Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in a restaurant minutes before they were found slumped on a bench, supposedly infected by nerve gas.
Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in a restaurant minutes before they were found slumped on a bench, supposedly infected by nerve gas.
MPs and the mainstream media were queuing up last night to blame Russia for the Skripal Nerve Gas incident. This morning’s headline in the Metro was ‘From Russia … with hate.’ Theresa May shot off a letter to the Russian Ambassador demanding an explanation. The BBC reports: ‘The UK has given Russia a midnight deadline to explain why a Russian-made nerve agent was used in the attack.’
The principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ appears to have been suspended. And it is a very Biblical presumption. It is founded on the necessity to find at least two actual witnesses to a crime before any conviction:
Deut 19:15 One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.
The Lord Jesus confirmed this word:
Matt 18:16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
Nerve Gas: what evidence?
So what evidence lies against the state of Russia for the apparent attempted murder of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia? Alternatively, because a nation state is not an individual, can we argue that rules of evidence may be suspended? However, if the latter is assumed, it could become murky. There are just too many agencies and state players – and political expediencies – to pass definitive judgment.
So what can we say we safely know? What matters are agreed as fact? Furthermore, what is in dispute?
We know Yulia Skripal and her father Sergei were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury. We know they are currently ill in hospital. As Yulia’s concerned friends have pointed out, we know no more than that. What is their condition? We know a policeman, Detectice Sergeant Nick Bailey, was affected by some substance as he responded. He is still in hospital and well enough now to sit up and talk. Or is he ‘seriously ill’? However, we know from the BBC that a doctor who was out shopping attended Yulia and suffered no ill effects from examining her and her father as an ambulance was being called. The doctor has not been identified but said Yulia was “slumped in her seat, completely unconscious.”
Yulia Skripal flew in the day before
Furthermore, the same BBC web page informs us: ‘Yulia Skripal flew into London’s Heathrow Airport on a flight from Russia at about 14:40 GMT on 3 March’. (Yulia lives in Moscow according to her Facebook page. Curiously, no arrivals from Moscow appear to be scheduled to land next Saturday at Heathrow at that time.) The next day, 4th March, ‘at about 13:40 GMT, Mr Skripal and his daughter arrived at the Sainbury’s upper level car park in Salisbury city centre’. After that they ‘went to the Bishop’s Mill pub’. Then they ate at the Zizzi restaurant at 14:20 GMT. They stayed ‘until 15:35 GMT’.
So here is a strange co-incidence. Father and daughter were both found incapacitated the day after she flew in from Russia. If someone intends to kill them both he must know her movements. It would be easy for a Russian agent to find Yulia’s departure time. However, British intelligence could do that as well. But who planted poison in their home? Why have the police given no description of anyone they want to interview? Did no witness see someone loitering around their home? If there was a break-in, why did Mr Skripal not report it to the police?
With the death in New Malden of Russian businessman Nikolai Glushkov, the BBC reports police are appealing for witnesses who saw anything near his home. Yet there has been no police appeal for witnesses who saw anything around the Skripal home.
Or perhaps there is no description or appeal because the police know no other party was involved. In that case, was Yulia carrying something that accidentally went wrong?
Was DS Bailey infected at the Skripal home?
Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey
Returning to DS Bailey, Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary said: ‘The officer was one of the first responders on Sunday, acting selflessly to help others.’ That is as reported in the Independent (caution: video ad!) ‘The latest update from the hospital is that the officer remains serious but stable and is conscious, talking and engaging.’ Police sources have also been giving the impression DS Bailey became ill because he rushed to help the couple as a ‘first responder’.
However, the Guardian stated this, some days ago: ‘DS Nick Bailey is seriously ill in hospital having visited the home of Skripal after the defector and his daughter were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on Sunday afternoon.’
Did DS Bailey attend at the scene or not? And if so, given he is a detective sergeant, in what capacity? Suppose the nerve agent was at the home of Mr and Miss Skripal. Numerous police who attended the scene in ordinary uniforms have not fallen ill, as reported in this story.
No nerve gas on the streets
Yet another Guardian story said:‘Earlier, the home secretary, Amber Rudd, described the use of a nerve agent in a busy city centre as “attempted murder in the most cruel and public way”.’ But if the nerve agent was at the home of the defector, it was not deployed ‘in a busy city centre’. Albeit, we understand traces can adhere to clothing, if the two were in contact with it at their home. And how did that happen? The Guardian also spoke of ‘pressure’ on the government and police ‘for answers’. Nevertheless, few are forthcoming. Why is the Government being so cagey about the evident contamination in the Skripal residence?
According to the BBC on Thursday 16th March, ‘Wiltshire Police said 131 people had been identified as potentially being exposed to the nerve agent – but none has shown any symptoms.’ The head of counter-terrorism, Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, even said 35 people had been seen by doctors.
But the truth is, there was nothing wrong with any of them. The BBC went on: ‘Salisbury District Hospital has also assessed 46 people who came forward expressing health concerns but they were not admitted.
‘In a letter to the Times, Salisbury NHS Trust emergency medical consultant Stephen Davies said only three people – the Skripals and Det Sgt Nick Bailey – had needed treatment.’
Here is the plain and honest truth. We have seen men in chemical suits, the disruption of Salisbury businesses, and the scaremongering of AC Basu. Despite all that, nobody at all has been affected by a nerve agent in the street. As a more honest policeman might say: ‘There is nothing to see here; move along please’.
Nerve Agents
On 12th March, Amber Rudd identified the toxin as ‘Novichok’. We only have the word of the UK Government for that. Craig Murray says Porton Down have not identified it as such at all. (Thanks to ‘Off-Guardian’ for that.) On 16th March they said they had sent it to the OPCW. Be that as it may. This substance is one of a family of organophosphates known as ‘nerve agents’. Nerve agents were discovered in the 1930s. This website explains how they work.
Apparently, nerve agents, of which Sarin is the most famous, are relatively easy to make. You take two base materials and mix them. The difficulty, if you are the perpetrator, lies in keeping out of the way of the finished product. New Scientist reports: ‘Andrei Zheleznyakov, a Russian scientist involved in their development, reportedly died not long after being exposed to a small amount that leaked out of a rubber tube in the lab.’
New scientist also tells us Novichok is ‘eight times as deadly as VX, the V-series agent that was used to kill North Korean exile Kim Jong-nam last year. Just 10 milligrams of VX on the skin can be lethal.’ So just 1-and-a-bit milligrams of Novichok will kill you. Yet Sergei and Yulia are still alive, we are told, and DS Bailey is awake.
They quote John Lamb of Birmingham City University, UK: ‘The Novichok family was specifically created by Russia to be unknown in the West and as such it’ll be one of their most tightly guarded secrets.’
But is it? Martin Boland of Charles Darwin University in Australia says: ‘Western intelligence agencies probably have knowledge of the exact Novichok structures, allowing them to detect a match,’ in hospital analysis of enzymes in the body.
Putting it all together, Novichok, meaning ‘newcomer’, was developed in Russia in the 1970s. It was manufactured at a plant in Uzbekistan. So there is a definite ‘Kremlin link’. But the Metro tells us US experts arrived post-Soviet era in 1999 ‘to dismantle and decontaminate the facility’ in Uzbekistan.
The US experts must have left after documenting everything they found. They must know by now how to make Novichok. According to RT, a Russian chemist named Vil Mirzayanov published the formula for Novichok in his book. He now lives in the US. And it would stretching credulity to suppose the clever boys and girls at Porton Down can’t make this nerve agent as well. However, if they can, we can be certain the Home Secretary will not tell us. The fiction that it is a closely-guarded Russian secret suits the narrative.
So there is much here that just does not add up. Above all, there is a great deal about which we have to trust our politicians to tell us the truth. Moreover, since the Dodgy Dossier, that level of trust simply is not there. The Russians have denied they were involved. As even Al Jazeera reports, suggestions of British or US involvement are plausible. Russia’s foreign minister said claims of Russian involvement were ‘rubbish’. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia had been refused access to the substance that was used to poison Mr Skripal. It would not respond to the ultimatum until it was given access.
Needs to be a ‘direct act’
According to RT: Maria Zakharova for the Russian Foreign Ministry called the events in Parliament ‘circus show’. She went on, ‘The conclusion is obvious: this is another information and political campaign, based on provocation.’
Miss Zakharova’s comments came after Mrs May said the ‘attempted murder’ of Skripal was either ‘a direct act by the Russian State against our country, or the Russian government lost control of this potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others.’
