The Wunderlich children have been taken from their parents because of the decision to homeschool.
German social services officials have raided the home of a family and abducted their children on the sole grounds that the parents were exercising their right to home-school.
The armed raid occurred on the morning of 29 August, just as the Wunderlich family was beginning lessons.
The team of 20 SS personnel, police officers and special agents approached the home with a battering ram after Judge Koenig, a Darmstadt family court judge, authorized force “against the children” since the children had “adopted the parents’ opinions.”
The four children, ages 7-14, were all forcibly removed and taken to unknown locations, leaving the parents devastated.
Home School Legal Defense Association obtained the court documents authorizing the seizure. The documents reveal that the only legal grounds for action against the family was their decision to home-school. There were no allegations of abuse or neglect, nor any concern that the children were receiving inadequate education.
Dirk Wunderlich, the father, reported, “I looked through a window and saw many people, police, and special agents, all armed. They told me they wanted to come in to speak with me. I tried to ask questions, but within seconds, three police officers brought a battering ram and were about to break the door in, so I opened it.
“The police shoved me into a chair and wouldn’t let me even make a phone call at first. It was chaotic as they told me they had an order to take the children. At my slightest movement the agents would grab me as if I were a terrorist. You would never expect anything like this to happen in our calm, peaceful village. It was like a scene out of a science fiction movie. Our neighbors and children have been traumatized by this invasion.”
The Wunderlich family with members of HSLDA, taken prior to the raid.
“When I went outside, our neighbor was crying as she watched. I turned around to see my daughter being escorted as if she were a criminal by two big policemen. They weren’t being nice at all. When my wife tried to give my daughter a kiss and a hug goodbye, one of the special agents roughly elbowed her out of the way and said, ‘It’s too late for that.’ What kind of government acts like this?”
Having been pestered by the state for their decision to home-school, the Wunderlich family has traveled throughout the EU in the last four years looking for a place to live in freedom. Sadly, the family was forced back to Germany by lack of work. Upon returning to the country, the children’s passports were immediately seized to ensure they could never leave again.
The right of German parents to home-school is recognized by the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Ignoring these and other declarations, the German government seems to be following the directives of Adolf Hitler, who wrote in 1937: “The youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of inoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled. This Reich stands, and it is building itself up for the future, upon its youth. And this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing.”
Dirk Wunderlich spoke with Mike Donnelly, HSLDA Director for International Affairs. “These are broken people,” Donnelly said. “They said they felt like they were being ground into dust. They were shaken to their core and shocked by the event. But they also told me that they had followed their conscience and the dictates of their faith. Although they don’t have much faith in the German state, they have a lot of faith in God. They are an inspiring and courageous family.
“I’ve been fighting for German home-school freedom for years,” he continued, “and I had hoped that things were changing in Germany since it has been some time since brutality of this magnitude has occurred. But I was wrong.”
Petra Wunderlich said her heart was shattered. “We are empty,” she said. “We need help. We are fighting but we need help.”
Obama Interferes to Deport German Homeschool Family
The Obama administration has ordered the Romeike family to be deported to Germany, where the parents will almost certainly lose custody of their children for their decision to home-school.
Many other families have been persecuted at the hands of the totalitarian German state for wanting to home-school. One particular family, the Romeikes, fled Germany in 2008 after being ordered not to home-school. They hoped to find safety in the United States. In 2010 the Romeike family were granted asylum to remain in the U.S. on the grounds that returning to Germany would be dangerous for them (Michael Farris has pointed out that the German High Court is on record for saying that religious home-schoolers should be targeted and severely punished). Since then they have been living in Tennessee, where they purchased a farm and have been educating their children according to their evangelical Christian beliefs.
In an unexpected act of executive interference, President Obama appealed the ruling which allowed the Romeike family to remain in America. In April, the Obama administration obtained an order from a higher court to deport the family., arguing that parents essentially have no right to determine how and what their children are taught. At the same time, Obama is granting amnesty to millions of people who have gone to the US illegally. He has also released thousands of illegals who have committed crimes.
In the German state schools, children are exposed to graphic sex education, violence, witchcraft and atheism. Moreover, the German government has openly declared that its policy is based on suppressing minorities. One German court decision explained their opposition to home education explicitly in terms of ideological thought control:
“The general public has a justified interest in counteracting the development of religiously or philosophically motivated ‘parallel societies’ and in integrating minorities in this area. Integration does not only require that the majority of the population does not exclude religious or ideological minorities, but, in fact, that these minorities do not segregate themselves and that they do not close themselves off to a dialogue with dissenters and people of other beliefs. Dialogue with such minorities is an enrichment for an open pluralistic society. The learning and practicing of this in the sense of experienced tolerance is an important lesson right from the elementary school stage. The presence of a broad spectrum of convictions in a classroom can sustainably develop the ability of all pupils in being tolerant and exercising the dialogue that is a basic requirement of democratic decision-making process.”
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Foreign Secretary William Hague was ready to ignore the UN Security Council and start military action against Syria.
The UK’s House of Commons has voted against any military action in Syria.
The House threw out Labour’s amendment, which watered down the Government motion, by 332 votes to 220, then voted against the Government motion itself by the narrower margin of 285 votes to 272.
Thirty Conservatives voted against military action and eleven LibDems. Thirty-two more Conservatives and 14 LibDems abstained or were absent, partly balancing the thirty-five Labour members who did not vote.
Except for three absent DUP MPs, all the ‘minor party’ MPs voted against. Their votes swung the day.
Here are the details (scroll down for good points from speeches and scroll right down for how your MP voted):
The Government motion:
‘That this House:
‘Deplores the use of chemical weapons in Syria on 21 August 2013 by the Assad regime, which caused hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries of Syrian civilians;
‘Recalls the importance of upholding the worldwide prohibition on the use of chemical weapons under international law;
‘Agrees that a strong humanitarian response is required from the international community and that this may, if necessary, require military action that is legal, proportionate and focused on saving lives by preventing and deterring further use of Syria’s chemical weapons;
‘Notes the failure of the United Nations Security Council over the last two years to take united action in response to the Syrian crisis;
‘Notes that the use of chemical weapons is a war crime under customary law and a crime against humanity, and that the principle of humanitarian intervention provides a sound legal basis for taking action;
‘Notes the wide international support for such a response, including the statement from the Arab League on 27 August which calls on the international community, represented in the United Nations Security Council, to “overcome internal disagreements and take action against those who committed this crime, for which the Syrian regime is responsible”;
‘Believes, in spite of the difficulties at the United Nations, that a United Nations process must be followed as far as possible to ensure the maximum legitimacy for any such action;
‘Therefore welcomes the work of the United Nations investigating team currently in Damascus, and, whilst noting that the team’s mandate is to confirm whether chemical weapons were used and not to apportion blame, agrees that the United Nations Secretary General should ensure a briefing to the United Nations Security Council immediately upon the completion of the team’s initial mission;
‘Believes that the United Nations Security Council must have the opportunity immediately to consider that briefing and that every effort should be made to secure a Security Council Resolution backing military action before any such action is taken, and notes that before any direct British involvement in such action a further vote of the House of Commons will take place; and
‘Notes that this Resolution relates solely to efforts to alleviate humanitarian suffering by deterring use of chemical weapons and does not sanction any action in Syria with wider objectives.’
Some points from some of the speeches
Dr Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con): I began my speech by referring to the first world war. Next year, we will commemorate the centenary of the events of August 1914. Those events have a worrying parallel. At that time, a series of actions and reactions drew in, in an escalating fashion, one country after another. Nobody thought that the assassination of an obscure archduke would lead to a world conflagration. As Admiral Lord West has said, this is a powder keg, and we should not be lobbing weapons into the heart of such combustible material.
George Galloway (Bradford West) (Respect)
The reason for the unease is that people can see the character of the Syrian opposition. They have seen the horrific videos that we have heard about. Take a look at the video of one of the commanders of the Syrian revolution cutting open the chest of a human being and eating his heart and liver. He videotaped himself doing it and put it up on YouTube because he thought that it might be considered attractive. Take a look at the videos of Christian priests having their heads sawn off—not chopped off; sawn off—with breadknives. Even a bishop in the Christian Church was murdered by these people. Every religious minority in Syria—there are 23 of them—is petrified at the thought of a victory for the Syrian rebels, whom the British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have been doing their utmost to supply with weapons and money over the last two years.
Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP): Does the hon. Gentleman share my concern, and that of many Members, about the Christian minority of some half a million, who have been displaced, murdered and ethnically cleansed? Any attack upon Syria, whatever it may be, could have repercussions for the Christian minority, who are concerned about what would happen given the example of Iraq, where there were 1.3 million Christians before the war and only 300,000 afterwards.
Dr Alasdair McDonnell (Belfast South) (SDLP): I share the hon. Gentleman’s concerns…
Kate Hoey (Vauxhall) (Lab): I remember, 10 years ago, like many Members, sitting on the Government Benches listening to the whole of the Iraq debate and agonising about how I should vote. I remember my heart telling me that I should support my leader—I particularly wanted to support my right hon. Friend the Member for Blackburn (Mr Straw), my good friend—and my head telling me throughout that debate, “No, there’s something wrong here,” and I voted no. …
On this occasion, 10 years on, I am very clear and I am not agonising. I oppose military action in this case.
I do not think … we have any proof that bombing will make things any better or get rid of the chemical weapons, if they are there. We need to remember that once we cross that line of military action, as other Members have said, even if it is a short strike and very few civilians are killed, which is highly unlikely, the result will be that when anyone is killed in future years in Syria, whoever has killed them or whatever the background, the west will be blamed. The United Kingdom will be blamed, as has happened throughout the middle east, and we will see the repercussions on our streets in the form of increased extremism.
Mr Jeffrey M. Donaldson (Lagan Valley) (DUP): The Democratic Unionist party has never been found wanting when it has come to supporting military action on behalf of our nation when it was deemed necessary. That has happened on at least three occasions during my time in Parliament. I have to say, however, that I have not yet heard a compelling argument today to convince me that military intervention in this case is either necessary or in our national interest.
Main Question put.
The House divided:
Ayes 272, Noes 285.
