Key Quotes for 2007

A world perspective in bite-size chunks
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Last update: Wednesday 25th March
 
England is heading for a housing crisis despite the government’s pledge to build an extra three million homes by 2020 according to a report. The independent body set up to advise ministers on new homes said at least 270.000 more were needed to help tackle the shortfall. It said average prices in England are more than seven times average salaries.
HousingThe Sentinel - October 2007
 
Equality campaigners will hold events today to mark what has been dubbed Women’s No Pay Day. The Fawcett Society and trade union Unison say the pay gap between women and men working full-time is equivalent to men getting paid all year round but women working for nothing from today to the end of the year. They are calling for greater transparency on pay reforms to outdate pay laws and for women to be entitled to take group actions so the burden is not on individuals to speak out. A spokesman for the organisation said “Statistics show a 17% hourly gender pay gap between women and men working full-time” They say the difference equates to £4,000 per year
Work/EmploymentThe Sentinel - October 2007
 
The Exorcist has been named as the scariest film of all time, while the top horror villain was Hannibal Lector, according to a new survey today. A poll of more than 5,000 film fans by Internet giant MSN Movies found one in five were most frightened by The Exorcist. It was followed by the Saw series and Jack Nicholson’s The Shining.
EntertainmentThe Sentinel - October 2007
 
Cohabiting relationships do not have the stability nor permanency of marriage. They are far more fragile and regardless of age or income, are more liable than marriage to fracture. In the UK, of those which do not convert to marriage only 18% endure for ten years. The reason for their fragility is largely dependent on the attitude of the cohabitees. They do not enter into the partnership with the same commitment as their married counter-parts.’
Another issue is that of faithfulness. In the UK, 43% of cohabiting men have reported being faithful to their partners in a five year period, compared with nearly 90% of married men. Indeed 24% reported running two or more relationships at the same time! Data from a US survey of 1,235 women in relationships in 1991 show how 20% of women of the cohabiting women cheated on their partners, as opposed to only 4% of the married women.
FamilySword - November/December 2007
 
In August, Amnesty international reaffirmed its newly adopted position supporting abortions worldwide for women facing “grave human rights violations,” such as rape. Despite major opposition from Christian pro-life advocates, namely the Roman Catholic church, Amnesty maintained its stance expressed back in April, which is a departure from its previously neautral position on abortion. “Amnesty International’s position is not for abortion as right, but for women’s human right to be free of fear, threat and coercion”
World IssuesCharisma - November 2007
 
According to a recent Department of health survey, 12.3 per cent of girls and 13.4 per cent of boys in reception classes are overweight while 9.2 percent of girls in reception classes and 10.7 per cent of boys were classed as obese. The amount of obese children rose for those in year six.
HealthThe universe - November 4 2007
 
-27 million people enslaved today;
-The international Labour organisation say this includes 8.4 million children;
-700,000 are trafficked each year;
-Debt Bondage affects 20 million people;
-Forced labour, child labour, economic servitude, racially motivated and caste based slavery all still persist throughout the world;
-At least 12.3 million people are victims of forced labour worldwide;
-80 per cent of the 700,000 people trafficked annually are women and children;
-Human trafficking is the third largest source of income for organized crime (after arms and drugs);
-Trafficking generates $7 billion per year;
-What possesses human beings to do these things to one another?
World IssuesThe universe - November 4 2007
 
The world bank reports that more than 800 million people are racked by starvation or despair, living below any rational definition of human decency; that the gross domestic product of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the worlds countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined; that 20 per cent of the population in the developed nations consume 86 per cent of the world’s goods; that, according to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty; and that nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
World IssuesThe universe - November 4 2007
 
Consultations have been made to see whether people supported relaxing the law to allow women who want abortions to get one doctors opinion rather than two. The survey revealed that the public, and many MPs, would rather the law remain at two doctors. And public opinion is even more hostile to plans for nurses, in addition to doctors, to be allowed to perform abortions.
FamilyThe universe - November 4 2007.
 
General election turnout is in free-fall. Already in some constituencies that figure has fallen below 50%, and if present trends continue the government of the day will be elected with the support of less than 30% of the total electorate.
PoliticsReform - November 2007.
 
A recent Countryside Agency survey revealed that nearly half of UK rural dwellers think there is no poverty of disadvantage in their area. The reality however, according to a report produced by the commission for Rural Communities this year, is that almost a quarter of rural households in Britain have an income of less than £16,500, with one in five living below the poverty line. Barbara Bridges, Churches’ rural adviser for Gloucestershire says: ‘Poverty is a hidden problem in rural areas because you don’t see large blocks of it, the way you might do in an urban setting.’
Social IssuesFaithworks - Autumn 2007
 

Most people over 50 think too many Christian practices are being ‘downgraded’ in public life out of sensitivity to multi-culturalism, The Times reports. The Saga Populus survey of 10,000 over 50s found widespread concerns about the celebration of Christmas. Some 85 per cent objected to councils replacing ‘Christmas’ lights with ‘winter’ lights and 84 per cent were dismayed by the replacement of nativity plays with non-religious productions in schools. The poll release came on the same day that MPs held a special debate at Westminster Hall. Conservative backbencher Mark Pritchard urged the government to protect public expressions of the UK’s Christian heritage.
PoliticsThe Times - December 2007
 
UK Debt: The facts.
-Total UK personal debt at the end of July 2007 stood at £1,355 billion.
-Britain’s personal debt is increasing by £1 million every four minutes.
-On an average day in the UK: the average household debt increases by over £13 and 317 people are declared insolvent or bankrupt.
-Children aged 11-16 are to receive lessons in managing money and how to avoid debt, in a new subject called ‘economic wellbeing and financial capability’ due to recently - announced changes to the national curriculum.
MoneyFaithworks - Autumn 2007
 
A BBC poll claims that three-quarters of the British public are positive about the future of their families. This figure is 24 percent higher than when it was first asked in 1964. The results fly in the face of the damming Breakdown Britain report, commissioned by the Conservative Party last year, in which the family unit appeared to be fragmenting. The BBC poll is part of a series on the modern British family and found that 96% of respondents said that family life was important to them.
FamilyThe Church of England Newspaper - 9th November 2007
 
The Kurdistan Regional Government in Northern Iraq has officially granted permission for the Bible Society to function legally within its borders. The permit will allow it to open and office and go about it business of making he Bible’s message easily available.
Religious PersecutionIdea - November/December 2007
 
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