But what would Russia have to gain from murdering a double-agent they let go in a spy swap in 2010? And with an easily-identified nerve gas? We do know that in the shadowy world of the ‘spooks’ anything can happen. We also know that there are people in this world who benefit from war and distrust between nations.
According to the BBC, ‘Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said if the attack was shown to be a “direct act” by the Russian state it would be a “clear violation of the chemical weapons convention, a breach of international law and a threat to those who abide by the rules-based international order”.’
There is a big ‘if’ there. And scant evidence of it. The best Mrs May can do is to say it’s “highly likely” Russia was involved. So on no more than a ‘highly likely’ she is setting back diplomatic relations between the UK and Russia. She could also disrupt businesses in both countries with sanctions. This is not statesmanship. Who benefits from such trouble-making if not the warmongers?
The Russian response to the OPCW
Russia was never going to respond to an ultimatum. Furthermore, to give twenty-four hours for a response is quite unreasonable. It is certain the police are still gathering evidence. Not even the Home Secretary has all the facts yet. To act as if they know it all already itself raises suspicions.
But Russia’s Ambassasdor to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons at the Hague has made a statement. We are grateful here to the Off-Guardian website. In a measured response, Alexander Shulgin told the OPCW:
‘… clarifications under the Convention are provided to the requesting member state as soon as possible, but in any case no later than 10 days following receipt of the request. As such, the ultimatum’s demand that information be provided immediately, by the end of today, is absolutely unacceptable.
‘Britain’s allegations that they have everything, and their world-famous scientists have irrefutable data, but they will not give us anything, will not be taken into account. For us, this will mean that London has nothing substantial to show, and all its loud accusations are nothing but fiction and another instance of the dirty information war being waged on Russia.’
How to respond – an object lesson
On Thursday 16th March, Jeremy Corbyn wrote in the Guardian warning against “hasty judgements”, and not to “rush ahead of the evidence”.
Jeremy Corbyn was right to object to the UK’s incursion into Iraq, right over Afhganistan, right to voice concerns about destabilising Libya and Syria. He is right to be cautious now. The Bible says:
Prov 14:29 He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.
Contrast Mr Corbyn’s statesmanlike approach with that of our Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, Who says Russian President Vladimir Putin is “overwhelmingly likely” to have ordered the nerve agent attack on an ex-spy and his daughter. How can you have “overwhelmingly likely”? The Bible warns:
Prov 25:8 Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbour hath put thee to shame.
Childish – Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Defence, Rt Hon Gavin Williamson.
Even worse is the behaviour of Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Defence. He said Russia should ‘go away and shut up’. As reported by RT, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed Gavin Williamson (41) as lacking in ‘upbringing’.
He has a point. The Lord disposed of Mr Williamson’s predecessor, Sir Michael Fallon. Sir Michael’s friends excused his inappropriate advances towards women by saying he was drunk at the time. Instead of a drunk in charge of our defences, we now have a petulant schoolboy. There is so much to pray for here!
Nation shall speak peace unto nation
It is rather sad to find the BBC so often leading the anti-Russia charge. That’s despite this motto chosen by Lord Reith on its coat of arms: ‘nation shall speak peace unto nation.’ It is a reference to a verse from the prophet Micah:
Micah 4:3 And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
That is a millennial prophecy of the just rule of Messiah, the Lord Jesus. Nevertheless, it shows one thing above all. The heart of God is for peace. And if so, those who engage in sabre-rattling in what is supposed to be a time of peace are opposed to the purpose of God.
So let us keep a sceptical eye on what our politicians say and pray that the truth will come out. The words of Jesus himself:
Matt 10:26 Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
Spanish women on the march for International Women's Day
Spanish women on the march for International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day descended into farce yesterday as feminists in Spain went on strike and a British MP solemnly read out a list of women murder victims – but no men.
According to the BBC, ‘Hundreds of thousands of women have joined street protests across Spain, shouting “if we stop, the world stops”.’ Yes, we knew that already. So what?
Meanwhile, the Guardian solemnly stated: ‘As we alluded to in our previous post, women are under represented in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) careers. So to highlight those fighting to change that gender imbalance, check out these resources.’ Maybe young women just don’t want to do those jobs?
Men don’t matter to Jess Phillips
Men don’t matter to Jess Phillips MP
And in the House of Commons, Jess Phillips MP read out the names of women ‘killed by male violence’. The Labour MP said it included ‘the names of all the women killed by male violence since the last International Women’s Day.’
The BBC reports: ‘The 100-plus list of names – provided by Karen Ingala Smith and the Counting Dead Women Project – showed, she said, that “violence against women and girls is an epidemic… if as many people died every week at a sporting event… there would be national outcry… all of these women mattered”.’
And, presumably, since Jess Phillips did not read out their names, none of the men murdered in the same period mattered.
April 2015 to March 2016 is the last year for which accurate statistics are available. In that year, there were 175 female victims of homicide in England and Wales. There were 395 male homicide victims. That’s more than twice as many men murdered as women. Every single one, male as well as female, was someone made in the image of God.
The Bible says: Lev 19:15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.
Romans 2:11 For there is no respect of persons with God.
International Women’s Day divisive
If anything shows up the divisive nature of International Women’s Day, nothing else will. It is people who matter, not just women. Yesterday, we posted a video in which this author took International Women’s Day to task.
Here’s the transcript (check against delivery):
It’s International Women’s Day and quite an auspicious one because one hundred years ago, in 1918, women were given the vote in the United Kingdom. ‘International Women’s Day’ celebrates women’s achievements.
There’s no ‘International Men’s Day’ of course. But crucially, there’s no ‘International People’s Day’ to celebrate people’s achievements. So ‘International Women’s Day’ is as divisive as it is feminist.
I’ll define ‘Feminism’ as the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities in political, economic and social equality. So what’s wrong with that?
Scriptural position
Well the scriptures do not endorse any idea of men and women squabbling over gender rights and opportunities. The word of God says in Genesis chapter two:
Gen 2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
The Lord did just that. Moving on five verses:
Gen 2:23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Gen 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Later, in chapter three, God told the woman:
Gen 3:16b in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
So the creation ordinance is giving us men and women as complementary, one flesh at the physical, emotional and spiritual level, the woman helping her man, bearing their children, while he provides her and them with food, shelter and leadership.
Feminism depends on Christian ideas
Do not be surprised that I am quoting the Bible. I believe society does better doing things God’s way. But you know, feminism depends firstly on the Christian idea of justice and secondly on the Biblical position that women are the weaker sex to get what it wants. It says: ‘Us not having the same sort of jobs, or pay, or opportunities, or outcomes, as you is unfair’. Now if men really were as horrible and power-hungry as feminists contend, the feminist movement would go nowhere. But they aren’t, and most men want a quiet life. So those in power give in to the feminist demands.
Talking about the weaker sex, the average height of women in the UK is 5 feet 3 inches. The average height of men is 5 feet 9 inches. An average women weighs 11 stone. An average man weighs just over 13 stone. The average women in the UK bears just under two children during her lifetime. That’s not enough to replace our population, as it happens. But the average man bears none. Differences between the sexes are built into creation.
Not a zero-sum game
Any protest movement needs a grievance. For the feminists of 1918 it was not having the vote. Today’s cause is equal pay and top jobs. The fact that young women earn more than young men is glossed over, as is the reason why older women earn less than older men. It’s because they have taken time out to bear children and look after ageing relatives. And of course with demands to close the alleged pay gap we move from equality of opportunity to a required equality of outcomes. It’s like saying all the children must get 90% in their exams. Injustice has to be done elsewhere to achieve that outcome.
Feminism, like other anti-Christian movements such as abortion and gay rights, depends on us not thinking things through too clearly.
You see, this is not a zero-sum game. There is not a cake of a certain size which the more the nasty men have the less there is for the lovely women. We are in this together and I pray we should all grow up and realise that. Feminism, by bleating about non-existent alleged injustices draws political attention away from real injustice. It is self-absorbed, self-serving, anti-Christian and ultimately anti-social. And that’s quite some achievement.
Jim Shannon MP will lead in a debate prompted by ‘Turn the Tide’
MPs Jim Shannon and Norman Lamb are leading a debate on Christian freedom in the House of Commons on Thursday.
Westminster Hall will stage the debate at 1.30pm. The title is”Freedom of religion or belief.”
Earlier this month Barnabas Fund published a booklet entitled ‘Turn the Tide’ to which we provide a link here. (All our links open automatically in a new tab.)
Magna Carta vs Louise Casey
The booklet shows the history of religious freedom in our jurisdictions. It quotes Magna Carta: ‘”The English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired.” So says the very first clause of Magna Carta, the “great charter” signed by King John and the barons of England on 15 June 1215. Only four of the Magna Carta’s 63 clauses have remained part of English law to this day. This is one of them.’