10.17 pm
How your MP voted:
Voted No: Abbott, Ms Diane (Lab) (Hackney North & Stoke Newington)
Voted No: Abrahams, Debbie (Lab) (Oldham East & Saddleworth)
Voted Aye: Adams, Mr Nigel (Con) (Selby & Ainsty)
Did not vote: Afriyie, Mr Adam (Con) (Windsor)
Voted No: Ainsworth, RH Mr Bob (Lab) (Coventry North East)
Voted Aye: Aldous, Mr Peter (Con) (Waveney)
Voted Aye: Alexander, RH Danny (LD) (Inverness Nairn Badenoch & Strathspey)
Voted No: Alexander, RH Mr Douglas (Lab) (Paisley & Renfrewshire South)
Voted No: Alexander, Ms Heidi (Lab) (Lewisham East)
Voted No: Ali, Ms Rushanara (Lab) (Bethnal Green & Bow)
Voted No: Allen, Mr Graham (Lab) (Nottingham North)
Voted No: Amess, Mr David (Con) (Southend West)
Voted No: Anderson, Mr David (Lab) (Blaydon)
Voted Aye: Andrew, Mr Stuart (Con) (Pudsey)
Voted Aye: Arbuthnot, RH Mr James (Con) (North East Hampshire)
Voted No: Ashworth, Jonathan (Lab) (Leicester South)
Did not vote: Austin, Mr. Ian (Lab) (Dudley North)
Voted No: Bacon, Mr Richard (Con) (South Norfolk)
Voted No: Bailey, Mr Adrian (Lab) (West Bromwich West)
Voted No: Bain, Mr William (Lab) (Glasgow North East)
Voted Aye: Baker, Mr Norman (LD) (Lewes)
Voted No: Baker, Mr Steve (Con) (Wycombe)
Voted Aye: Baldry, Sir Tony (Con) (Banbury)
Voted Aye: Baldwin, Ms Harriett (Con) (West Worcestershire)
Voted No: Balls, RH Ed (Lab) (Morley & Outwood)
Voted No: Banks, Mr Gordon (Lab) (Ochil & South Perthshire)
Voted Aye: Barclay, Mr Stephen (Con) (North East Cambridgeshire)
Voted Aye: Barker, rh Gregory (Con) (Bexhill & Battle)
Voted No: Baron, Mr John (Con) (Basildon & Billericay)
Voted No: Barron, RH Mr Kevin (Lab) (Rother Valley)
Voted Aye: Barwell, Mr Gavin (Con) (Croydon Central)
Voted No: Bayley, Mr Hugh (Lab) (York Central)
Voted Aye: Bebb, Mr Guto (Con) (Aberconwy)
Voted No: Beckett, RH Margaret (Lab) (Derby South)
Voted No: Begg, Dame Anne (Lab) (Aberdeen South)
Voted Aye: Beith, RH Sir Alan (LD) (Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Did not vote: Bellingham, Mr Henry (Con) (North West Norfolk)
Voted No: Benn, RH Hilary (Lab) (Leeds Central)
Voted No: Benton, Mr Joe (Lab) (Bootle)
Voted Aye: Benyon, Mr. Richard (Con) (Newbury)
Did not vote: Bercow, Mr John (Speaker) (Buckingham)
Voted Aye: Beresford, Sir Paul (Con) (Mole Valley)
Voted No: Berger, Ms Luciana (Lab) (Liverpool Wavertree)
Voted Aye: Berry, Mr Jake (Con) (Rossendale & Darwen)
Voted No: Betts, Mr Clive (Lab) (Sheffield South East)
Voted No: Bingham, Mr Andrew (Con) (High Peak)
Voted Aye: Binley, Mr Brian (Con) (Northampton South)
Voted No: Birtwistle, Mr Gordon (LD) (Burnley)
Voted Aye: Blackman, Mr Bob (Con) (Harrow East)
Did not vote: Blackman-Woods, Dr. Roberta (Lab) (City of Durham)
Voted Aye: Blackwood, Ms Nicola (Con) (Oxford West & Abingdon)
Did not vote: Blears, RH Hazel (Lab) (Salford & Eccles)
Voted No: Blenkinsop, Mr Tom (Lab) (Middlesbrough South & East Cleveland)
Did not vote: Blomfield, Mr Paul (Lab) (Sheffield Central)
Voted No: Blunkett, RH Mr David (Lab) (Sheffield Brightside & Hillsborough)
Voted No: Blunt, Mr Crispin (Con) (Reigate)
Voted Aye: Boles, Mr Nick (Con) (Grantham & Stamford)
Voted Aye: Bone, Mr Peter (Con) (Wellingborough)
Voted Aye: Bottomley, Sir Peter (Con) (Worthing West)
Voted Aye: Bradley, Ms Karen (Con) (Staffordshire Moorlands)
Did not vote: Bradshaw, RH Mr Ben (Lab) (Exeter)
Did not vote: Brady, Mr Graham (Con) (Altrincham & Sale West)
Voted Aye: Brake, RH Tom (LD) (Carshalton & Wallington)
Voted Aye: Bray, Ms Angie (Con) (Ealing Central & Acton)
Voted Aye: Brazier, Mr Julian (Con) (Canterbury)
Voted No: Brennan, Mr Kevin (Lab) (Cardiff West)
Voted Aye: Bridgen, Mr Andrew (Con) (North West Leicestershire)
Voted Aye: Brine, Mr Steve (Con) (Winchester)
Voted Aye: Brokenshire, Mr James (Con) (Old Bexley & Sidcup)
Did not vote: Brooke, Ms Annette (LD) (Mid Dorset & North Poole)
Did not vote: Brown, RH Mr Gordon (Lab) (Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath)
Voted No: Brown, Ms Lyn (Lab) (West Ham)
Voted No: Brown, RH Mr Nicholas (Lab) (Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Voted No: Brown, Mr Russell (Lab) (Dumfries & Galloway)
Voted Aye: Browne, Mr Jeremy (LD) (Taunton Deane)
Voted No: Bruce, Ms Fiona (Con) (Congleton)
Voted Aye: Bruce, rh Sir Malcolm (LD) (Gordon)
Voted No: Bryant, Mr Chris (Lab) (Rhondda)
Voted No: Buck, Ms Karen (Lab) (Westminster North)
Voted Aye: Buckland, Mr Robert (Con) (South Swindon)
Did not vote: Burden, Mr Richard (Lab) (Birmingham Northfield)
Voted Aye: Burley, Mr Aidan (Con) (Cannock Chase)
Voted No: Burnham, RH Andy (Lab) (Leigh)
Voted Aye: Burns, Mr Conor (Con) (Bournemouth West)
Voted Aye: Burns, RH Mr Simon (Con) (Chelmsford)
Voted Aye: Burrowes, Mr David (Con) (Enfield Southgate)
Voted Aye: Burstow, rh Paul (LD) (Sutton & Cheam)
Voted Aye: Burt, Mr Alistair (Con) (North East Bedfordshire)
Did not vote: Burt, Ms Lorely (LD) (Solihull)
Voted Aye: Byles, Mr Dan (Con) (North Warwickshire)
Voted No: Byrne, RH Mr Liam (Lab) (Birmingham Hodge Hill)
Voted Aye: Cable, RH Vince (LD) (Twickenham)
Voted Aye: Cairns, Mr Alun (Con) (Vale of Glamorgan)
Voted Aye: Cameron, RH Mr David (Con) (Witney)
Voted No: Campbell, Mr Alan (Lab) (Tynemouth)
Voted No: Campbell, Mr Gregory (DUP) (East Londonderry)
Voted Aye: Campbell, RH Sir Menzies (LD) (North East Fife)
Voted No: Campbell, Mr Ronnie (Lab) (Blyth Valley)
Voted Aye: Carmichael, RH Mr Alistair (LD) (Orkney & Shetland)
Voted Aye: Carmichael, Mr Neil (Con) (Stroud)
Voted Aye: Carswell, Mr Douglas (Con) (Clacton)
Did not vote: Cash, Mr William (Con) (Stone)
Voted No: Caton, Mr. Martin (Lab) (Gower)
Did not vote: Champion, Sarah (Lab) (Rotherham)
Voted No: Chapman, Mrs Jenny (Lab) (Darlington)
Voted Aye: Chishti, Mr Rehman (Con) (Gillingham & Rainham)
Did not vote: Chope, Mr Christopher (Con) (Christchurch)
Voted Aye: Clappison, Mr James (Con) (Hertsmere)
Voted Aye: Clark, RH Greg (Con) (Tunbridge Wells)
Voted No: Clark, Ms Katy (Lab) (North Ayrshire & Arran)
Did not vote: Clarke, RH Mr Kenneth (Con) (Rushcliffe)
Voted No: Clarke, RH Mr Tom (Lab) (Coatbridge Chryston & Bellshill)
Voted Aye: Clegg, RH Mr Nick (LD) (Sheffield Hallam)
Voted Aye: Clifton-Brown, Mr. Geoffrey (Con) (The Cotswolds)
Did not vote: Clwyd, RH Ann (Lab) (Cynon Valley)
Voted No: Coaker, Mr. Vernon (Lab) (Gedling)
Voted No: Coffey, Ms Ann (Lab) (Stockport)
Voted Aye: Coffey, Dr Th‚rŠse (Con) (Suffolk Coastal)
Voted Aye: Collins, Mr Damian (Con) (Folkestone & Hythe)
Voted Aye: Colvile, Mr Oliver (Con) (Plymouth Sutton & Devonport)
Did not vote: Connarty, Mr. Michael (Lab) (Linlithgow & East Falkirk)
Did not vote: Cooper, Ms Rosie (Lab) (West Lancashire)
Voted No: Cooper, RH Yvette (Lab) (Normanton Pontefract & Castleford)
Voted No: Corbyn, Mr Jeremy (Lab) (Islington North)
Did not vote: Cox, Mr Geoffrey (Con) (Torridge & West Devon)
Voted Aye: Crabb, Mr. Stephen (Con) (Preseli Pembrokeshire)
Did not vote: Crausby, Mr David (Lab) (Bolton North East)
Voted No: Creagh, Ms Mary (Lab) (Wakefield)
Voted No: Creasy, Ms Stella (Lab) (Walthamstow)
Voted No: Crockart, Mr Mike (LD) (Edinburgh West)
Voted No: Crouch, Ms Tracey (Con) (Chatham & Aylesford)
Voted No: Cruddas, Mr Jon (Lab) (Dagenham & Rainham)
Did not vote: Cryer, Mr John (Lab) (Leyton & Wanstead)
Voted No: Cunningham, Mr Alex (Lab) (Stockton North)
Voted No: Cunningham, Sir Jim (Lab) (Coventry South)
Voted No: Cunningham, Sir Tony (Lab) (Workington)
Voted No: Curran, Ms Margaret (Lab) (Glasgow East)
Voted No: Dakin, Mr Nic (Lab) (Scunthorpe)
Voted No: Danczuk, Mr Simon (Lab) (Rochdale)
Voted No: Darling, RH Mr Alistair (Lab) (Edinburgh South West)
Voted Aye: Davey, rh Mr Edward (LD) (Kingston & Surbiton)
Voted No: David, Mr Wayne (Lab) (Caerphilly)
Did not vote: Davidson, Mr Ian (Lab) (Glasgow South West)
Voted No: Davies, David T. C. (Con) (Monmouth)
Voted No: Davies, Mr Geraint (Lab) (Swansea West)
Voted Aye: Davies, Mr Glyn (Con) (Montgomeryshire)
Voted No: Davies, Mr Philip (Con) (Shipley)
Voted No: Davis, RH Mr David (Con) (Haltemprice & Howden)
Voted No: de Bois, Mr Nick (Con) (Enfield North)
Voted No: De Piero, Ms Gloria (Lab) (Ashfield)
Voted No: Denham, RH Mr John (Lab) (Southampton Itchen)
Voted Aye: Dinenage, Ms Caroline (Con) (Gosport)
Voted Aye: Djanogly, Mr Jonathan (Con) (Huntingdon)
Voted No: Dobbin, Mr Jim (Lab) (Heywood & Middleton)
Voted No: Dobson, RH Frank (Lab) (Holborn & St Pancras)
Voted No: Docherty, Mr Thomas (Lab) (Dunfermline & West Fife)
Voted No: Dodds, RH Mr Nigel (DUP) (Belfast North)
Did not vote: Doherty, Mr. Pat (SF) (West Tyrone)
Voted No: Donaldson, RH Mr Jeffrey M. (DUP) (Lagan Valley)
Voted No: Donohoe, Mr Brian H. (Lab) (Central Ayrshire)
Voted No: Doran, Mr Frank (Lab) (Aberdeen North)
Voted Aye: Dorrell, RH Mr Stephen (Con) (Charnwood)
Did not vote: Dorries, Mrs. Nadine (Con) (Mid Bedfordshire)
Voted No: Doughty, Stephen (Lab) (Cardiff South & Penarth)
Voted No: Dowd, Mr Jim (Lab) (Lewisham West & Penge)
Voted No: Doyle, Ms Gemma (Lab) (West Dunbartonshire)
Voted Aye: Doyle-Price, Ms Jackie (Con) (Thurrock)
Voted No: Drax, Mr Richard (Con) (South Dorset)
Voted No: Dromey, Mr Jack (Lab) (Birmingham Erdington)
Voted Aye: Duddridge, Mr. James (Con) (Rochford & Southend East)
Voted No: Dugher, Mr Michael (Lab) (Barnsley East)
Did not vote: Duncan, RH Mr Alan (Con) (Rutland & Melton)
Voted Aye: Duncan Smith, RH Mr Iain (Con) (Chingford & Woodford Green)
Voted Aye: Dunne, Mr Philip (Con) (Ludlow)
Voted No: Durkan, Mr Mark (SDL) (Foyle)
