harvard Business Review on why women find it hard to break into secular leadership. (A friend tagged me in a link to it on Facebook—but in fact I heard it mentioned on Radio 4 a few days previously.) Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic … Continue Reading

Gender, representation and Synod

There have been some interesting responses to my previous post on Synod, representation and gender—thanks to all who provided corrections to the data for individual diocese, and filled the gaps. Two kinds of responses predominated in the conversation on Facebook, which became quite lively. They are encapsulated by the response of my colleague Amanda Digman … Continue Reading

Synod, representation and gender

It is with some trepidation that I have offered myself as a candidate for General Synod for the next quinquennium (five-year term), having been a member for Salisbury Diocese in 2000–2005. During that time, we signed off the last stages of liturgical revision (remember that?!) including the ordinal and alternative collects, and received the excellent Some … Continue Reading

The Meaning of Death

It is remarkable to think that it is only 11 days since the vote on the Assisted Dying Bill—a week is a long time in social media ethics. As part of ongoing reflection on this issue, Matthew Kirkpatrick of Wycliffe Hall in Oxford offers this reflection on The Meaning of Death—A Response to Lord Carey … Continue Reading

A Bluffer’s Guide to the Anglican Communion

This is the full text of my article published on the Christianity magazine blog on Friday: What has happened? The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has made a significant announcement about the future of the Anglican Communion. He has issued an invitation to 37 Primates of the Anglican Communion (archbishops who lead the different provinces) … Continue Reading

What is going on in the Anglican Communion?

There has been a small torrent of comment in the religious press following Justin Welby’s announcement about a meeting to consider the future of the Anglican Communion. As usual, there is a full listing of the different points of view on the Thinking Anglicans website, and some pointed discussion of what is ‘really’ going on … Continue Reading

The Ethical Case for Voting Reform

One of the many reactions to the result of the General Election earlier this year was a renewed call for electoral reform. The reason for this can be shown by a simple analysis of the number of votes needed for each seat in Parliament for the different parties: Votes Seats Votes per seat Con 11,162,553 … Continue Reading

When can the state kill? Questions and issues in the case of Reyaad Khan

Andrew Goddard writes: The Prime Minister announced in the House of Commons last Monday that our armed forces used a remotely controlled aircraft (or drone) to kill Reyaad Khan in “a targeted strike to deal with a clear, credible and specific terrorist threat to our country at home”. This action was authorised by the Defence Secretary … Continue Reading

Why Jeremy Corbyn is just what we need

Commentators are still adjusting to the shock of Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader of the Labour party in a greater landslide than the one that brought Tony Blair to the same position in 1994. As Nick Palmer points out, opinion on Corbyn splits into three camps: People who agree with him People who quite like the … Continue Reading

False steps in the assisted dying debate

I am reposting this guest article from Andrew Goddard written last year, since it gives such a clear and full response to the move today to change the law on assisted dying. As we approach the House of Lords’ debate on Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill, it is clear that there is a concerted attempt to undermine … Continue Reading