It goes on to show a Government review carried out by Dame Louise Casey struck against the Magna Carta principle. Christian Voice carried an earlier article on the Casey Report. ‘Turn the Tide’ says: ‘The report defined “extremism” as views “at odds with the views of mainstream society.” It gave examples from various religions include “newer Christian churches” and stated that “all such instances undermine integration and should be challenged.” Elsewhere the Casey Review made clear that it considered such views to include traditional views of sexuality. Dame Louise recommended “a new oath for holders of public office” indicating that this should express support for “British values.” Elsewhere in the report she included support for LGBT ideology as part of British values.’
Test Acts
The booklet reminds us that Parliament abolished various “Test Acts” between 1719 and 1871. It says: ‘These “Test Acts” required anyone wanting to become a school teacher, magistrate, local councillor, MP or university student to publicly assent, often by swearing an oath, to a particular set of beliefs. The law thus excluded Nonconformist Christians and Roman Catholics from any of the above positions.’
Orwellian: Dame Louise Casey
But in an astonishing display of anti-Christian prejudice, Dame Louise wrote: ‘While many people in the UK appear to be seeing religion as increasingly less important and, in some cases, less of a force for good, for others, religion is very important in their daily lives. Within this latter group there appear to be some who are keen to take religion backwards and away from 21st Century British values … on issues such as …sexual orientation.’
‘Turn the Tide’ contends that the courts and tribunals are upholding a new set of surreptitious Test Acts, brought in with no parliamentary scrutiny.
Cases cited by ‘Turn the Tide’
‘Turn the Tide’ cites the following recent cases in support:
In 2015, academics at Sheffield University expelled Felix Ngole from a social work course because he previously posted comments on Facebook supporting a Biblical view of marriage.
This is a new “University Test Act” it says – Sheffield University requires social work students to support same-sex marriage. And that is a religious or quasi-religious view.
In November 2017, Cherwell School in north Oxford suspended Christian teacher Joshua Sutcliffe.
Joshua Sutcliffe with Andrea Williams of Christian Concern
His offence was inadvertently to include a girl pupil who claims to be a trans boy in an approving ‘Well done, girls.’ Mr Sutcliffe had immediately apologised, saying it had been a mere slip of tongue.
‘Turn the Tide’ goes on: ‘However, later the pupil’s mother complained that the comment was discriminatory. Mr Sutcliffe was removed from teaching and made to work in the staffroom while an investigation took place. He was then suspended for an indefinite period after the school said his “misgendering” breached its equality policy.’
In a third case, it says: ‘Andrew McClintock, who had served as a magistrate for 18 years on the South Yorkshire bench, was forced to resign after requesting to be “screened out” of cases involving children for adoption with same-sex households.’
Preaching cases more doubtful
When it comes to street preaching, ‘Turn the Tide’ is on less stable ground. Yes, Michael Overd and Michael Stockwell were convicted of public order offences in Bristol magistrates court in February last year. Indeed, the prosecutor told the court ‘that publicly quoting from the King James Bible “in the context of modern British society, must be considered to be abusive and is a criminal matter.”‘
But our brothers saw their conviction overturned in the Crown Court later that year. No street preacher, properly advised and represented, has ever been convicted of a public order offence in our jurisdictions.
Nor is the case of Pastor James McConnell compelling. He was indeed ‘prosecuted for a theological critique of Islam in a sermon he preached in his church’ in Belfast. The sermon appeared on YouTube. According to the Guardian, Pastor James denounced Islam as “heathen”, “satanic” and a “doctrine spawned in hell”. Charges came under the Communications Act. But the court cleared Pastor James ‘after a three-day trial in a verdict that upheld the right to offend under the principle of freedom of expression.’
‘Turn the Tide’ calls for ‘a new law’
The DUP’s Chief Whip and Defence spokesman Jeffrey Donaldson supports a new law
Barnabas Fund is calling for a new law ‘which positively affirms all seven aspects of freedom of religion that have developed over the last 500 years in the UK.’ It has the written support of Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP on the back page of ‘Turn the Tide’.
‘Turn the Tide’ says it will need to include ‘freedom from being required to affirm a particular worldview or set of beliefs in order to hold a public sector job or stand for election; work in professions such as teaching, healthcare and law; study at school, college or university; or give parental care to a child.’
Similarly, Christian prison worker Barry Trayhorn lost his case at the Employment Appeal Tribunal in 2017. That was over his right to quote the Bible on homosexuality in a prison chapel service.
In 2009, as the Independent reports, Christian registrar Lillian Ladele lost in the Court of Appeal. She contested a ruling that she had not been discriminated against by being disciplined after she refused to conduct same-sex civil partnerships. And she lost.
Do we need a new law?
Whether we actually need a new law is open to debate. The same judges will interpret any new law who are ruling against Christian freedoms on a day to day basis in our courts and tribunals. It may be that a law could be drafted in such a way as to compel judges to uphold freedom of religion. However, they might simply invoke the higher cause of ‘human rights’ and strike it down.
In 2013 both the Christian Institute and the National Secular Society became concerned at the number of Public Order Offences the police and prosecutors were bringing against Christian street preachers. The Christian Institute were concerned on the matter of Christian freedom. The National Secular Society were concerned from a freedom of speech point of view. They wanted to protect comedians such as Rowan Atkinson who would insult religions and the religious. They were also concerned about adverse publicity of police crackdowns on preachers.
As a result, the Institute and the Society joined forces. They successfully campaigned to have the word ‘insulting’ removed from Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986.
The change has made not a scrap of difference to Christian preachers. The police are still arresting them. The CPS are still preferring charges. They are merely basing the arrests and the charges on the word ‘abusive’ instead. They are, as we point out above, still losing those cases.
But the heavy-handed police approach needs not a new law but smarter guidance from senior officers.
Support the MPs
Christian Voice intends to start taking these cases to the streets. We are now planning a witness outside Sheffield University and another outside Cherwell School. Watch this space.
But in the meantime, the Bible says:
1Tim 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
Please email your MP via this Parliament website link and ask him or her to attend the debate in Westminster Hall on Thursday and support MP’s Jim Shannon and Norman Lamb. Above all, please pray for the debate for the light of Christ to shine through.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon has a platform from 'Doctors Under Fire' to promote the UK-Government position of Syria
Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon has a platform from ‘Doctors Under Fire’ to promote the UK-Government position on Syria
BBC television news ran a piece bemoaning the bombardment of the rebel-held East Ghouta area of Damascus on Tuesday morning 20/02/2018. They interviewed Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, supposedly representing ‘Doctors Under Fire’. What he said could have been scripted by the UK’s Foreign Office.
Watch our Video Here. (All links in this story open automatically in a new tab.)
The Syrian army is trying to recapture the jihadist-controlled enclave. De Bretton-Gordon appeared to be arguing for injured and sick children to be allowed to leave.
For De Bretton-Gordon, everything bad happening in East Ghouta seemed to be the fault of ‘Assad’ and ‘Putin’. The Al-Qaeda offshoot Jabhat al Nusra which holds the area held for him no responsibility at all.
Civilians were under fire, he went on. He failed to mention that Al-Nusra might be holding them as human shields, as they did in Eastern Aleppo. The Syrian army liberated that area in December twenty-sixteen.
For the first time in five years the city’s Christians were able to celebrate Christmas free from constant bombardment from the Al-Nusra terrorists in the east .
Celebrating Christmas in Aleppo December 2016.
The US and UK Governments and the mainstream media hated the liberation of Eastern Aleppo. They will equally bewail the liberation of Eastern Ghouta, when it comes.
Indeed, during the BBC interview, Hamish de Bretton-Gordon came across as nothing more than a UK government sock-puppet. He confirmed this when he commended what he said were ‘the peace talks in Geneva’. We shall come to that below.
Doctors Under Fire
Mr David Nott is a respected surgeon but blames ‘Assad’ for everything.
But what of this man, and what of ‘Doctors Under Fire’? Well, the latter has apparently just two members, De Bretton Gordon and one David Nott, a surgeon who has been in war-torn areas. Mr Nott similarly finds no good word to say about the Syrian government.
Oddly, in a video on Vimeo from 2016 he says Doctors Under Fire will be a charity. The Charity Commission has no record of it, nor of ‘Medics under Fire’ which is what the Doctors Under Fire website is called. When you go to the website, at this time of writing, you’re invited to a rally on 7th May. On further investigation, that is 7th May 2016. Their website is two years out of date. Of course hospitals should not be attacked in war zones, but the Doctors Under Fire platform gives Messrs De B-G and Nott credibility to advance another agenda.