Voted No: Eagle, Ms Angela (Lab) (Wallasey)
Voted No: Eagle, Ms Maria (Lab) (Garston & Halewood)
Voted No: Edwards, Mr Jonathan (PC) (Carmarthen East & Dinefwr)
Voted No: Efford, Mr Clive (Lab) (Eltham)
Voted No: Elliott, Ms Julie (Lab) (Sunderland Central)
Voted Aye: Ellis, Mr Michael (Con) (Northampton North)
Voted Aye: Ellison, Ms Jane (Con) (Battersea)
Voted No: Ellman, Mrs Louise (Lab) (Liverpool Riverside)
Voted Aye: Ellwood, Mr Tobias (Con) (Bournemouth East)
Voted Aye: Elphicke, Mr Charlie (Con) (Dover)
Voted No: Engel, Ms Natascha (Lab) (North East Derbyshire)
Voted No: Esterson, Mr Bill (Lab) (Sefton Central)
Voted Aye: Eustice, Mr George (Con) (Camborne & Redruth)
Voted No: Evans, Mr Chris (Lab) (Islwyn)
Voted Aye: Evans, Mr Graham (Con) (Weaver Vale)
Voted Aye: Evans, Mr Jonathan (Con) (Cardiff North)
Did not vote: Evans, Mr. Nigel (Con) (Ribble Valley)
Voted Aye: Evennett, Mr David (Con) (Bexleyheath & Crayford)
Voted Aye: Fabricant, Mr Michael (Con) (Lichfield)
Voted Aye: Fallon, rh Michael (Con) (Sevenoaks)
Voted No: Farrelly, Mr Paul (Lab) (Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Did not vote: Farron, Mr Tim (LD) (Westmorland & Lonsdale)
Voted Aye: Featherstone, Ms Lynne (LD) (Hornsey & Wood Green)
Voted No: Field, RH Mr Frank (Lab) (Birkenhead)
Voted Aye: Field, Mr Mark (Con) (Cities of London & Westminster)
Voted No: Fitzpatrick, Mr Jim (Lab) (Poplar & Limehouse)
Voted No: Flello, Mr. Robert (Lab) (Stoke-on-Trent South)
Voted No: Flint, RH Caroline (Lab) (Don Valley)
Voted No: Flynn, Mr Paul (Lab) (Newport West)
Voted Aye: Foster, rh Mr Don (LD) (Bath)
Did not vote: Fovargue, Ms Yvonne (Lab) (Makerfield)
Voted Aye: Fox, RH Dr Liam (Con) (North Somerset)
Voted No: Francis, Dr Hywel (Lab) (Aberavon)
Voted Aye: Francois, RH Mr Mark (Con) (Rayleigh & Wickford)
Voted Aye: Freeman, Mr George (Con) (Mid Norfolk)
Voted Aye: Freer, Mr Mike (Con) (Finchley & Golders Green)
Voted Aye: Fullbrook, Ms Lorraine (Con) (South Ribble)
Voted Aye: Fuller, Mr Richard (Con) (Bedford)
Voted Aye: Gale, Sir Roger (Con) (North Thanet)
Voted No: Galloway, Mr. George (Res) (Bradford West)
Voted No: Gapes, Mr Mike (Lab) (Ilford South)
Voted No: Gardiner, Mr. Barry (Lab) (Brent North)
Voted Aye: Garnier, Sir Edward (Con) (Harborough)
Voted Aye: Garnier, Mr Mark (Con) (Wyre Forest)
Did not vote: Gauke, Mr David (Con) (South West Hertfordshire)
Voted No: George, Mr Andrew (LD) (St Ives)
Voted Aye: Gibb, Mr Nick (Con) (Bognor Regis & Littlehampton)
Voted Aye: Gilbert, Mr Stephen (LD) (St Austell & Newquay)
Did not vote: Gildernew, Ms Michelle (SF) (Fermanagh & South Tyrone)
Voted Aye: Gillan, RH Mrs Cheryl (Con) (Chesham & Amersham)
Voted No: Gilmore, Ms Sheila (Lab) (Edinburgh East)
Voted No: Glass, Ms Pat (Lab) (North West Durham)
Voted Aye: Glen, Mr John (Con) (Salisbury)
Voted No: Glindon, Mrs Mary (Lab) (North Tyneside)
Voted No: Godsiff, Mr Roger (Lab) (Birmingham Hall Green)
Voted No: Goggins, RH Paul (Lab) (Wythenshawe & Sale East)
Voted Aye: Goldsmith, Mr Zac (Con) (Richmond Park)
Voted No: Goodman, Ms Helen (Lab) (Bishop Auckland)
Voted Aye: Goodwill, Mr Robert (Con) (Scarborough & Whitby)
Voted Aye: Gove, RH Michael (Con) (Surrey Heath)
Voted Aye: Graham, Mr Richard (Con) (Gloucester)
Voted Aye: Grant, Mrs Helen (Con) (Maidstone & The Weald)
Voted Aye: Gray, Mr James (Con) (North Wiltshire)
Voted Aye: Grayling, RH Chris (Con) (Epsom & Ewell)
Voted No: Greatrex, Mr Tom (Lab) (Rutherglen & Hamilton West)
Voted Aye: Green, rh Damian (Con) (Ashford)
Voted No: Green, Ms Kate (Lab) (Stretford & Urmston)
Did not vote: Greening, Ms Justine (Con) (Putney)
Did not vote: Greenwood, Ms Lilian (Lab) (Nottingham South)
Voted Aye: Grieve, RH Mr Dominic (Con) (Beaconsfield)
Voted No: Griffith, Ms Nia (Lab) (Llanelli)
Voted Aye: Griffiths, Mr Andrew (Con) (Burton)
Voted Aye: Gummer, Mr Ben (Con) (Ipswich)
Voted No: Gwynne, Mr Andrew (Lab) (Denton & Reddish)
Voted Aye: Gyimah, Mr Sam (Con) (East Surrey)
Voted Aye: Hague, RH Mr William (Con) (Richmond Yorks)
Did not vote: Hain, RH Mr Peter (Lab) (Neath)
Voted Aye: Halfon, Mr Robert (Con) (Harlow)
Voted Aye: Hames, Mr Duncan (LD) (Chippenham)
Voted No: Hamilton, Mr David (Lab) (Midlothian)
Voted No: Hamilton, Mr. Fabian (Lab) (Leeds North East)
Voted Aye: Hammond, RH Mr Philip (Con) (Runnymede & Weybridge)
Voted Aye: Hammond, Mr Stephen (Con) (Wimbledon)
Voted Aye: Hancock, Mr Matthew (Con) (West Suffolk)
Voted No: Hancock, Mr Mike (LD) (Portsmouth South)
Voted Aye: Hands, Mr. Greg (Con) (Chelsea & Fulham)
Did not vote: Hanson, RH Mr David (Lab) (Delyn)
Voted No: Harman, RH Ms Harriet (Lab) (Camberwell & Peckham)
Voted Aye: Harper, Mr Mark (Con) (Forest of Dean)
Voted Aye: Harrington, Mr Richard (Con) (Watford)
Voted Aye: Harris, Ms Rebecca (Con) (Castle Point)
Voted No: Harris, Mr Tom (Lab) (Glasgow South)
Voted Aye: Hart, Mr Simon (Con) (Carmarthen West & South Pembrokeshir)
Did not vote: Harvey, Mr Nick (LD) (North Devon)
Did not vote: Haselhurst, RH Sir Alan (CWM) (Saffron Walden)
Voted No: Havard, Mr Dai (Lab) (Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney)
Voted Aye: Hayes, rh Mr John (Con) (South Holland & the Deepings)
Voted Aye: Heald, Mr. Oliver (Con) (North East Hertfordshire)
Voted No: Healey, rh John (Lab) (Wentworth & Dearne)
Voted Aye: Heath, Mr David (LD) (Somerton & Frome)
Voted Aye: Heaton-Harris, Mr Chris (Con) (Daventry)
Voted Aye: Hemming, Mr John (LD) (Birmingham Yardley)
Voted No: Henderson, Mr Gordon (Con) (Sittingbourne & Sheppey)
Voted No: Hendrick, Mr. Mark (Lab) (Preston)
Voted Aye: Hendry, Mr Charles (Con) (Wealden)
Voted No: Hepburn, Mr Stephen (Lab) (Jarrow)
Voted Aye: Herbert, RH Nick (Con) (Arundel & South Downs)
Voted No: Hermon, Lady (UU) (North Down)
Did not vote: Heyes, Mr David (Lab) (Ashton-under-Lyne)
Voted No: Hillier, Ms Meg (Lab) (Hackney South & Shoreditch)
Voted No: Hilling, Ms Julie (Lab) (Bolton West)
Voted Aye: Hinds, Mr Damian (Con) (East Hampshire)
Voted Aye: Hoban, Mr Mark (Con) (Fareham)
Voted No: Hodge, RH Margaret (Lab) (Barking)
Did not vote: Hodgson, Mrs Sharon (Lab) (Washington & Sunderland West)
Voted No: Hoey, Ms Kate (Lab) (Vauxhall)
Voted Aye: Hollingbery, Mr George (Con) (Meon Valley)
Voted No: Hollobone, Mr Philip (Con) (Kettering)
Voted No: Holloway, Mr Adam (Con) (Gravesham)
Voted No: Hood, Mr Jim (Lab) (Lanark & Hamilton East)
Voted No: Hopkins, Mr Kelvin (Lab) (Luton North)
Voted Aye: Hopkins, Mr Kris (Con) (Keighley)
Voted Aye: Horwood, Mr Martin (LD) (Cheltenham)
Voted No: Hosie, Mr Stewart (SNP) (Dundee East)
Voted No: Howarth, RH Mr George (Lab) (Knowsley)
Voted Aye: Howarth, Sir Gerald (Con) (Aldershot)
Voted Aye: Howell, Mr. John (Con) (Henley)
Did not vote: Hoyle, Mr. Lindsay (Lab) (Chorley)
Voted Aye: Hughes, RH Simon (LD) (Bermondsey & Old Southwark)
Voted Aye: Hunt, RH Mr Jeremy (Con) (South West Surrey)
Voted No: Hunt, Mr Tristram (Lab) (Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Did not vote: Hunter, Mr Mark (LD) (Cheadle)
Voted No: Huppert, Dr Julian (LD) (Cambridge)
Voted Aye: Hurd, Mr Nick (Con) (Ruislip Northwood & Pinner)
Voted No: Irranca-Davies, Mr Huw (Lab) (Ogmore)
Voted No: Jackson, Ms Glenda (Lab) (Hampstead & Kilburn)
Voted Aye: Jackson, Mr Stewart (Con) (Peterborough)
Voted Aye: James, Ms Margot (Con) (Stourbridge)
Voted No: James, Mrs Siƒn C. (Lab) (Swansea East)
Voted No: Jamieson, Ms Cathy (Lab) (Kilmarnock & Loudoun)
Voted No: Jarvis, Mr Dan (Lab) (Barnsley Central)
Voted Aye: Javid, Mr Sajid (Con) (Bromsgrove)
Voted Aye: Jenkin, Mr Bernard (Con) (Harwich & North Essex)
Voted No: Johnson, RH Alan (Lab) (Kingston upon Hull West & Hessle)
Did not vote: Johnson, Ms Diana (Lab) (Kingston upon Hull North)
Voted Aye: Johnson, Mr Gareth (Con) (Dartford)
Voted Aye: Johnson, Mr Joseph (Con) (Orpington)
Voted Aye: Jones, Mr Andrew (Con) (Harrogate & Knaresborough)
Voted Aye: Jones, rh Mr David (Con) (Clwyd West)
Voted No: Jones, Mr Graham (Lab) (Hyndburn)
Voted No: Jones, Ms Helen (Lab) (Warrington North)
Voted No: Jones, Mr Kevan (Lab) (North Durham)
Voted Aye: Jones, Mr Marcus (Con) (Nuneaton)
Voted No: Jones, Susan Elan (Lab) (Clwyd South)
Voted No: Jowell, RH Dame Tessa (Lab) (Dulwich & West Norwood)
Voted No: Joyce, Mr. Eric (Lab) (Falkirk)
Voted No: Kaufman, RH Sir Gerald (Lab) (Manchester Gorton)
Voted Aye: Kawczynski, Mr Daniel (Con) (Shrewsbury & Atcham)
Did not vote: Keeley, Ms Barbara (Lab) (Worsley & Eccles South)
Did not vote: Kelly, Mr Chris (Con) (Dudley South)
Voted No: Kendall, Ms Liz (Lab) (Leicester West)
Did not vote: Kennedy, RH Mr Charles (LD) (Ross Skye & Lochaber)
Voted No: Khan, RH Sadiq (Lab) (Tooting)
Voted Aye: Kirby, Mr Simon (Con) (Brighton Kemptown)
Voted Aye: Knight, RH Mr Greg (Con) (East Yorkshire)
Voted Aye: Kwarteng, Mr Kwasi (Con) (Spelthorne)
Voted Aye: Laing, Mrs Eleanor (Con) (Epping Forest)
Voted Aye: Lamb, Mr Norman (LD) (North Norfolk)
Voted No: Lammy, RH Mr David (Lab) (Tottenham)
Voted Aye: Lancaster, Mr. Mark (Con) (Milton Keynes North)
Voted Aye: Lansley, RH Mr Andrew (Con) (South Cambridgeshire)
Did not vote: Latham, Ms Pauline (Con) (Mid Derbyshire)
Voted No: Lavery, Mr Ian (Lab) (Wansbeck)
Voted Aye: Laws, RH Mr David (LD) (Yeovil)
Voted No: Lazarowicz, Mr. Mark (Lab) (Edinburgh North & Leith)
Voted Aye: Leadsom, Ms Andrea (Con) (South Northamptonshire)
Voted Aye: Lee, Ms Jessica (Con) (Erewash)
Voted No: Lee, Dr Phillip (Con) (Bracknell)
Voted Aye: Leech, Mr John (LD) (Manchester Withington)