Hospital bombing scam
Furthermore, this astonishing video collated all the times the ‘last hospital’ in eastern Aleppo was put out of action by ‘Syrian regime airstrikes’. Can you guess how many it was? And how do the mainstream media source their footage of sick children, hospitals, and dare we add, ‘doctors under fire’? They are entirely dependent on the terrorists. No western journalist can venture into their areas. Why? For fear of being kidnapped and held for ransom by the very people they champion.
De Bretton Gordon also claimed on the BBC a hospital in eastern Ghouta had been hit. That was why they gave him a platform under his ‘Doctors Under Fire’ persona. But again, it was second-hand terrorist propaganda. Here, the impressive ‘Off-Guardian’ website exposes the Syrian totem head of the ‘White Helmets’, which was a British Foreign Office creation, as we investigated here. This relentless tugging at western heart-strings is a scam and the msm know it.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon
SecureBio spun off from Hamish De Bretton-Gordon’s time in the British Army
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon is a retired Colonel with an OBE. He commanded NATO’s Rapid Reaction Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Battalion. He ran a company called SecureBio with, we read on this ‘military speakers’ website, ‘an impressive list of blue chip clients globally.’ However, Companies House says SecureBio resolved to go into liquidation in June 2015.
The Colonel now apparently works for a company which makes breathing masks, Avon Protection. His LinkedIn profile claims he is ‘Managing Director CBRN’ of Avon, despite not actually being a director. He also claims still to be director of SecureBio. He does not mention that company was dissolved in August 2017 with debts over £715,000.
Call for France to drop bombs on Syria
De Bretton-Gordon has teamed up with Avon Protection which makes breathing masks.
De Bretton-Gordon no longer has any connection with military field-work. Nevertheless, he has continued access to the world’s media when subjects like Syria and alleged chemical weapons come up.
Securebio’s YouTube channel is still online and has a number of videos of the colonel calling for ‘safe havens’ for terrorists. He has appeared frequently on Sunni-Muslim Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV channel.
Finally, why did the Colonel’s promotion of the Geneva peace talks raise the alarm? Because this is a UK-driven political view. In reality the Geneva talks stalled in February twenty-seventeen. The Kurds took against the inconsequential opposition in exile pompously called the High Negotiations Committee.
The Geneva talks finally collapsed in November when the Syrians would not agree to President Assad stepping aside, a key, but stupid, UK and US demand. The Guardian’s highly-respected Patrick Wintour says the talks De Bretton Gordon extols are ‘perilously shorn of credibility’.
Meanwhile, the real peace talks, unmentioned by the Colonel, have been held in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan. They are brokered by Russia, so the UK wants them to fail. But the UN’s Staffan de Mistura says the Astana talks are making small but ‘clear progress’ to reducing violence in Syria. They have now moved to Sochi on the Black Sea and we need to pray for them.
They need to lay down their arms. But don’t expect the Colonel to agree. The Bible says in Psalm 120:7:
I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.
Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon will keep ringing the UK Government bell. A knighthood cannot be far away. But we must take what he and the rest of the BBC’s pro-Foreign Office pundits say with a very large pinch of salt.
Globalist financier George Soros provided funding for anti-Brexit Avaaz and has destabilised nations all over the world while pushing an anti-Christian agenda in Africa.
Globalist financier George Soros provided funding for anti-Brexit Avaaz and has destabilised nations all over the world while pushing an anti-Christian agenda in Africa.
American billionaire George Soros gave a pro-EU campaign half-a-million pounds through his foundation, according to news outlets. (Note, all our links open in a new tab automatically).
Meanwhile, we have uncovered a video in which the financier shows a breathtaking lack of humanity and remorse. See below.
Best for Britain?
The Best for Britain campaign, which unashamedly advocates snubbing the Brexit referendum and remaining in the EU, received £400,000 from Soros-funded Open Society Foundation since the June 2017 election, sources told the Guardian.
Gina Miller founded Best for Britain. She took the UK government to court over the triggering of Article 50. The campaign is chaired by Lord Malloch-Brown, a leading political insider. Ignoring the 2016 Referrendum result, he says, ‘We, like millions of people, believe that Britain should lead, not leave, Europe.’ ‘Leading Europe’ is of course impossible for the UK or any other nation. The un-elected Commission, a self-perpetuating oligarchy, runs the EU.
This scary sculpture of a woman holding the Euro aloft while men grovel at her feet is outside the EU Parliament building in Brussels.
George Soros made more than £1bn at our expense by betting against the pound on Black Wednesday in September 1992. By the grace of God his actions forced the British government to pull out of the European exchange rate mechanism. That decision in turn kept the UK from joining the Euro, so some good came of it.
Recdently, Mr Soros has made no secret he believes holding the EU referendum was a ‘fatal error’. The billionaire has refused to ‘butt out’ of the debate. Last week he pledged yet another £100,000 to Best for Britain.
He said: ‘Prior to Brexit, Britain enjoyed the best of all possible worlds. It was a member of the European Union without adopting the Euro.
‘Britain, outside Europe, will lose much of its global influence. Economically, Britain will suffer because 45 years of successful integration with Europe will go into reverse.’
Secondly, the financier revealed another aspect of his thinking in this quote:
‘To make matters worse’, he said, ‘the divorce process will preoccupy both Britain and Europe for years ahead, when they should be uniting to resist external enemies like Putin’s Russia and resolve the internal contradictions that made some people regard the EU as their enemy.’
Members of “Pussy Riot” staged a foul-mouthed tirade in a Moscow Cathedral. George Soros put up money for it.
George Soros hates Russia. Under Vladimir Putin the country has been returning to its Orthodox Christian heritage. It is Russia, not the West, which defends Christian minorities in the Middle East. We denounced the blasphemous Femen group and its Pussy Riot desecration of a Moscow Cathedral here. We also reported on them and on Moscow banning a homosexual parade. And who is now the world’s biggest funder of pro-homosexual NGO’s worldwide? The same man whose foundations, together with the US government, funded Pussy Riot and Femen? Click here to see if you guessed right!
George Soros links to armaments
Mr Soros is also talking up the alleged threat from Russia for financial reasons. Peace with Russia would remove the need for vast armies to be facing each other making money for armaments manufacturers.
The Panama Papers leaks, ironically funded by Soros, inadvertently revealed his links to the secretive Carlyle Group which invests heavily in armaments.
Ironically, although George Soros is the primary foreigner interfering in our internal affairs, the mainstream media persist in fingering Russia. In this article on the RT website, security analyst Michael Maloof goes further and points out the history of interference by the US and UK in the affairs on sovereign countries. Russian senators have listed one hundred examples of the US interfering in the elections of other countries.
Ex-CIA director James Woolsey has even admitted the US has interfered in elections in the past, but “only for a very good cause,” and when they thought rigging the vote would benefit democracy. See here.
Interfering in sovereign nations
Mr Soros founded the Open Society Foundation. Recently he announced he was giving all his wealth to the Foundation. Ostensibly Open Society promotes democracy and open accountable government around the world.
However, Open Society has a history of interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign nations. Its activists promote the causes of feminism, sodomy and abortion throughout Africa and Asia. The Soros front funded the so-called Arab Spring uprising.
The billionaire helped set up Avaaz, the clicktist anti-Brexit eco-warrior group. Avaaz sent agents into Syria with propaganda and communications equipment. Their involvement helped start the Syrian civil war, with help from the US and the UK. That displaced tens of thousands of people, the majority of the Muslims, who then flooded into Europe. Naturally, George Soros is all for Europe welcoming the Islamists in with open arms. Although Hungarian-born, he hates the Hungarian government for refusing to take the anti-Christian migrants in.
Soros also collaborated with the EU to fund the Maidan Square trouble in Kiev. The uprising drove Ukraine’s elected but pro-Russian president from power. The resulting violence has left people dead, businesses ruined and Ukraine in turmoil. The eastern Russian-speaking minority turned to Moscow for help. Gleefully, the EU then blamed Russia for the instability it started itself.
Even today at the Munich Security Conference all the talk is about Russian ‘meddling’. It should be firstly concerned with protecting civilian populations from Islamic terrorists. Secondly, it should be promising to end the interference by the US, UK and France in the Middle East. It is that, after all, which led to the rise of Al-Qaeda and then to ISIS. And that is not even to suggest those Islamist organisations were set up with Western encouragement in the first place.