Voted Aye: Lefroy, Mr Jeremy (Con) (Stafford)
Did not vote: Leigh, Mr Edward (Con) (Gainsborough)
Did not vote: Leslie, Ms Charlotte (Con) (Bristol North West)
Voted No: Leslie, Mr Chris (Lab) (Nottingham East)
Voted Aye: Letwin, RH Mr Oliver (Con) (West Dorset)
Voted No: Lewell-Buck, Mrs Emma (Lab) (South Shields)
Voted Aye: Lewis, Mr Brandon (Con) (Great Yarmouth)
Voted No: Lewis, Mr Ivan (Lab) (Bury South)
Voted No: Lewis, Dr Julian (Con) (New Forest East)
Did not vote: Liddell-Grainger, Mr Ian (Con) (Bridgwater & West Somerset)
Voted Aye: Lidington, RH Mr David (Con) (Aylesbury)
Voted Aye: Lilley, RH Mr Peter (Con) (Hitchin & Harpenden)
Voted Aye: Lloyd, Mr Stephen (LD) (Eastbourne)
Voted No: Llwyd, RH Mr Elfyn (PC) (Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Voted No: Long, Ms Naomi (All) (Belfast East)
Did not vote: Lopresti, Mr Jack (Con) (Filton & Bradley Stoke)
Voted Aye: Lord, Mr Jonathan (Con) (Woking)
Voted Aye: Loughton, Mr Tim (Con) (East Worthing & Shoreham)
Did not vote: Love, Mr Andrew (Lab) (Edmonton)
Voted No: Lucas, Ms Caroline (Gre) (Brighton Pavilion)
Voted No: Lucas, Mr Ian (Lab) (Wrexham)
Voted Aye: Luff, Mr Peter (Con) (Mid Worcestershire)
Voted Aye: Lumley, Ms Karen (Con) (Redditch)
Voted Aye: Macleod, Ms Mary (Con) (Brentford & Isleworth)
Voted No: MacNeil, Mr Angus Brendan (SNP) (Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Voted No: MacTaggart, Ms Fiona (Lab) (Slough)
Voted No: Mahmood, Mr Khalid (Lab) (Birmingham Perry Barr)
Voted No: Mahmood, Ms Shabana (Lab) (Birmingham Ladywood)
Did not vote: Main, Mrs Anne (Con) (St Albans)
Voted No: Malhotra, Ms Seema (Lab) (Feltham & Heston)
Voted No: Mann, Mr John (Lab) (Bassetlaw)
Voted No: Marsden, Mr Gordon (Lab) (Blackpool South)
Did not vote: Maskey, Mr. Paul (SF) (Belfast West)
Voted Aye: Maude, RH Mr Francis (Con) (Horsham)
Voted Aye: May, RH Mrs Theresa (Con) (Maidenhead)
Voted Aye: Maynard, Mr Paul (Con) (Blackpool North & Cleveleys)
Voted No: McCabe, Mr. Steve (Lab) (Birmingham Selly Oak)
Voted No: McCann, Mr Michael (Lab) (East Kilbride Strathaven & Lesmahago)
Voted No: McCarthy, Mr Kerry (Lab) (Bristol East)
Voted No: McCartney, Mr Jason (Con) (Colne Valley)
Voted Aye: McCartney, Mr Karl (Con) (Lincoln)
Voted No: McClymont, Mr Gregg (Lab) (Cumbernauld Kilsyth & Kirkintilloch)
Did not vote: McCrea, Dr William (DUP) (South Antrim)
Did not vote: McDonagh, Ms Siobhain (Lab) (Mitcham & Morden)
Voted No: McDonald, Andy (Lab) (Middlesbrough)
Voted No: McDonnell, Dr Alasdair (SDL) (Belfast South)
Voted No: McDonnell, Mr John (Lab) (Hayes & Harlington)
Voted No: McFadden, RH Mr Pat (Lab) (Wolverhampton South East)
Voted No: McGovern, Ms Alison (Lab) (Wirral South)
Voted No: McGovern, Mr. Jim (Lab) (Dundee West)
Did not vote: McGuinness, Mr. Martin (SF) (Mid Ulster)
Voted No: McGuire, RH Mrs Anne (Lab) (Stirling)
Voted Aye: McIntosh, Miss Anne (Con) (Thirsk & Malton)
Voted No: McKechin, Ms Ann (Lab) (Glasgow North)
Voted No: McKenzie, Mr Iain (Lab) (Inverclyde)
Voted No: McKinnell, Ms Catherine (Lab) (Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Voted Aye: McLoughlin, RH Mr Patrick (Con) (Derbyshire Dales)
Voted No: McPartland, Mr Stephen (Con) (Stevenage)
Voted Aye: McVey, Ms Esther (Con) (Wirral West)
Voted No: Meacher, RH Mr Michael (Lab) (Oldham West & Royton)
Voted No: Meale, Sir Alan (Lab) (Mansfield)
Voted No: Mearns, Mr Ian (Lab) (Gateshead)
Voted Aye: Menzies, Mr Mark (Con) (Fylde)
Did not vote: Mercer, Mr Patrick (Con) (Newark)
Voted Aye: Metcalfe, Mr Stephen (Con) (South Basildon & East Thurrock)
Voted No: Miliband, RH Edward (Lab) (Doncaster North)
Voted No: Miller, Mr Andrew (Lab) (Ellesmere Port & Neston)
Voted Aye: Miller, rh Maria (Con) (Basingstoke)
Voted No: Mills, Mr Nigel (Con) (Amber Valley)
Voted Aye: Milton, Ms Anne (Con) (Guildford)
Voted Aye: Mitchell, RH Mr Andrew (Con) (Sutton Coldfield)
Did not vote: Mitchell, Mr. Austin (Lab) (Great Grimsby)
Voted No: Moon, Mrs Madeleine (Lab) (Bridgend)
Voted Aye: Moore, rh Michael (LD) (Berwickshire Roxburgh & Selkirk)
Voted Aye: Mordaunt, Ms Penny (Con) (Portsmouth North)
Voted No: Morden, Ms Jessica (Lab) (Newport East)
Voted Aye: Morgan, Ms Nicky (Con) (Loughborough)
Voted No: Morrice, Mr Graeme (Lab) (Livingston)
Voted No: Morris, Ms Anne Marie (Con) (Newton Abbot)
Voted Aye: Morris, Mr David (Con) (Morecambe & Lunesdale)
Voted No: Morris, Grahame M. (Lab) (Easington)
Voted Aye: Morris, Mr James (Con) (Halesowen & Rowley Regis)
Voted Aye: Mosley, Mr Stephen (Con) (City of Chester)
Voted Aye: Mowat, Mr David (Con) (Warrington South)
Voted No: Mudie, Mr George (Lab) (Leeds East)
Did not vote: Mulholland, Mr Greg (LD) (Leeds North West)
Voted Aye: Mundell, RH David (Con) (Dumfriesshire Clydesdale & Tweeddale)
Did not vote: Munn, Ms Meg (Lab) (Sheffield Heeley)
Did not vote: Munt, Ms Tessa (LD) (Wells)
Did not vote: Murphy, Mr Conor (SF) (Newry & Armagh)
Voted No: Murphy, RH Mr Jim (Lab) (East Renfrewshire)
Voted No: Murphy, RH Paul (Lab) (Torfaen)
Voted No: Murray, Mr Ian (Lab) (Edinburgh South)
Voted Aye: Murray, Ms Sheryll (Con) (South East Cornwall)
Voted Aye: Murrison, Dr Andrew (Con) (South West Wiltshire)
Voted No: Nandy, Ms Lisa (Lab) (Wigan)
Voted No: Nash, Ms Pamela (Lab) (Airdrie & Shotts)
Voted Aye: Neill, Mr Robert (Con) (Bromley & Chislehurst)
Voted Aye: Newmark, Mr Brooks (Con) (Braintree)
Voted Aye: Newton, Ms Sarah (Con) (Truro & Falmouth)
Voted Aye: Nokes, Ms Caroline (Con) (Romsey & Southampton North)
Did not vote: Norman, Mr Jesse (Con) (Hereford & South Herefordshire)
Voted Aye: Nuttall, Mr David (Con) (Bury North)
Voted Aye: O’Brien, rh Mr Stephen (Con) (Eddisbury)
Voted No: O’Donnell, Ms Fiona (Lab) (East Lothian)
Voted Aye: Offord, Dr Matthew (Con) (Hendon)
Voted Aye: Ollerenshaw, Mr Eric (Con) (Lancaster & Fleetwood)
Voted No: Onwurah, Ms Chi (Lab) (Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Voted Aye: Opperman, Mr Guy (Con) (Hexham)
Voted Aye: Osborne, RH Mr George (Con) (Tatton)
Voted No: Osborne, Ms Sandra (Lab) (Ayr Carrick & Cumnock)
Voted Aye: Ottaway, Mr Richard (Con) (Croydon South)
Voted No: Owen, Mr Albert (Lab) (Ynys Mtn)
Did not vote: Paice, RH Mr James (Con) (South East Cambridgeshire)
Did not vote: Paisley, Mr Ian (DUP) (North Antrim)
Voted Aye: Parish, Mr Neil (Con) (Tiverton & Honiton)
Did not vote: Patel, Ms Priti (Con) (Witham)
Voted Aye: Paterson, RH Mr Owen (Con) (North Shropshire)
Voted Aye: Pawsey, Mr Mark (Con) (Rugby)
Voted No: Pearce, Ms Teresa (Lab) (Erith & Thamesmead)
Voted Aye: Penning, Mr Mike (Con) (Hemel Hempstead)
Voted Aye: Penrose, Mr John (Con) (Weston-Super-Mare)
Voted No: Percy, Mr Andrew (Con) (Brigg & Goole)
Voted No: Perkins, Mr Toby (Lab) (Chesterfield)
Voted Aye: Perry, Ms Claire (Con) (Devizes)
Voted Aye: Phillips, Mr Stephen (Con) (Sleaford & North Hykeham)
Voted No: Phillipson, Ms Bridget (Lab) (Houghton & Sunderland South)
Voted Aye: Pickles, RH Mr Eric (Con) (Brentwood & Ongar)
Voted Aye: Pincher, Mr Christopher (Con) (Tamworth)
Voted Aye: Poulter, Dr Daniel (Con) (Central Suffolk & North Ipswich)
Voted No: Pound, Mr. Stephen (Lab) (Ealing North)
Voted No: Powell, Lucy (Lab) (Manchester Central)
Did not vote: Primarolo, RH Dawn (Lab) (Bristol South)
Voted Aye: Prisk, Mr Mark (Con) (Hertford & Stortford)
Voted Aye: Pritchard, Mr Mark (Con) (The Wrekin)
Did not vote: Pugh, Dr. John (LD) (Southport)
Did not vote: Qureshi, Ms Yasmin (Lab) (Bolton South East)
Voted Aye: Raab, Mr Dominic (Con) (Esher & Walton)
Voted Aye: Randall, RH Mr John (Con) (Uxbridge & South Ruislip)
Voted No: Raynsford, RH Mr Nick (Lab) (Greenwich & Woolwich)
Voted Aye: Reckless, Mr Mark (Con) (Rochester & Strood)
Did not vote: Redwood, RH Mr John (Con) (Wokingham)
Voted No: Reed, Mr Jamie (Lab) (Copeland)
Voted No: Reed, Mr Steve (Lab) (Croydon North)
Voted Aye: Rees-Mogg, Mr Jacob (Con) (North East Somerset)
Voted Aye: Reevell, Mr Simon (Con) (Dewsbury)
Voted No: Reeves, Ms Rachel (Lab) (Leeds West)
Voted Aye: Reid, Mr Alan (LD) (Argyll & Bute)
Did not vote: Reynolds, Ms Emma (Lab) (Wolverhampton North East)
Voted No: Reynolds, Mr Jonathan (Lab) (Stalybridge & Hyde)
Voted Aye: Rifkind, RH Sir Malcolm (Con) (Kensington)
Voted No: Riordan, Mrs Linda (Lab) (Halifax)
Voted No: Ritchie, Ms Margaret (SDL) (South Down)
Voted Aye: Robathan, RH Mr Andrew (Con) (South Leicestershire)
Voted No: Robertson, Mr Angus (SNP) (Moray)
Voted Aye: Robertson, rh Hugh (Con) (Faversham & Mid Kent)
Voted No: Robertson, Mr John (Lab) (Glasgow North West)
Voted Aye: Robertson, Mr Laurence (Con) (Tewkesbury)
Voted No: Robinson, Mr Geoffrey (Lab) (Coventry North West)
Voted No: Rogerson, Mr. Dan (LD) (North Cornwall)
Did not vote: Rosindell, Mr Andrew (Con) (Romford)
Voted No: Rotheram, Mr Steve (Lab) (Liverpool Walton)
Voted No: Roy, Mr Frank (Lab) (Motherwell & Wishaw)
Voted No: Roy, Mr. Lindsay (Lab) (Glenrothes)
Voted No: Ruane, Mr Chris (Lab) (Vale of Clwyd)
Voted Aye: Rudd, Ms Amber (Con) (Hastings & Rye)
Voted No: Ruddock, rh Dame Joan (Lab) (Lewisham Deptford)
Did not vote: Ruffley, Mr David (Con) (Bury St Edmunds)
Voted Aye: Russell, Sir Bob (LD) (Colchester)
Voted Aye: Rutley, Mr David (Con) (Macclesfield)
Did not vote: Sanders, Mr Adrian (LD) (Torbay)
Voted Aye: Sandys, Ms Laura (Con) (South Thanet)
Voted No: Sarwar, Mr. Anas (Lab) (Glasgow Central)
Voted No: Sawford, Andy (Lab) (Corby)
Voted Aye: Scott, Mr Lee (Con) (Ilford North)
Voted No: Seabeck, Ms Alison (Lab) (Plymouth Moor View)
Voted Aye: Selous, Mr Andrew (Con) (South West Bedfordshire)
Voted No: Shannon, Mr Jim (DUP) (Strangford)
Voted Aye: Shapps, RH Grant (Con) (Welwyn Hatfield)
Voted Aye: Sharma, Mr Alok (Con) (Reading West)
Voted No: Sharma, Mr Virendra (Lab) (Ealing Southall)
Voted No: Sheerman, Mr Barry (Lab) (Huddersfield)
Voted Aye: Shelbrooke, Mr Alec (Con) (Elmet & Rothwell)
Voted No: Shepherd, Sir Richard (Con) (Aldridge-Brownhills)
Voted No: Sheridan, Mr Jim (Lab) (Paisley & Renfrewshire North)
Voted No: Shuker, Mr Gavin (Lab) (Luton South)
Did not vote: Simmonds, Mr. Mark (Con) (Boston & Skegness)
Did not vote: Simpson, Mr David (DUP) (Upper Bann)
Voted Aye: Simpson, Mr Keith (Con) (Broadland)
Voted Aye: Skidmore, Mr Chris (Con) (Kingswood)
Voted No: Skinner, Mr Dennis (Lab) (Bolsover)
Voted No: Slaughter, Mr Andy (Lab) (Hammersmith)
Voted No: Smith, RH Mr Andrew (Lab) (Oxford East)
Did not vote: Smith, Ms Angela (Lab) (Penistone & Stocksbridge)
Voted Aye: Smith, Miss Chloe (Con) (Norwich North)
Voted Aye: Smith, Mr Henry (Con) (Crawley)
Voted Aye: Smith, Mr Julian (Con) (Skipton & Ripon)
Voted No: Smith, Mr Nick (Lab) (Blaenau Gwent)
Voted No: Smith, Mr Owen (Lab) (Pontypridd)
Voted Aye: Smith, Sir Robert (LD) (West Aberdeenshire & Kincardine)
Voted Aye: Soames, RH Nicholas (Con) (Mid Sussex)
Voted Aye: Soubry, Ms Anna (Con) (Broxtowe)
Did not vote: Spellar, RH Mr. John (Lab) (Warley)
Voted Aye: Spelman, RH Mrs Caroline (Con) (Meriden)
Voted Aye: Spencer, Mr Mark (Con) (Sherwood)
Voted Aye: Stanley, RH Sir John (Con) (Tonbridge & Malling)
Voted Aye: Stephenson, Mr Andrew (Con) (Pendle)
Voted Aye: Stevenson, Mr John (Con) (Carlisle)
Voted Aye: Stewart, Mr Bob (Con) (Beckenham)
Voted Aye: Stewart, Mr Iain (Con) (Milton Keynes South)
Did not vote: Stewart, Mr Rory (Con) (Penrith & The Border)
Voted No: Straw, RH Mr Jack (Lab) (Blackburn)
Voted Aye: Streeter, Mr Gary (Con) (South West Devon)
Voted Aye: Stride, Mr Mel (Con) (Central Devon)
Voted No: Stringer, Mr. Graham (Lab) (Blackley & Broughton)
Voted No: Stuart, Ms Gisela (Lab) (Birmingham Edgbaston)
Voted Aye: Stuart, Mr Graham (Con) (Beverley & Holderness)
Voted No: Stunell, rh Sir Andrew (LD) (Hazel Grove)
Voted Aye: Sturdy, Mr Julian (Con) (York Outer)
Voted No: Sutcliffe, Mr Gerry (Lab) (Bradford South)
Voted No: Swales, Mr Ian (LD) (Redcar)
Voted Aye: Swayne, RH Mr Desmond (Con) (New Forest West)
Voted Aye: Swinson, Ms Jo (LD) (East Dunbartonshire)
Voted Aye: Swire, RH Mr Hugo (Con) (East Devon)
Voted Aye: Syms, Mr Robert (Con) (Poole)
Voted No: Tami, Mr Mark (Lab) (Alyn & Deeside)
Voted No: Tapsell, RH Sir Peter (Con) (Louth & Horncastle)
Voted No: Teather, Ms Sarah (LD) (Brent Central)
Voted No: Thomas, Mr Gareth (Lab) (Harrow West)
Voted No: Thornberry, Ms Emily (Lab) (Islington South & Finsbury)
Voted Aye: Thornton, Mike (LD) (Eastleigh)
Did not vote: Thurso, Mr John (LD) (Caithness Sutherland & Easter Ross)
Voted No: Timms, RH Stephen (Lab) (East Ham)
Voted Aye: Timpson, Mr Edward (Con) (Crewe & Nantwich)
Voted Aye: Tomlinson, Mr Justin (Con) (North Swindon)
Did not vote: Tredinnick, Mr David (Con) (Bosworth)
Voted No: Trickett, Mr Jon (Lab) (Hemsworth)
Voted Aye: Truss, Ms Elizabeth (Con) (South West Norfolk)
Voted No: Turner, Mr Andrew (Con) (Isle of Wight)
Did not vote: Turner, Mr Karl (Lab) (Kingston upon Hull East)
Voted No: Twigg, Mr Derek (Lab) (Halton)
Voted No: Twigg, Mr Stephen (Lab) (Liverpool West Derby)
Did not vote: Tyrie, Mr Andrew (Con) (Chichester)
Voted No: Umunna, Mr Chuka (Lab) (Streatham)
Voted Aye: Uppal, Mr Paul (Con) (Wolverhampton South West)
Voted Aye: Vaizey, Mr Edward (Con) (Wantage)
Voted Aye: Vara, Mr Shailesh (Con) (North West Cambridgeshire)
Voted No: Vaz, RH Keith (Lab) (Leicester East)
Voted No: Vaz, Ms Valerie (Lab) (Walsall South)
Voted No: Vickers, Mr Martin (Con) (Cleethorpes)
Voted Aye: Villiers, RH Mrs Theresa (Con) (Chipping Barnet)
Voted No: Walker, Mr Charles (Con) (Broxbourne)
Voted Aye: Walker, Mr Robin (Con) (Worcester)
Voted Aye: Wallace, Mr Ben (Con) (Wyre & Preston North)
Voted No: Walley, Ms Joan (Lab) (Stoke-on-Trent North)
Voted Aye: Walter, Mr Robert (Con) (North Dorset)
Voted No: Ward, Mr David (LD) (Bradford East)
Voted Aye: Watkinson, Dame Angela (Con) (Hornchurch & Upminster)
Voted No: Watson, Mr Tom (Lab) (West Bromwich East)
Voted No: Watts, Mr Dave (Lab) (St Helens North)
Voted Aye: Weatherley, Mr Mike (Con) (Hove)
Did not vote: Webb, Mr Steve (LD) (Thornbury & Yate)
Voted No: Weir, Mr Mike (SNP) (Angus)
Voted Aye: Wharton, Mr James (Con) (Stockton South)
Voted Aye: Wheeler, Ms Heather (Con) (South Derbyshire)
Voted No: White, Mr Chris (Con) (Warwick & Leamington)
Voted No: Whiteford, Dr Eilidh (SNP) (Banff & Buchan)
Voted No: Whitehead, Dr Alan (Lab) (Southampton Test)
Voted Aye: Whittaker, Mr Craig (Con) (Calder Valley)
Voted Aye: Whittingdale, Mr John (Con) (Maldon)
Did not vote: Wiggin, Mr Bill (Con) (North Herefordshire)
Voted Aye: Willetts, RH Mr David (Con) (Havant)
Voted No: Williams, Mr Hywel (PC) (Arfon)
Did not vote: Williams, Mr Mark (LD) (Ceredigion)
Voted No: Williams, Mr. Roger (LD) (Brecon & Radnorshire)
Voted Aye: Williams, Mr Stephen (LD) (Bristol West)
Voted No: Williamson, Mr Chris (Lab) (Derby North)
Voted Aye: Williamson, Mr Gavin (Con) (South Staffordshire)
Did not vote: Willott, Ms Jenny (LD) (Cardiff Central)
Voted No: Wilson, Mr Phil (Lab) (Sedgefield)
Voted Aye: Wilson, Mr Rob (Con) (Reading East)
Voted No: Wilson, Mr Sammy (DUP) (East Antrim)
Voted No: Winnick, Mr David (Lab) (Walsall North)
Voted No: Winterton, RH Ms Rosie (Lab) (Doncaster Central)
Voted No: Wishart, Mr Pete (SNP) (Perth & North Perthshire)
Voted No: Wollaston, Dr Sarah (Con) (Totnes)
Voted No: Wood, Mr Mike (Lab) (Batley & Spen)
Did not vote: Woodcock, Mr John (Lab) (Barrow & Furness)
Did not vote: Woodward, RH Mr Shaun (Lab) (St Helens South & Whiston)
Voted No: Wright, Mr David (Lab) (Telford)
Voted No: Wright, Mr Iain (Lab) (Hartlepool)
Voted Aye: Wright, Mr Jeremy (Con) (Kenilworth & Southam)
Voted Aye: Wright, Mr Simon (LD) (Norwich South)
Did not vote: Yeo, Mr Tim (Con) (South Suffolk)
Voted Aye: Young, RH Sir George (Con) (North West Hampshire)
Voted Aye: Zahawi, Mr Nadhim (Con) (Stratford-on-Avon)
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More babies were born in the UK in 2011-12 than any year since 1972, says the Office for National Statistics, as reported by the BBC.
In all, 813,200 UK births were recorded in the year, said the ONS, contributing to population growth that was, in absolute terms, the highest in the European Union.
ONS estimates say the population of the UK grew by 419,900 to 63.7 million between June 2011 and June 2012.
There were 254,400 more births than deaths and 165,600 more people coming to the UK than leaving.
There were 517,800 migrants from overseas while 352,100 people left the country.
Population growth is highest in London with the South-East of England coming in second. Channel 4 has a useful map showing where population growth is highest.
After the low birth-rate a decade ago, births are on course to emulate the nineteen-eighties in around three years and to outstrip the sixties by 2020.
The difference is, in the sixties and eighties it was people of British origin having the babies. Now, that demographic group are averaging below 2 children per woman of child-bearing age, while all the headline-grabbing stuff is coming from immigrants whose cultures still celebrate fecundity.
One Simon Ross, of anti-growth pressure group Population Matters, was reported widely, not least in the Daily Mail (which also has an interesting population chart by age).
He whined: ‘Our growing population is the root of many of our most pressing problems, including a lack of housing, pressure on services and development threats to our countryside and green spaces.
‘These, together with consequent infrastructure investments and transport issues are increasing costs for everyone. Measures by the Government to limit net migration are to be welcomed. However, the Government should also promote the benefits to individuals and society of smaller families.’
That is actually nonsense. The greater pressure on housing is coming from allowing families to split up so nonchalantly through divorce on demand. Services and transport do not stand still. They increase with population. There is no benefit to society from smaller families. A more informed opinion came from Jonathan Portes, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
He said: “The medium to long-term benefits are substantial. The people who are being born now or the immigrants who are coming here now will help pay for our pensions and public services in the future.”
The danger is not increased population as such but the way our population is being skewed towards a particular religious group.
Dr Leon Moosavi of Liverpool University says the Muslim population in the UK grew from 1.5 million in 2001 to 3.0 million in 2011, from 2% of the total population to something between 4% and 5%. And they are not slowing down yet. If anything, those Muslims born here are even more culturally Islamic and productive of the next generation than their parents.
Vincent Cooper, writing for The Commentator, argues that on present population trends, Muslims will be in a majority in the UK by 2050. Many of our cities will suffer that fate a lot earlier. Ten years before that, the tipping point at which Muslims will form a majority in the House of Commons will arrive.