George Soros ‘there to make money’ video
Finally, we shall make one thing very clear. The fact that George Soros is Jewish does not make exposing the evil he does ‘anti-Semitic’. Theresa May’s former chief of staff, Nick Timothy, has picked up on the same donation as we have here. He has been accused of “peddling textbook anti-Semitic tropes” in a Telegraph article he wrote. The accusations have come from Bonnie Greer and Owen Jones. Both are quite happy with the anti-Christian amoralism of George Soros as well as his anti-Brexit credentials. But at least Owen Jones is pro-Jewish. Bonnie Greer is boycotting Israel.
Finally, as trailed at the top of this article, and thanks to the off-Guardian website, we can see an extraordinary interview with George Soros. The interviewer challenges him on the social implications of betting against national currencies and driving millions towards poverty. This is his response: ‘I am basically there to make money. I cannot and do not look at the social consequences of what I do.’ Watch this astonishing video here.
Everywhere Soros becomes involved, destruction, death and degradtion run riot. Sometimes he makes money from the turmoil. At other times it is merely his hatred of Christianity and his fanatical obesesion with advancing democracy and perversion which drives him. We must pray fervently that his works are exposed and brought to ruin.
But let us also pray with compassion for the man himself. Pray he repents at finds salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ even at this eleventh hour of his life. He may never be able to undo all the evil he has set in train, but at least one soul would be saved from the fires of hell.
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Ex-gay movie 'Voices of the Silenced' was due to be shown at Vue Cinema Piccadilly Circus.
Ex-gay movie ‘Voices of the Silenced’ was due to be shown at Vue Cinema Piccadilly Circus.
A new Christian film about people who have walked away from the homosexual lifestyle will not screened in central London tonight, after a venue booking was cancelled, reports Premier Radio.
Producers hired a theatre at the Vue cinema on Piccadilly for a private screening tonight of ‘Voices of the Silenced’. But Vue Cinema bosses told them the event is being scrapped because it contradicts their ‘values’.
Six hundred people signed a petition urging the cinema chain to cancel the private showing of ‘Voices of the Silenced’. 125 guests had been due to attend the film, made by Core Issues Trust. Here is their film trailer.
Therapists ‘demonised’
Mike Davidson – demonised
The homosexual website Pink News claimed, ‘Nearly every medical body in the world has disavowed gay cure therapy.’ What it does not say is that they did so not because of evidence but because of gay activists turning up at their conventions and screaming at them.
On the Core issues Trust website, Dr Mike Davidson writes: ‘The work of demonising any therapist supporting clients wanting to move away from any unwanted sexual attractions is almost complete. Without research evidence, … there is now no professional body willing to support client autonomy and professional intervention for those who refuse to accept homosexual feelings as normal. Only the American Psychological Association has been brave enough to admit that research has not been done which proves that such therapy is ipso facto harmful and ineffective.’
Move out of unwanted homosexual practice
Pink News goes on: ‘The documentary, which compares the treatment of Christian gay ‘cure’ therapists with the plight of Jewish slaves in Roman times, was said to challenge the “myth… that people are born gay”.’
PinkNews accused Core Issues Trust of advocating for a ‘gay cure’. But Dr Davidson told Premier: ‘We are not saying that folk (who) identify as gay are sick.
‘What we are about are the rights and freedoms that people need to have respected when they want to move out of unwanted homosexual or other sexual practises – and that’s what the film does.’
‘Voices of the Silenced: Experts, Evidences and Ideologies’ features the testimonies of 15 people from eight countries who have moved away from homosexual activity.
The Christian Legal Centre, which is supporting the Core Issues Trust’s screening, says it is considering filing an injunction at the High Court, as well as taking action against Vue Cinemas under the 2010 Equality Act.
Ex-Gay ‘Voices of the Silenced’ are silenced
A still from Voices of the Silenced
CEO Andrea Minichiello Williams said: ‘Ironically, the actions of PinkNews and Vue cinema illustrate the point of the film. The Voices of the Silenced are, in fact, being silenced.’
Lucy Northmore, group PR manager for Vue International, said: ‘The way we work is basically that all event bookings come through and get booked regardless, and then when we get the full content and review. We can make the decision at any time.’
The cinema only decided to drop the screening yesterday. Core Issues made the booking in November, she said. She said ‘we received the content on the January 22′. Vue only dropped the film when Pink News made waves. They then denied that was anything to do with it.
‘To assume that it was reviewed in reaction to the story is incorrect,’ said Miss Northmore.
‘Wicked Practice’
Homosexual peer Guy Black – ‘hateful’
Homosexual conservative peer Lord Black of Brentwood told PinkNews: ‘It is appalling that propaganda for so-called “gay conversion therapy” should be being screened here in London.’ Turning morality on its head, he described such therapy as a ‘wicked practice’.
Guy Black went on to call for conversion therapy to be made illegal in the UK. He described the film, a gentle documentary, as a ‘hateful film, fuelling homophobia and prejudice’.
In a statement to PinkNews, lesbian peeress Baroness Barker also turned truth on its head.
People who preach gay conversion therapy are zealots who are prepared to cause great harm to LGBT people in order to perpetuate their warped view of the world,’ she ventured.
Core Issues Trust chief executive Mike Davidson made headlines when he appeared on Good Morning Britain with Piers Morgan. The video is here. Piers Morgan expressed himself outraged, as we should expect. He told PinkNews his organisation was considering legal action against Vue.
Facebook video goes viral
Earlier this month, an ex-gay video on Facebook called for homosexuals to repent of their sexuality and seek healing. It has attracted 1.5 million views. US evangelical Christian group Anchored North posted the video. Pink News called it ‘shocking’. It is entitled ‘Love is Love’ and features a rainbow flag thumbnail.
The film features a woman who claims she was freed from homosexuality because she turned to God. Anchored North said: ‘It’s not gay to straight. It’s lost to saved.’ The film is on Anchored North’s Facebook page here.
A battle is raging in the US at the moment. Nine states – New Jersey, California, Oregon, Vermont, Illinois, New Mexico, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Nevada and Washington DC all ban gay conversion therapy. Activists have tabled bills in another 16 states. The remaining 25 do not have any plans to stop it. Both Donald Trump and Mike Pence support such therapy.
Ex-gay Film wars
Film ‘luvvies’ predictably gushed over a recent film slamming ‘gay conversion therapy’. The ‘Miseducation of Cameron Post’, starring one Chloë Grace Moretz, was awarded the grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
On the other hand, critics hated a film abour ex-gay Michael Glatze, ‘I am Michael.’ Glatze was an ‘out’ activist who is now happily married. The homosexual man Glatze ‘dumped’, Halifax (Nova Scotia) filmmaker Benjie Nycum made a further film ‘Michael Lost and Found’. It revolves about meeting Glatze and his wife at the home in Wyoming. Significantly, Nycom accepts that Glatze is genuiningly ex-gay and heterosexual. It is fundamental to gay ideology that no-one can change. Ex-gays must be either still homosexual really, or they never were.
Redemption in Corinth
But the Bible says there were ex-gay people in Corinth. The Apsotle Paul lists active and passive homosexuals alongside other sinners in his first letter to the Corinthians:
1Co 6:9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Nevertheless, he immediately goes on to speak of the power of Jesus Christ to forgive, justify, sabtify and wash clean:
1Co 6:11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
To deny the ex-gay movement is to deny the Gospel.
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Charles Darwin knew nothing of DNA or molecular biology
Professor John Gowlett – crazy about Darwin and Lucy
Atheists in Manchester are clinging on to Charles Darwin as if he were the fount of all wisdom.
Each year, says an email, ‘Greater Manchester Humanists put on a Darwin Day event as a major meeting where we invite noted academics to give lectures on cutting edge advances or new insights into the world of science that has been informed by Darwin’s discoveries.’
Guy Otten, a ‘humanist celebrant’, chairs the Manchester God-deniers. He is also a trustee of the British Humanist Association. He said: ‘Darwin’s insights are still (amazingly) being denied in the 21st century by people motivated by anti-science founded on religious belief. Supporting and promoting Darwin Day is thus an important step and statement.’
This is almost a self-parody of the atheist position. So shaky is their confidence, they have to denigrate their opponents as ‘anti-science’. Actually, it was religious belief that prompted science in the first place. Scientists from the fifteenth century to the present day were, and still are, Christians. (Although the term ‘scientist’ was not coined until 1833.) Here are just some of them. But there is a longer list here.
Where did ‘laws of nature’ come from?
Inquisitive believers wanted to know how God’s creation worked. We still do. What laws did the Almighty put in place to govern creation? In Proverbs chapter eight his law is characterised as ‘wisdom’. It declares:
Prov 8:23 I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
If the laws of physics, chemistry, biology, thermodynamics and so on were not put in place in the beginning, where did they come from? What wisdom created them? Because, make no mistake, they had to be there or the universe would blow apart.
One of those is the law of biogenesis: Life comes only from life. Indeed, scientists have only observed life coming from the same kind of life, just as the word of God states in the first chapter of the Bible:
Genesis 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. Gen 1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Australopithecus
All that remains of ‘Lucy’ the extinct ape – still touted as the elusive ‘missing link’
One of the speakers at the Darwin Day event is scheduled to be Professor John Gowlett. Prof Gowlett holds the degrees of MA PhD FSA FRAI. He is Professor of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool. The other speaker is zooarchaeologist Prof Keith Dobney BA; MSc; PhD.
The subject will be: ‘HUMAN EVOLUTION: from Australopithecus to Archaeological Science.’
‘Australopithecus’ refers to ‘Lucy’. Evolutionists have hailed her as the elusive ‘missing link’ between apes and men. However, others point out Lucy was actually a extinct ape. Moreover, they do this from a scientific mindset, evaluating the evidence.
Dr Gowlett says: ‘My research interests in human evolution focus especially on the middle times between the ape-like australopithecines and the appearance of Homo sapiens within the last half million years.’
Anyone with an evolutionary axe to grind must ignore the evidence that Lucy was really an ape. Above all, we see that evolutionism is a quasi-religious view. It’s a belief’. People ‘believe’ Darwin’s Theory, despite modern advances in DNA and molecular biology. Biologists defend evolution not because it is true, but because tens of thousands of jobs and reputations depend on it. This is blind faith, if anything is.
The witness of yeast
But what of Professor’s Gowlett’s idea that Lucy ‘evolved’ into people ‘within the last half million years’? Evolution depends on massive time-scales. Any baker or brewer knows about yeast. Yeast reproduces every fifteen minutes. In broad terms, it goes through 35,000 generations in a year. That is the equivalent of 1,000,000 years of human generations. But at the end of all that time, it is still yeast. It has shown no inclination to become anything else.
`
The Carlsberg Brewery in Denmark still uses the Saccharomyces Carlsbergensis which Emil Hansen purified in 1883. Yeast fits into God’s creation just fine as it is. In fact, ecologists are only now showing how inter-dependent is the whole of God’s eco-system. This BBC webpage shows some of the intricate links. It all had to be in place ‘in the beginning’.
Or as the Bible puts it:
Psalm 104:14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;
Indeed, sometimes we just have to stand in awe of the whole of creation:
Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
And to those who purport to know it all, God still asks, as he demanded of Job:
Job 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
Darwin knew nothing of DNA
Charles Darwin knew nothing of DNA or molecular biology
Darwin himself lived from 1809 to 1882. He puiblished ‘On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life’ in 1859.
In the same year, as this website shows, Louis Pasteur disproved the theory of ‘spontaneous generation’, popular during Darwin’s lifetime. But just-so stories endure. Eleven years later, in 1870, Thomas Huxley, ‘Darwin’s bulldog’, proclaimed the ability of life to come from non-life. Furthermore, evolutionists still believe in abiogenesis today. They seriously believe life arose from non-life.
Then ignoring Information Theory they maintain that more complex organisms ‘evolved’ from less complex ones. However, molecular biologists have shot down this idea at first post. Bacteria do not have the power to evolve into cells with a nucleus. And with 1,000 times the DNA of bacteria, those are the building blocks of life. We reported on this study here. Now then, how have evolutionists reacted to this evidence? They have ignored it.
Speaking of blind faith, Darwin not only knew nothing of DNA and molecular biology. He was also ignorant of microbes. Robert Kock only isolated them in 1881. He published his research on tuberculosis in the year of Darwin’s death. Before that, people believed the disease was inherited.
Evolutionists are anti-science
Humanist ‘celebrant’ Guy Otten
Despite their bluster, it is the evolutionists who are ‘anti-science’ if anyone is. They ignore real scientific advances post-1859. They try constantly to force annoying evidence into an evolutionary grid. We all do this, because we are fallible human beings. But at least we Christians admit it, and frankly, the evidence increasingly supports our position than theirs in any case.
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is shaking. That’s why Mr Otten speaks despairingly of ‘the need to affirm evolutionary science among your family and friends by inviting them along. This is important in this day and age.’ In 2009, the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth, a poll found half of all Britons do not believe his theory. Only 25% went wholeheartedly with Darwin. Just last year, according to another poll, despite 38% of Americans believing equally in creation and some form of God-guided evolution, a mere 19% accepted the atheist position. Nevertheless, that figure has doubled in thirty-five years.
Evangelism
Luke 10:2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.
Romans 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
The event will be held from 7.30pm, with doors open at 5.30. The venue is Manchester Conference Centre, 78, Sackville Street, Manchester, M1 3BB. Tickets are priced on the eventbrite website at £8 and £5 for the unwaged. Christians are unlikely to attend and pour any money into atheist coffers. Nevertheless, we should pray. Holding prayer at the venue would be useful.
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Conservatives’ LGBT group linked with paedophile ring after former chairman is jailed for sharing child porn
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5320759/Conservatives-LGBT-group-linked-paedophile-ring.html
According to the BBC, England’s chief inspector of schools is targetting what she calls ‘fundamentalists’ and ‘religious extremists’.
Amanda Spielman, head of Ofsted, says some community leaders see schools as vehicles to ‘indoctrinate impressionable minds’.
They use schools to narrow children’s horizons and ‘pervert education’, she says. Some schools even promote ‘extremist ideology’.
She is asking head teachers to confront those who foster what she terms ‘extremist behaviour’.
Ofsted on ‘Forms of liberalism’
‘Rather than adopting a passive liberalism that says anything goes, for fear of causing offence, schools leaders should be promoting a muscular liberalism,’ Ms Spielman said. She was speaking today at a conference held by the Church of England in London.
‘That sort of liberalism holds no truck for ideologies that seek to close minds or narrow opportunity.
‘Occasionally that will mean taking uncomfortable decisions or having tough conversations.
‘It means not assuming that the most conservative voices in a particular faith speak for everyone.’
She added: ‘Ofsted inspectors are increasingly brought into contact with those who want to actively pervert the purpose of education’.
Extremist ideology
‘Under the pretext of religious belief, they use education institutions, legal and illegal, to narrow young people’s horizons, to isolate and segregate, and in the worst cases to indoctrinate impressionable minds with extremist ideology.
‘Freedom of belief in the private sphere is paramount, but in our schools it is our responsibility to tackle those who actively undermine fundamental British values or equalities law.’
She is making the speech to support head teacher Neena Lall, of St Stephen’s state primary in east London. Ms Lall has tried to prevent children under the age of eight from wearing the hijab in class. Generally speaking, Muslim girls, although not all of them, wear the hijab after the age of 10. Ms Lall also tried to stop younger pupils from taking part in Ramadan fasting during school hours.
‘All forms of fundamentalism’
Tahir Alam, alleged “ringleader” of the Trojan Horse Plot of Muslims to take over secular schools, was also the co-author of a 72-page document revealing the strategy. See below…
So far, so anti-Muslim, but naturally the Chief Inspector implied she also has Christian schools in her sights. Ofsted said Ms Spielman was not targeting the Islamic faith, but ‘all forms of fundamentalism’.
A Department for Education official said: ‘Extremism has no place in our society.
That’s why we changed the law and the requirements on schools so that they have to actively promote the ‘fundamental British values’ of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and the mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.
‘If there are any allegations of schools promoting ideologies or discrimination in the classroom, we will not hesitate to take action.’
What it means for Christians
There are two ways of looking at this story. Maybe it really is all about Islam. In this view, Ofsted is putting up a smokescreen with its ‘all forms of fundamentalism’ line.
Or perhaps Ofsted really have Christian schools in their sights. This view might make better sense. There have already been disturbing accounts of Ofsted inspectors marking down Christian schools.
The Independent reported in January 2017: ‘A number of Christian fundamentalist schools have been downgraded by government inspectors following an investigation by The Independent which revealed children at some schools that follow the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) curriculum are taught that LGBT people are inferior and girls must submit to men.’ There are 26 ACE schools registered in the UK.
According to the Daily Telegraph, ‘Nine out of 10 schools linked to the Christian Education Europe network were deemed inadequate or said to be requiring improvement in their latest visit by the regulator in October 2016, despite most receiving positive feedback previously.
‘Criticisms included failing to balance lessons on the creation with teaching about evolution and not addressing other faiths in class in deep enough detail.’