But let us not blame individual Muslims, let alone Muslim women, for having more children than the current 1.8 norm. They are simply doing what God designed their bodies to do. They are doing what Christians should be doing: Working hard and increasing in a land where they feel like the underdogs.
Centuries ago, before the time of Christ, the people of Judah were carried off to Babylon. What did the Prophet Jeremiah urge them to do? Sit around moping? Watch the skies for their deliverance? No, he told them to build, to plant, to increase and to pray:
Jer 29:4 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon; 5 Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; 6 Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished. 7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
What did the Lord Jesus tell his followers to do before his return? ‘Occupy till I come.‘ (Luke 19:13)
Our society has a death-wish. We kill our own children, we encourage families to fracture, we whisk children off into ‘care’ to be abused by paedophile rings, we celebrate sexual license, pornography and perversion, even allowing the practitioners of the latter to pretend to ‘marry’.
But the secularists who have engineered our present debauchery have a very short time in which to celebrate. Like every civilisation which has ploughed this furrow before, we shall go down the rubbish-chute of history, being taken over within a generation by a stronger, monogamous culture. That culture, on current trends, will be Islam.
If only it would be Christianity. But that depends on the Church finding some confidence in historical, traditional, red-blooded Christianity. The very future of the United Kingdom depends on whether Christian men will stand up to be counted.
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Her Majesty the Queen has given her Royal Assent to the Bill legalising ‘gay marriage’ in England and Wales.
Speaker John Bercow MP told the House of Commons yesterday that Her Majesty had given the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill her approval. The Bill is now an Act of Parliament.
During Her Coronation on 2nd June 1953, and before she was anointed and crowned, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth was asked by Archbishop Fisher, inter alia:
‘Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel?’
And the Queen replied: ‘All this I solemnly promise to do.’
Next the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland presented the Bible to the Queen. Between them, the Archbishop and Moderator said to her:
‘The whole world is subject to the Power and Empire of Christ our Redeemer’
‘Our gracious Queen: to keep your majesty ever mindful of the Law and the Gospel of God as the Rule for the whole life and government of Christian Princes, we present you with this book, the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is Wisdom; This is the royal Law; these are the lively oracles of God.’
The Archbishop told Her Majesty when she was given the Orb from the Crown Jewels:
‘Receive this Orb set under the Cross, and remember that the whole world is subject to the Power and Empire of Christ our Redeemer.’
Her Majesty’s Government can no more change the definition of marriage than they can declare that God does not exist.
But they have done so, and as Her Majesty always acts on the advice of her ministers she has, and not for the first time, legislated against her Coronation Oath.
As we saw on Monday, the homosexuals will now be targeting freedom of speech and Christianity itself. When will the gay hate speech Bill next raise its ugly head? Who will be the first Christian teacher sacked for refusing to teach that ‘gay shows the way’? Which will be the first church taken to court for refusing a ‘gay wedding’? Watch this space.
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Those who have already left the Co-op bank will be pleased with their decision.
Stop Press March 2026: Since we published this article in 2013, users have reported ‘terrible service‘ and the bank was taken over by Coventry Building Society on 1st January 2025. The actual Co-op is no longer involved in the bank.
Article: A group of investors in the Co-operative Bank has slammed the UK’s banking regulator following its order that the bank must raise £1.5 billion in fresh capital.
Mark Taber, spokesman for 1,300 individual Co-op investors, this week accused the Prudential Regulation Authority of setting an “arbitrary and putative” demand on Co-op Bank, after it told the bank it needed extra capital to comply with new rules.
The warning that its banking arm may need “external support” to plug a near £1bn hole in its balance sheet has even raised the spectre of nationalisation for the stricken bank. Judgment has fallen on the Co-op Bank after it closed the Christian Voice account in 2005, despite its ‘customer-led ethical policy’. See link below.
The new rules may originate with the EU, but Co-op Bank has been left with a massive hole in its capital after acquiring toxic commercial real-estate loans when it merged with Britannia Building Society in 2009.
The investors’ fury at the Regulator and their dismay at their conversion into shareholders are just the latest problems to hit a bank which always claimed to be ‘ethical’.
In May, Co-op chief executive Barry Tootell resigned in the wake of a devastating downgrade to the bank’s credit by Moody’s which pushed it down six notches from “investment grade” to junk at the stroke of a pen.
In April, the Co-op’s ambitions to buy just over 630 TSB branches from Lloyds TSB collapsed. The Co-operative knew it was in crisis even while negotiating the agreement which was announced almost exactly year ago.
Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority, informed a committee of MPs last week that he had told Co-op Bank’s board as long ago as 2011 that it had a capital problem and might not be strong enough to take over the Lloyds TSB branches.
He said the problem had grown by the second half of 2012, and that Co-op Bank wasn’t in a position to proceed with the branch purchase. This was at a time while the Co-op had just announced and was continuing to push on with a deal it must have known was dead in the water. How that decision fits with ethical banking has not yet been explained.
Incredibly, rather than accept responsibility for the debacle, the Co-op blamed the continued economic downturn and tougher regulatory environment imposed on banks instead.
In June 2005, the Co-operative Bank told Christian Voice to close its account at the bank because our stance on homosexuality was in conflict with the bank’s ‘ethical policies of diversity’. Gay Times awarded an ethical corporate stance award to Co-operative Bank to congratulate them.
In response to the Co-op’s decision, Christian Voice encouraged a boycott of the bank. Those who got out of the Co-op at that time will be feeling especially pleased with their decision today.
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The attack on a secondary school in Yobe came on Saturday and was carried out by Boko Haram, which literally means ‘book’ or ‘alphabet’ (by extension non-Islamic education) is ‘unlawful’.
The Islamists forced the children into a dormitory and then shot them before setting fire to the school.
As a result, Yobe Governor Ibrahim Gaidam has ordered all secondary schools to close until the start of the new academic term in September, to allow state and federal government officials and community leaders time to work out how to guarantee their safety.
Governor Gaidam condemned as “cold-blooded murder” Saturday’s attack on the Mamudo boarding school, describing the attackers as “callous and devoid of any shred of humanity”.
Boko Haram targeted two schools in the region in June, but dozens have been burned across Nigeria in attacks by Islamists since 2010.
More than 600 people were believed to have been killed in 2012 by the group, which is fighting to overthrow the government and create an Islamic state in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north.
This attack is in spite of the State of Emergency declared by the Federal Government in three states including Yobe.
Last year, the Law Society banned a conference on marriage which had been booked at their HQ in London by Christian Concern. CC were told just days before the event that it breached “equality and diversity” policies.
The conference speakers held mainstream views that marriage is between a man and a woman. They included academics, the head of a political think tank and a writer for the Telegraph newspaper.
Most reasonable people would take the view that the Law Society should have as much freedom to let their conference rooms to whoever they please as a Christian hotelier should have to decide who can sleep under their roof. But for Lawyers to allow a booking and then break their contract doesn’t set a very good example to the rest of us.
Christian Concern have now reached an agreement with the Law Society in which the Society agrees that they are entitled to hold their views and can book the premises in future. But CC point out that this kind of what they call ‘censorship’ is happening before any change in the law on marriage.
What will happen after ‘gay marriage’ is enacted is anyone’s guess, but our guesswork can be helped by the Law Society’s foray into the promotion of sodomites’ rights post ‘gay marriage’.
Fiona Woolf in her regalia as an Alderman of the City of London
As well as taking part in the London Gay Pride Parade on 29th June 2013, and despite promising to hold ‘a debate on same-sex marriage’, the Law Society is sponsoring a conference next Thursday under the banner of the ‘InterLaw Diversity Forum’ to ‘secure real equality for LGBT+ people now that a comprehensive legal framework has been achieved’. ‘Special guest speakers’ are Tim Hailes, MD of JP Morgan and Fiona Woolf, a previous president of the Law Society and diversity advocate who is about to become Lord Mayor of the City of London.
Now they have – or are about to get – legal equality (don’t tell them that the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill now going through Parliament isn’t ‘equal marriage at all) ‘the gays’ want even more.
Dressing up their demands in terms of ‘anti-violence’ and ‘anti-LGBT+ bullying’ (no, we don’t know what the + is for either) ignores the fact that most violence against homosexuals occurs within their own network, and that their anti-bullying programmes encourage bullying. The real agenda will be about how to shut up those opposed to them and how to push Christians out of public sector jobs.
You heard it here first.
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The Girl Guides are to drop references to ‘God’ and ‘country’ from their traditional pledge but are to retain a public expression of allegiance to the Queen, reports the Daily Telegraph.
In the new Promise, which will take effect from 1st September, the words ‘to love my God’, which already had an individualistic feel, is to be replaced with ‘to be true to myself and develop my beliefs’, sounding like something out of a New Age self-help manual.
The Guides have retained their pledge to the Queen, who just happens to be Patron of the UK Girl Guides, but the words ‘to serve the Queen and my community’, begging the question ‘who or what is “my community”?’ will replace ‘to serve the Queen and my country’. A vow to “help other people” and to “do my best” will remain part of the new promise.
Stephen Evans, campaigns manager of the National Secular Society, applauded the Guides by getting out his secularist politically-correct phrase-book: “By omitting any explicit mention of God or religion the Guide Association has grasped the opportunity to make itself truly inclusive and relevant to the reality of 21st century Britain.
“The new secular promise can now be meaningful and relevant to all guides and potential leaders, whatever their beliefs – and sends a clear signal that Girlguiding is equally welcoming to all girls.”
The Guides website claims that the new promise will lead to them ‘welcoming more members’, but David Landrum, advocacy director at the Evangelical Alliance said: “No doubt, the Girls Brigade will be the main beneficiaries from this erroneous decision, because as the growing popularity of faith schools attests, parents will always seek to provide religious rather than secular humanist values for their children.”
In 2007 the Girl Guides started a programme called ‘Get Wise’ to teach about ‘sexual health’. The programme sank into embarrassed obscurity, but the organisation’s website had a page called ‘fit for life’ which promoted new age treatments such as aromatherapy, colour therapy (whatever that might be) and yoga. The guiding website forum urges girls to ‘indulge your inner gossip queen‘.
We understand there is still a weblink to the fpa in the GirlGuiding members area but another, to a Government url astonishingly called ‘www.playingsafely.co.uk’, as if sex is just an adolescent recreational activity, appears to have been dropped. The link was redirected straight to a suggestive NHS website called condomessentialwear.co.uk.
The Girl Guides were founded in 1909 by Agnes Baden-Powell, sister of Robert Baden-Powell, the architect of the Scouting movement.
The highly-portable Russian-made Konkurs anti-tank missile is being supplied, ironically, to the Syrian Sunni Islamist rebels.
An unnamed Middle Eastern state has supplied Syrian rebels with 250 sophisticated Soviet-made anti-tank missiles, most of which were given to radical Islamist militias fighting President Bashar Assad, according to a report published in London-based Arabic daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat on Tuesday.
According to the report, the unidentified state made its first delivery of 9M113 Konkurs missiles to the rebels a week ago via Turkey. The Konkurs antitank missile, ironicaly supplied by Russia, has a maximum range of four kilometers and a hit probability of 90 percent. Egypt, Iran and Turkey are the only known operators of the missile system in the Middle East.
The information has come from The Times of Israel. The weapons would not have come from President Assad’s Shia Muslim ally, Iran.
Meanwhile, Israel National News has reported that France and Belgium have joined Saudi Arabia in supplying the Free Syrian Army with weapons.
The news comes as world leaders have been gathering on the shores of Loch Erne in Northern Ireland as the G8 summit. President Putin is determined that President Assad should remain in power in any settlement, but the Western powers, including William Hague, the UK Foreign Secretary, and President Obama are supporting the rebels, who include militant Al-Qaeda elements and other hard-line Sunni activists dedicated to exterminating both the Shia Muslims and Syria’s 10% Christian minority, who have enjoyed freedom under the Assad regime.
President Obama has said he will arm the rebels, thus prolonging the Syrian civil war. The US has taken particular umbrage at the alleged small-scale use of chemical weapons by President Assad’s side, as if it is somehow preferable or more gentlemanly to blow opponents to pieces with mortars than suffocate them by Sarin.
However,Leaked emails from a UK weapons company appear to show that Washington was involved in a plan to supply the rebels with chemical weapons whose use could then be blamed on Assad. In addition to that, reports of atrocities on both sides have put paid to the idea that the rebels are benign and restrained.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has argued that Britain will have no means of preventing UK weapons ending up in the hands of “al Qaida-affliated thugs” if it supplies arms to the Syrian rebels, Boris Johnson warned.
Writing for the Daily Telegraph the London mayor put himself at the head of the growing opposition at Westminster to any move by David Cameron to arm the rebels, saying Britain could not end the conflict by “pressing weapons into the hands of maniacs”. The Archbishop of York has agreed.