Christian school forced to close
Ofsted forced Cornerstone School in Epsom to close
And in November 2015, as a local paper reports, Cornerstone School in Epsom was forced to close. Ofsted reported pupils at the small Christian faith school in Epsom had ‘a limited view of the world.’ They were not ‘open to the views of those who might have different beliefs than those offered by church members’.
In the Guardian’s article, Ofsted reported: ‘Pupils do not have sufficient opportunity to learn about and consider the lives of those who have a different religious faith or no faith.’
Headteacher Grahame Davies said: ‘The mountain of demands made by Ofsted meant that, after over 27 years as headteacher, I felt I was not the person to take the school forward.
‘Our unique setting means that this is much easier said than done, so the governors realised they had little option but to close the school.’
Parents’ responsibility
Teaching about creation has been one other way in which Christian schools have incurred the wrath of Ofsted. So is teaching Biblical morality and not giving room to condom-based sex education. The Bible shows the importance of sound teaching here, but it cuts both ways:
Prov 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Going further, parents have the responsibility for their children’s education:
Deut 6:7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
The New Testament reinforces that doctrine:
Eph 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
It follows that Muslim parents have the right to bring up their children as they see fit. Nevertheless, they should not do this at public expense. If they are delegating the duty, as is their right, they should pay for it themselves. Moreover, we should be clear. They may not teach murder or treason. However, teaching against the transient fashion of ‘equalities law’ may be a prophetic act, whoever does it.
Indoctrination
Muslims, however, prefer to have their cake and eat it. They put their children into state schools. When there are enough Muslim children, they make sure the school becomes Islamic. However, the State will certainly inspect schools which have public funding. Moreover, if it finds that a Muslim clique has taken over, Ofsted should take action. This was what happened in the Trojan Horse scandal in Birmingham.
But firstly, as is clear, even private schools are under the inspection regime. Secondly, Ofsted used the Trojan Horse problem to bring in the absurd ‘British Values’ idea, and try to compel all schools to become ‘liberal’ and ‘tolerant’ notably of perversion.
Amanda Spielman, head of Ofsted, says some community leaders see schools as vehicles to ‘indoctrinate impressionable minds’. But Ofsted itself wants to ‘indoctrinate impressionable minds’ – in all schools. It will do that with its own liberal values.
Ofsted express outrage at schools ‘promoting ideologies’. But every school does that. Ofsted mean ‘ideologies we do not share.’ We may feel a constitutional Christian State should insist on Christian ideology. But the elite are now overwhelmingly secularist, and they defend their privileged position by all means possible.
Home schoolers
German Social Services took the Wunderlich children because their parents were home-schooling them. Home-schooling is illegal in Germany.
Finally, home schoolers should be on guard. Ofsted and its Scottish and Northern Irish equivalents will not stop until home schooling is either outlawed or registered. The Biblical idea of parents educating their children is anathema to the elite.
They believe the ‘purpose of education’ is to make children uncritical servants of the state.
Radical Christians or New Agers often head such households. Either way, the elite see them as places of insurrection against the system.
Do not think a clamp-down cannot happen. Home schooling is illegal in Germany. Children will be taken away from home-schooling parents, as we reported here.
General Sir Nicholas Carter is head of the British Army
General Sir Nicholas Carter is head of the British Army
The MOD have enlisted a supposed Russian threat in their bid for more money. But are the armed forces now more keen on ‘diversity’ than effectiveness? What are they for in today’s world? And could they make cuts in their inflated levels of top brass?
Nick Carter: Russia Threat
First out of blocks was General Sir Nicholas Carter. The Chief of the General Staff was warning at the end of January that British forces must ‘keep up’ to counter an alleged Russia threat. General Carter said Moscow is building an increasingly aggressive and expeditionary force. It already boasts capabilities that outmatch UK forces, he said. Furthermore, last year Russia undertook simulated attacks across Northern Europe.
According to the Independent, the month before, the head of the Armed Forces spoke. Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach claimed Russia poses a threat to Britain’s internet access and trade.
Russia’s “modernised” navy would be cutting underwater transcontinental cables. The UK had to bolster its naval forces to counter the threat, he went on.
Gavin Williamson: They’ll kill thousands
Nick Carter had barely stepped from his podium when Rt Hon Gavin Williamson MP chimed in. The Daily Telegraph interviewed the Defence Secretary as its main front-page story on Friday last week. Russia was spying on Britain’s critical national infrastructure, claimed the Secretary of State.
Rt Hon Gavin Williamson MP, HM Secretary of State for Defence (R)
‘The plan for the Russians won’t be for landing craft to appear in the South Bay in Scarborough, and off Brighton Beach,’ he said.
‘What they [Russia] are looking at doing is they are going to be thinking “How can we just cause so much pain to Britain?” Damage its economy, rip its infrastructure apart, actually cause thousands and thousands and thousands of deaths, but actually have an element of creating total chaos within the country.’
Gavin Williamson asserted that Moscow had been researching the UK’s critical infrastructure and how it connected to Continental power supplies with a view to creating ‘panic’ and ‘chaos.’
‘Scaremongering’
But energy experts said Mr Williamson’s claims were scaremongering. As the Guardian put it, the lights were ‘unlikely to go out even if the electricity interconnectors, which supply about 5% of UK power, were somehow cut off.’
“It does sound a bit like scaremongering really. If you take out one interconnector it’s clear the UK can survive. We saw that last year with the one to France,” said Jonathan Marshall, energy analyst at the ECIU thinktank, referring to a major power cable to France running at half capacity after it was damaged by a storm.
John Feddersen, the chief executive of Aurora Energy Research, agreed. “Electricity is not a major problem, we’ve got a decent amount of capacity. No house lights are going to go out,” he said.
The Daily Express ventured Mr Williamson’s outburst was timed to deflect attention from an embarrassing story about him.
Non-existent Russian Threat
With virtually the whole of the Ministry of Defence talking up some kind of a threat from Russia, it is good to remind ourselves there is no actual threat to British interests from Russia at all. Of course the Russians will conduct scary exercises on their borders. NATO has enough forces spread across eastern Europe to convince the Russians they are under an imminent threat.
Britain currently has 800 infantry and 150 armoured personnel wasting their time and our money in the Baltics. The Americans sent 87 tanks to Poland this time last year. We reported on NATO’s sabre-rattling at the time. It all creates jobs in the armaments manufacturers, for sure. But NATO and EU expansionism worries the Russians, who feel they have to stress their capability to respond.
Psalm 120:7 I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.
In reality, Russia can hardly govern its own vast territory. BAE Systems might not like it, but the Cold War is over. The Russians are neither our ‘enemies’ nor ‘our adversaries’. They are our allies in the real fight against militant Islam. The military and associated politicians need to grow up and smarten up.
Equality & Diversity
General Sir James Everard is Patron of the Army LGBT Forum
However, if the armed forces really are serious about their operational ability, why do they divert their energies into something as non-productive as equality and diversity?
The British Army has a full general (one of only three) in charge of equality and diversity. General Sir James Rupert Everard, KCB, CBE (born 23 September 1962) serves as NATO’s Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe. But General Everard is also, as Wikipedia puts it, a ‘strong advocate of diversity’. General Everard has served as Patron of the Army LGBT Forum since 2010 when he was a Lt-General. He himself is not that way inclined, being married with three children.
Furthermore, Christian Voice has learned the General has a whole department at Home Command headquarters at Andover working on the subject. The unit must be commanded by a Major-General or Lt-General reporting directly to Gen Everard. It could even be Lt Gen Patrick Sanders, who is ‘LGBT Champion for the Army’. (See ‘Stonewall’ below.) Equality and Diversity is now the main focus of the British Army.
Diversity Statistics
But what good is all the emphasis on women, BME personnel and gays doing?
According to the UK Armed Forces Biannual Diversity Statistics of 1st October 2017, ‘18.8 per cent of service personnel declared a sexual orientation. There were 23.3 per cent of Officers and 17.8 per cent of Other Ranks declaring a sexual orientation.’
Now then, how many owned up to being homosexual? It might be more fashionable in today’s armed forces to be homosexual, but in any event, the Biannual Diversity Statistics failed actually to give a heterosexual / bisexual / homosexual / transsexual / queer / intersex etc breakdown. So for all the money spent on diversity no-one knows. And who cares whether female representation in UK regular forces is stable at 10.3%?
The Bible, of course, shows God expects men to do the fighting, but it also stresses the virtue of peace.
Isaiah 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
Black and Asian recruits
Soldiers from 5th Battalion The Rifles, Headquarters take part in a Military March and Shoot.