However the scale of the opposition among MPs of all parties means Mr Cameron – who has promised a Commons vote on any move by Britain to arm the rebels – will almost certainly find his path blocked if he tries to follow suit.
The London Mayor described an incident in Aleppo where a 15-year-old boy was taken away and beaten and then summarily executed by Islamist rebels for making a joking reference to the Prophet Mohammed.
“Odious, twisted, hate-filled thugs; arrogant and inadequate creeps, intoxicated by the pathetic illusion of power that comes with guns; poisoned by a perversion of religion into a contempt for all norms of civilised behaviour,” he wrote.
“They are fighting not for freedom but for a terrifying Islamic state in which they would have the whip hand – and yet there is no dodging or fudging the matter: these are among the Syrian rebels who are hoping now to benefit from the flow of Western arms .
“How is it supposed to work? How are we meant to furnish machine guns and anti-tank weapons to one set of opposition forces, without them ending up in the hands of men like the al Qaida-affiliated thugs who executed a child for telling a joke?
“This is not the moment to send more arms. This is the moment for a total ceasefire, an end to the madness.
“We can’t use Syria as an arena for geopolitical point-scoring or muscle-flexing, and we won’t get a ceasefire by pressing weapons into the hands of maniacs,” he argued.
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Ted Cantle, who wants an end to government funding for both faith schools and church-run soup kitchens, speaking at a conference organised by the National Secular Society.
A group of humanists are demanding that faith schools should be open to all children, regardless of their parents’ religion.
The Fair Admissions Campaign wants all state-funded schools in England and Wales to be open equally to all children, without regard to religion or belief.
Latest available statistics indicate one in four primary schools and one in 16 secondary schools in England are Church of England schools. Approaching one million pupils are educated in more than 4,700 Church of England schools.’
The Fair Admissions Campaign claims that it is ‘widely supported’, by those at its meetings perhaps. In the real world, according the Church of England:
‘Seven in ten (72%) of the population agree that Church of England schools help young people to grow into responsible members of society and 8 in 10 (80%) agree that they promote good behaviour and positive attitudes.’
‘I think that it is quite clear that faith schools tend to have a strong ethos emphasising respect for authority, the virtues of hard work, discipline and a sense of duty rather than just rights, a commitment to high ideals, a willingness to learn and a sense of social responsibility. Their ethos also gives a preference for earned self-respect rather than unearned self-esteem and the idea of an objective moral order transcending subjective personal preferences.’
In a glimpse into the arcane and incestuous nature of secularism, the Accord Coaltion is itself an amalgamation of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, the British Humanist Association, British Muslims for Secular Democracy, the Campaign for State Education, Ekklesia, the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the Hindu Academy, the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, Liberal Youth, the National Union of Teachers, the Socialist Education Association, the Runnymede Trust and Women Against Fundamentalism
Professor Ted Cantle, named as a leading figure behind the campaign, is anti-multicultural to the extent that he would ban the Government from giving any funding to church-run soup kitchens, on the grounds that ‘they fuel separation in communities’.
There is no evidence whatsoever that faith-based schools, by which we mean mainly Church of England schools, are divisive or that they are turning out suicide bombers or young men eager to knife soldiers on the streets of Greenwich. There is no evidence that church-run soup kitchens, homeless shelters, drop-ins and other Christian contributions to the ‘big society’ fuel separation in any way at all.
But that will not stop the relentless assault on our Christian Heritage from those who hate the Lord Jesus Christ.
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The Government has handed atheists a Darwin Day present by promising to indoctrinate primary school children with evolutionism.
Education Secretary of State Rt Hon Michael Gove MP has decided to force primary schools in England to teach evolutionary theory. The announcement was made as part of last week’s English Baccalaureate climb-down statement.
However, the decision raises questions about issues of conscience for primary school teachers, who cover more subjects than their secondary colleagues and cannot simply keep out of the biology department.
Richard Dawkins – not as nice as he looks.
Shortly after being appointed two-and-a-half years ago Michael Gove bowed to pressure from evolutionary biologists including Richard Dawkins and banned from Secondary School biology classes any talk of a possibility that organisms show signs of having been designed. If last week’s statement is followed through, it will be the first time evolution has been taught as a subject in primary schools.
The decision can be seen as an act of desperation by secularists, who are worried that the holes in Darwin’s theory of evolution are becoming increasingly visible and talked-about, not least in the scientific community.
Charles Darwin, 1809 – 1882. Published ‘On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life’ on 24th November 1859.
Sadly, a link on the BHA website to ‘answers to 21 anti-evolutionary questions and arguments’ sends the visitor to the schools campaigning page instead and a google search reveals no such document.
Interestingly, there are webpages elsewhere claiming to answer creationist’s questions, but they fail to do so. Here is one attempt; I love the admission that evolution needs time – lots and lots of time.
Yeast reproduces every 15 minutes. Over the course of a day that is almost 100 generations, 35,000 generations in a year. In human terms that amounts to 876,000 years, taking 25 years for a generation, or over a million years if you ascribe 30 years for a generation.
The Carlsberg Brewery have been using the same yeast for 130 years, during which time it has gone through over 4-and-a-half million generations.
The yeast Saccharomyces carlsbergensis is named after the Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen, where it was first isolated in 1883, 130 years ago. Carlsbergensis has gone through 4,550,000 generations and it is still the exact same strain of yeast as in 1883. It hasn’t mutated into anything else for 4-and-a-half million generations. One might say it hasn’t needed to, but where is the evidence that it could even try? In human terms those generations amount to 130 million (130,000,000) years.
New Scientist, a bastion of evolutionism, claims our ‘evolution from apes’ began ‘6 million years’ ago. But the evidence from the yeast is that 130 million years would not be enough time even to start the process. 6 million years of human ancestry is like expecting yeast after 6 years of brewing to jump out of the vat and become a mushroom. No doubt it shares just as much of its DNA with something else as we do with monkeys. But that genetic information relentlessly reproduces it as yeast.
I don’t have a lot of questions for evolutionists, I just have one. Well, actually, I do have a lot, but one will do, and it is this:
Who put the tuft on the head of the Tufted Duck?
What is the evolutionary purpose, or what advantage is conveyed to the species, as a species, by the tuft on the head of the tufted duck? And if I am allowed a supplementary or two: If there is no advantage to the species, what is the tuft on the head of the tufted duck actually for and how and why did it evolve?
You see, I know the answer, from a creationist point of view, at least.
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As North Korea has recently been in the headlines because of their brazen and shameless threats to the United States, we want to remind our readers of the resources we made available last year, including resources focusing on the persecution of Christians in this dark and evil nation. To download our collection of resources, click on the following link:
Kim Jong-un, the current leader of North Korea, comes from a family of brutal rulers.
I assembled these resources after speaking first-hand with those who had been involved helping North Koreans to escape.
Also, see the news story published yesterday about photographs of North Korea’s concentration camps that were generated using Google Earth. The report tells how “As many as 250,000 political prisoners and their families toil on starvation rations in the mostly remote mountain camps”, but what it does not mention is that many of these families are Christians who have been taken to these starvation camps as a punishment for believing in Jesus.
To get an idea of what goes on in these camps, read my book review of Kang Chol-Hwan’s chilling exposé of the system after his own imprisonment of ten years. The treatments that Christians and other political prisoners are subjected to at these camps include such things as:
making prisoners watch other prisoners being executed and then forcing them to throw stones at the corpses
working prisoners to death through hard labour
forcing prisoners to live in permanent situations of deliberately contrived semi-starvation
placing prisoners in a 1.5-metre-square (24 square feet) punishment cell for a week or more, where they are unable to sit up or lie down
forcing prisoners to remain for long periods in the cold
raping women with tools until they are dead
routine infanticide and forced abortions, including stamping on the necks of babies until they die
water torture
motionless-kneeling for long periods (detainees who move while they are supposed to be kneeling motionless are handcuffed from the upper bars of their cells with their feet suspended off the floor)
beating prisoners to death
sleep deprivation
cutting off women’s breasts
forcing detainees to beat each other
breaking fingers
At this point, there isn’t much we can do other than pray for God to bring a miracle of deliverance to this country, which is a relic of the Cold War era. The other thing we can do is to educate ourselves. I am constantly meeting Christians who have no idea that their fellow brothers and sisters are suffering in Nazi-style concentration camps because the media, fixated on the Middle East, all but completely ignores the problem.
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The Oxford Union is to invite an American pro-family activist to address it after a mix-up on dates.
Scott Lively was due to speak last night in the annual ‘gay rights’ debate, but an error saw him given the date of the Israel debate on 31st January instead. As Mr Lively had already arranged his travel around that date, the President-Elect of the Union has courteously offered to schedule an additional event for him to speak on Friday 1st February.
Proposing the motion were PinkNews.co.uk and Out4Marriage founder Benjamin Cohen, gay rights activist Richard Fairbass of the band Right Said Fred, and Phyll Opoku-Gyimah of Black Pride UK. Opposing the motion was Peter D Williams of Catholic Voices, anti-abortion activist Anthony McCarthy, journalist Lynette Burrows and Rev George Hargreaves, leader of the Christian Party.
Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, has taken part in similar debates at both the Oxford and Cambridge Unions in the past. He said today:
‘Any pretence at an objective, fair-minded debate where minds could be changed by great oratory and consideration of factual evidence has vanished over the years. It has been replaced by emotionalism, fashion and barracking of opponents of the new intolerant status quo.
‘I can only admire the bravery of the young people who go through the ‘No’ lobby at these debates.’
Scott Lively, who has a personal testimony of the healing power of the Lord Jesus and is a strong advocate of Christian healing therapy for those suffering from same-sex attraction, has become a hate-figure of gay rights activists since his address on that subject to parliamentarians in Uganda was followed by the introduction of a Bill to make the promotion of sodomy in the East African nation illegal.
Things are seen differently in Africa from the universities of Britain.
Homosexual activists are urging multinational companies to usurp democracy in Uganda.
Patrick Strudwick, an agent provocateur who posed as a Christian seeking healing for same-sex attraction in order to attack Christian counsellor Lesley Pilkington, is leading the charge.
In an email, Strudwick writes:
‘In a matter of days — possibly even hours — Uganda’s parliament is set to pass the so-called “Kill the Gays” bill, which could enshrine in law the death penalty for LGBT people. Their Speaker described the bill as a “Christmas gift” for the Ugandan people.
‘Activists in Uganda say that one way to stop this is by putting pressure on powerful international banks in the country to condemn the bill.
‘Barclays and Citibank both have millions of pounds invested in Uganda and wield a huge influence on the government. A public statement from Barclays speaking out against the “Kill the Gays” bill might be the best chance to stop it and save gay people from being executed.
‘Both banks have supported human rights for LGBT people in the Europe and the US. Barclays is one of the UK’s top employers for LGBT people and prides itself on its work championing gay equality in Britain, which is why I’ve been a customer of theirs for years.
‘If these banks speak out against the bill the Ugandan government will see the huge risk posed to business and their economy if they forge ahead with it.
‘That’s why I’ve started a petition’ … he drones on.
There are two main things wrong with this outpouring from a character described as ‘Smugtwit’ and one of ‘Britain’s two most boring gay men’ by a homosexual blogger.
The second is that the Bill of which he complains is not remotely a ‘kill the gays’ measure anyway.
Now, in its first draft it did provide for the death penalty for those who use the act of sodomy to infect others with HIV/Aids, and those who sodomise children. What penalty would Strudwick want to see for such paragons of ‘gay virtue’? Nothing? An award of ‘Infectious Personality of the Year’ in next year’s Stonewall awards?
It also addressed an anomaly in which those found guilty of rape face the death penalty but those convicted of forced sodomy do not. Again, what penalty does Strudwick think is appropriate for homosexuals who violate others like that? ‘Sports Award of the Year’, perhaps, sponsored as it was this year, by Barclays?
The true reason behind the Bill, introduced three years ago by Ugandan ruling party members David Bahati, is to protect Uganda’s children from being recruited into the homosexual lifestyle by wealthy Western pederasts.
A secondary problem addressed by the Bill is the promotion of sodomy by Western NGO’s such as Jon Stryker’s Arcus Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Dutch humanist group Hivos and George Soros’s ‘Open Society’. On top of all that is the ‘strings-attached’ foreign aid from the US, the EU and Britain. The East Aftican homosexual propaganda industry is entirely funded by rich homosexuals and their friends in the West.
Simon Lokodo, the Minister for ‘Ethics and Integrity’ plans to ban 38 different organisations that are currently promoting homosexuality if the Bill becomes law. It is the Bill’s clamp-down on their proselytisation which most annoys Western homosexuals, and the loss of an exotic playground where adolescent boys can be enticed with a couple of dollars.
The Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, told The Associated Press on Monday 12th November that the bill will become law this year.
The Hon Rebecca Kadaga, Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament.
Ugandans “are demanding it,” she said, reiterating a promise she made before a meeting on Friday of anti-gay activists who spoke of “the serious threat” posed by homosexuals to Uganda’s children. Some Christian clerics at the meeting in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, asked the speaker to pass the law as “a Christmas gift.”
“Speaker, we cannot sit back while such (a) destructive phenomenon is taking place in our nation,” the activists said in a petition. “We therefore, as responsible citizens, feel duty-bound to bring this matter to your attention as the leader of Parliament … so that lawmakers can do something to quickly address the deteriorating situation in our nation.”
The anti-gay activists paraded in front of Mrs Kadaga, with parents and schoolchildren holding up signs saying homosexuality is “an abomination.” The speaker then promised to consider the bill within two weeks, declaring that “the power is in our hands.”
“Who are we not to do what they have told us? These people should not be begging us,” Mrs Kadaga said of activists who want the bill to become law.
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Education Secretary, Michael Grove, condemned the decision as “indefensible.”
A Yorkshire council today admitted it made a mistake in removing children from foster parents because the couple were members of the UK Independence Party. (Read the Times article about it here.)
The children, a baby girl, a boy and an older girl, were removed from the foster couple by the Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council in South Yorkshire following allegations from social workers that the parents’ political affiliation was at odds with the children’s European backgrounds. (The Ukip party favours Britain’s complete withdrawal from the EU.)
The social worker in the case alleged that UKIP is a racist party and that the children’s “cultural and ethnic needs” might be compromised by the foster parents. However, the council admitted that the South Yorkshire couple, a qualified nursery nurse and a former Royal Navy reservist, were good foster parents and provided proper care to the children.
The children had been with the foster parents for about eight weeks. During this time they were encouraged to share their own folk songs and speak their native language, which the foster parents were attempting to learn.
The Council’s admission of error occurred after Education Secretary, Michael Gove, condemned the decision as “indefensible” last weekend, leading to an investigation of the Council’s behaviour.
In a statement earlier today, council leader Roger Stone commented that “Membership of UKIP should not bar someone from fostering. The council places the highest priority on safeguarding children, and our overriding concern in all decisions about the children in our care is for their best interests.”
Labour leader, Ed Miliband also criticized the Council’s totalitarian actions. He was joined by Michael Grove, who heads the Government department responsible for children’s services. Mr Grove promised to investigate what happened and to “deal with” the situation. He commented that
“Rotherham’s reasons for denying this family the chance to foster are indefensible. The ideology behind their decision is actively harmful to children. We should not allow considerations of ethnic or cultural background to prevent children being placed with loving and stable families…. Any council which decides that supporting a mainstream UK political party disbars an individual from looking after children in care is sending a dreadful signal that will only decrease the number of loving homes available to children in need.”
The couple have still not received the children back, nor have they been given a public apology. The wife told The Daily Telegraph: “We feel that we have personally been slandered and we would like a public apology from Rotherham. We would also like something in the form of a letter stating that they have got it wrong in this case and that it will not be on our records that we have had children removed from our care.We just want a clean slate.”
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that social workers and local councils have used their power as leverage over parents whose views are not politically correct. Last June we reported on the story of Toni McLeod, who has taken up residence in Ireland to try to escape the tentacles of Durham County Council. Durham council is attempting to gain custody of Mrs. McLeod’s baby because of her allegedly anti-Muslim views.
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An Exclusive Brethren church trust in Devon is to consider advertising its services to satisfy the Charity Commission that it serves a public benefit, according to Third Way magazine yesterday.
The news that the Preston Down Trust had been refused charitable status was greeted with alarm in some Christian circles, but the National Director of Christian Voice believes it is a very special case and that good can come from it if the decision forces churches into the gospel imperative of social action.
In a letter to the Brethren, the Charity Commission cited a tribunal ruling that religion is not always for “the public benefit” and said “there is no presumption that religion generally, or at any more specific level, is for the public benefit, even in the case of Christianity or the Church of England”.
The Exclusive Brethren are a Christian denomination who have no fellowship with those outside. They affix a small sign to their meeting hall stating that it is a place of public worship to satisfy the law, but little else gives its function away. They do not extend hospitality to outsiders and are not involved in the community at large, keeping themselves as separate as they can from the world.
MPs on the Public Administration Select Committee, which is investigating the work of the Charity Commission, are concerned that the commission could start denying charitable status to other religious groups.
Charlie Elphicke, a member of the committee and the MP for Dover and Deal, believes the commission is ‘committed to the suppression of religion’.
The Charities Act 2006 means that organisations which previously gained charitable status automatically now have to demonstrate “public benefit”.
Professor Peter Luxton, an expert in charity law at Cardiff University, said the Charity Commission’s attempt to define public benefit was “a nonsense,” since the 2006 law did not make any changes to the definition of a charity.
He added: “The Commission has been completely out of control.”
The Charity Commission said: ‘The application from Preston Down Trust was not accepted on the basis that we were unable to conclude that the organisation is established for the advancement of religion for public benefit within the relevant charity law.’
A spokeswoman went further, saying that the decision to deny charitable status to the Preston Down Trust ‘took into account the nature of Christian religion embraced by the trust and the means through which this was promoted, including the public access to its services and the potential for its beneficial impact on the wider community’, according to Third Sector.
Rod Buckley, a member of Preston Down Trust, said that it does allow non-members to attend services, but advertising its meetings will demonstrate that.
Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, said:
‘This decision, while it may seem unwelcome, is not quite the big deal that some are making out. There is not the remotest possibility of churches up and down the land losing their charitable status.
‘In a sense it is a pity that new charity law has allowed the Charity Commission to change the old understanding that the promotion of religion is a good thing and that ‘it is good for people to have a religion’, but that was in an era when ‘religion’ in our land simply meant Christianity.
‘However, in Britain today, we are beginning to see that not all religion is good. Churches engage, or should engage, in social action, and the Christian faith has brought immense benefit to our nation. Our laws were historically based on Christian principles of justice, although secularists have deliberately legislated against righteousness in the last fifty years. Our heritage of generosity, altruism, philanthropy and care for the poor and needy were based on the teachings of Jesus Christ, although these too are now under pressure.
‘But other religions struggle to show any public benefit. Mosques and Islamic trusts further the Islamic faith and give nothing beneficial to the community at large. Hinduism is similarly introspective, while campaigning atheist concerns with charitable status offer nothing that could conceivably be described as having a public benefit.
‘By observing that the Exclusive Brethren need to show how their faith benefits the outside world, the Charity Commission are pussing them into an openness and a willingness to serve that should be at the heart of the Gospel. That can only be a good thing.
‘Christians and churches in general need to take note and if they do not have projects which benefit the community, they should put them in place as a matter of urgency. God became one of us in Jesus Christ, and especially as we come up to Christmas, we need to learn the message of his incarnation and become his hands and feet doing what he urged us to do on earth. In addition, we need to show that Christians live industrious, God-fearing lives which make a positive impact on the world around us.
‘We should also begin to draw the attention of the Charity Commission to the lack of public benefit of anti-Christian bodies with charitable status. Groups promoting evil under the guise of ‘educating the public’ should be exposed for what they are. The Charity Commission may have done the cause of Christ a lot of good in this decision.’
Some suggestions of social action church projects:
Engaging with the community in prayer and worship
Evangelism
Wide advertising of worship meetings, services and projects
Street Pastors and ‘Night Lights’
Soup Kitchens
Food Banks
Offering help with unemployment claim forms and housing benefits
Debt counselling
Helping people into work with courses, drafting CVs, etc
Advice with business skills and encouragement,
Marriage preparation, guidance, and building.
Poverty relief at home
Support of projects overseas
MIcro-finance
Support for parents in trouble with Social Services,
Help with parenting and home management skills,
Speaking out on the issues of the day,
Do our members have any other suggestions?
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Andy Stephenson of Abort67 was asked about the location of the witness and said yesterday: ‘Why university campuses? Because not only are 19-24 year olds having significant numbers of abortions, but this is where our future leaders are.
‘We saw people change their minds in this way today. One guy who was studying nursing at another university talked at length with the team and left saying he was going to try and get us a three hour lecture spot for his medical faculty. Others included a Law student who moved significantly in his position.’
Pro-abortion students attempt to obscure the pro-life message
Pro-abortion students mounted a counter-demonstration after a couple of hours, standing in front of the pictures shouting and swearing in the hope that people wouldn’t notice the pro-life witness.
Andy Stephenson continued: ‘I am fairly certain that the rest of the day, the only topic of conversation on campus was abortion. Indeed before I even had a chance to unpack our things, a blogger at Huffington Post responded with an article.
‘It is unlikely (though not impossible) that those so entrenched in their pro-death position will ever move, but they are not our target audience. A majority of people are just plain ambivalent about abortion. These are the ones with functioning consciences and enough intellectual honesty to recognise they have been lied to about who the baby is and what abortion will do to him/her.
‘I am always amazed that pro-aborts don’t see the irony in what they blindly recite over and over. If people are distressed by what they believe to be a noble choice, it is because abortion is a distressing act. Of course, we are grateful for the coverage and the inclusion of one of our graphic images that will now be seen by countless people.
‘Do the pictures work? The pro-aborts think so.’
Please sign our simple online petition to Parliament to repeal the 1967 Abortion Act:
How a DDOS attack works – The attacker recruits thousands of slave computers to send simultaneous requests to the target website.
Yesterday, the Christian Voice website was off-line most of the day after coming under a massive cyber-attack. We apologise to our members and readers but there was nothing we could do.
Our web host reported at 8:22 am: ‘A few moments ago the Christian Voice website began to come under a massive DDOS attack which quickly crippled the server.
‘You’ve probably upset some people! We see these from time to time – it’s usually outspoken Christians who get targetted.
‘I’ve had to temporarily suspend it, as the attackers had sufficient resources to bring down the whole shared-hosting machine – if you were paying for dedicated hosting, i.e. only your website on a single machine belonging to you, you’d still be brought down.
‘The scale of the attack was the largest we’ve ever seen. When people have enough resources, they can bring Amazon down.
‘Sadly, launching powerful attacks is very cheap these days. You can go onto the Internet’s “underground” and hire the computing capacity of thousands of virus infected computers for a few minutes for a few dollars, and that’s enough to bring down a few servers.’
In the Police and Justice Act 2006, the United Kingdom specifically outlawed denial-of-service attacks and set a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. But the attack was from faked IP addresses which cannot be traced.
Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, said today:
‘This attack on our website is encouraging. I don’t know whether it was Secularirists or Islamists we have upset beyond measure, but clearly someone out there thinks Christian Voice is doing such a great job we have to be disrupted. So by the grace of God we’ll stand up for Jesus Christ and for righteousness all the more.’
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A Christian couple who run a B&B in Cookham, Berkshire have lost their case against two homosexuals they turned away.
Michael Black, 64, and John Morgan, 59, brought their case against Susanne and Mike Wilkinson in January 2011 after they were prevented from sharing a double room at the Swiss Bed and Breakfast.
Mr Morgan and Mr Black booked the room and paid a deposit but when they arrived at the B&B in March 2010, Mrs Wilkinson realised they were a couple and refused to allow them to stay.
The couple even called the police over her refusal but were told they should make a civil claim against the Wilkinsons.
Yesterday, the homosexuals, from Brampton near Huntingdon, were awarded £1,800 each at Reading County Court for “injury to feelings”, reported the Press Association.
Mrs Wilkinson said that allowing two men to share a double room would violate her religious beliefs.
Recorder Claire Moulder said that by refusing access to a double room, Mrs Wilkinson had “treated them less favourably than she would have treated an unmarried heterosexual couple in the same circumstances”.
However, the judge appeared to contradict herself by accepting that Mrs Wilkinson was genuine about her Christian beliefs and had also stopped unmarried heterosexual couples from sharing a double bed.
Mrs Wilkinson was granted permission to appeal against the ruling and said she would give it “serious consideration”.
Jubilant Michael Black, 64, and John Morgan, 59
The Chief Executive of homosexual lobby group Stonewall, Ben Summerskill, urged Christians to embrace philanthropy rather than stand up for their beliefs:
“It’s a shame tens of thousands of pounds have been wasted reiterating this well-established principle, when any good Christian would surely prefer to have seen that money spent on relieving poverty or tackling hunger,” he said.
The Equality Act makes it illegal to refuse people goods and services on the grounds of sexual orientation.
Earlier this year, Pete and Hazlemary Bull who own the Chymorvah Hotel in Marazion in Cornwall were granted leave to appeal to the UK Supreme Court against a similar verdict.
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