Turning to black and minority-ethnic personnel, here are figures from the same report. ‘BAME personnel accounted for 10.5 per cent of intake into the UK Regular Forces in the 12 months to 30 September 2017.’ But, according to the statistics for England and Wales alone, black people and Asians made up 10.8% of the population at the last count. Other ‘non-whites’ were 3.2%.
Talking about religion, Christians made up 71.9% of the total armed forces. ‘No religion’ was 25.5%. According to UK statistics, Hindus are outnumbered four-to-one by Muslims in the UK population. Despite that, Hindus provide 0.8% of the armed forces, double the Muslim 0.4%.
Given the reluctance of Muslims to join the armed forces, the Army, Navy and Air Force are not doing that bad. It could indeed be argued that recruitment should be colour-blind, and there is no need for a diversity unit at all.
Stonewall Equality Index
With General Everard in charge of appeasing the LGBT lobby, it comes as no surprise that the Army has made the ‘Stonewall 100 list’. It even boasts about it on its website.
‘The British Army is delighted to be counted once again, as one of the top 100 employers in Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index 2018. This listing is prestigious (sic) as it is judged against more than 430 organisations and companies. It is also testament to the increasingly inclusive environment within the Army’, it simpers.
“We are delighted to be included in Stonewall’s listing of Top 100 employers,” says Lt Gen Patrick Sanders, Commander Field Army and LGBT Champion for the Army. “It recognises our commitment to diversity and the importance we place on allowing soldiers to be themselves.
Darren Towers, Executive Director, Stonewall said: ‘The British Army and all those who have made this year’s Top 100 Employers list have done a fantastic job. Taking part in our Index shows real commitment to understanding and advancing LGBT equality. This year, for the first time, the Index looked at what employers were doing for trans equality in the workplace. This work is crucial.’
The previous ‘Be the Best’ adverts emphasised ruggedness and learning a skill
British Army Bedtime stories
On top of this, the Army gained ridicule in January for its latest recruiting campaign. Its previous ‘Be the Best’ adverts, (Here’s one on YouTube), emphasised ruggedness and action. It showed the benefits of joining the army. That was all the qualifications in jobs you could train for. There was only a gentle nod towards black recruits.
But the latest (shown here) is more emotional (’emo’) showing men under strain. Their mates are giving them coffee. Moreover, around half the section are black, making the video more aspirational than true. It has a ‘This is Belonging’ strap-line. One fully expects the Sergeant to read you a bedtime story if you are afraid of the dark.
An image from the new British Army recruitment adverts. Fewer than half a percent of army personnel are actually Muslim.
Even the Philistines in the Bible could do better than that:
1Sam 4:9 Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.
Another ad features a cartoon baby and mummy, a Muslim bowing down on his prayer mat, and apparently, someone asking whether they can be ‘gay’ in the army. According to this video, which shows some of the ads, on Channel 5 news, the British Army spent £1.6 million on the campaign.
Threats now more sinister
Major General Tim Cross thought it could reach out to ‘various aspects of the community’. But should marketing probe an unrepresented market, or play to the product’s market strengths? Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan is in the latter camp. He said the ad campaign was “neglecting the main group of people who are interested in joining” and will not solve the “recruiting crisis” facing the armed forces.
But if there is a recruiting crisis, the UK’s trend to full employment will not help. And threats are now more sinister, more home-grown, or arising from Islamist terror groups. The threat from expansionist nations (the EU excepted) is vanishing. Even North Korea is more concerned with Kim Jong-Un’s survival than with over-running its southern neighbour.
Is there a case for a British Army of the present strength at all? According to this excellent resource, it has no fewer than fourteen Lieutenant-Generals commanding just three or four corps, 112,00 personnel, in all. These split into Field Army and Home Command. There need to be soldiers doing paperwork, working on logistics, training schedules, procurement and so on. But fourteen Lieutenant-Generals?
How many Brigadiers?
The British Army Structure
A Division Contains 3 Brigades and numbers 10,000. The Army would have perhaps twelve Divisions spread out over the Field Army and Home Command. So why do we need thirty-nine Major-Generals to command them?
A Brigade Contains 3-5 Battalions and has 5,000 personnel. In terms of numbers, the British Army has perhaps twenty-four brigades. Now, guess who commands a brigade? Yes, it’s a Brigadier. Each of those twelve Major-Generals would have two Brigadiers under him. Each Brigadier would command a brigade. We understand that Brigadier is a rank, not a job description, but, seriously, why do we need one hundred and thirty-six of them?
Conclusion
We could go on. From scare-stories, to wasteful diversity programmes, to mis-directed advertising, the British Army has a quite different challenge from the simplistic financial one its leaders put forward. And apart from the ridiculous diversity unit, and the top brass overstaffing, we have not even touched upon the myriad ways in which the army wastes tax-payers’ money – in procurement for example. Maybe the lack of sufficient recruitment reflects society’s confusion about what the British Army is there for at all.
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Chief Prosecutor for England & Wales Alsion Saunders
Chief Prosecutor for England & Wales Alison Saunders
According to reports, Chief Prosecutor for England and Wales Alison Saunders has said she does not think anyone is in jail after being wrongly convicted because of failures to disclose crucial evidence.
Her remarks follow a string of cases which have collapsed after police and prosecutors failed to disclose important evidence to the defence team exonerating the defendants.
God loves to see earthly justice
The Bible says Almighty God appointed human justice, so this is a serious matter (KJV):
Psalm 33:5 He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.
Further scriptures show how seriously God takes the administration of justice in a realm:
Exod 20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Prov 21:3 To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
The prophet Isaiah leaves us in no doubt about the requirements of earthly justice:
Isa 56:1 Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
And Isaiah even says the Messiah, Jesus Christ himself, demands and brings justice:
Isa 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
‘Do that which is good’
In the New Testament we read that rulers and judges are ministers of God to execute his judgement.
Romans 13:3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
Towards the end of last year two rape cases collapsed because the prosecution failed to disclose crucial evidence. This was mainly from text messages. Crucially, it exonerated the defendant. We reported on these cases in our January newsletter. (We send a copy free to paid-up members of Christian Voice. Click here to join) Each time, the case began with a false accusation of rape.
False accusations
In August last year, a woman was jailed for inventing rape claims to get attention from her lesbian lover. The judge sent Jemma Beale down for ten years. We reported on an earlier case where a woman received 18 months. Louise Johnson accused Andrew Tutty of rape, attempted rape, assault and harassment after he ended their brief affair.
It is not just women who make false accusations. Disturbed young men can make homosexual allegations. One of the more shocking was that of David Bryant, a retired fireman who spent four years in jail after a false allegation. Mr Bryant was convicted on his accuser’s word alone. As we report here, he was released in 2016 only after new evidence came to light and a sustained campaign by his wife Lynn.
False accusations of rape are easy to make and have been around from the earliest days. Here is what Potiphar’s wife did after she failed to seduce Joseph, grabbing hold of his cloak and seeing him run from the room:
Gen 39:14 That she called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying, See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice: 15 And it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled, and got him out.
Potiphar believed his wife on her word alone and sent Joseph to prison. This righteous man did well there, but that’s another story.
Given the scope for false allegations, police and prosecutors should be all the more careful. Nevertheless, they have adopted a ‘believe the accuser’ mindset.
The situation is worse in England, Wales and Northern Ireland than Scotland. South of the Border, prosecutors need no corroborating evidence before a case may be brought. Accordingly, they can – and do – proceed on the basis of ‘her word against his’.
Chief Prosecutor ‘complacent’
The Chief Prosecutor told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘The problem we have found recently is around the ever-increasing use of social media, all the digital material we obtain.’
Asked if it was possible there were people in prison today because of disclosure failures, Ms Saunders astonishingly replied: ‘I don’t think so because what these cases show is that when we take a case through to trial there are various safeguards in place, not least of which the defence indicating what their defence is going to be.’
Many observers would say that is not just complacent but plain wrong. The most important safeguard is not the defence telling the prosecution what their defence will be. It is the police and prosecution disclosing all the evidence!
Do not convict the innocent
The word of God sets forth a basic principle of justice – not to convict the innocent:
Exod 23:7 Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.
The Bible says this about perjury:
Deut 19:18 And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother; 19 Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you.
Evidence disclosure failings
Diligent inquisition requires all the disclosure of all the evidence. Moreover, the BBC reports today on all cases dropped over evidence disclosure failings. The number of prosecutions in England and Wales that collapsed because of a failure by police or prosecutors to disclose evidence increased by 70% in the last two years.
Last year, prosecutors dropped charges against 916 people over a failure to disclose evidence. The dropped charges against 537 in 2014-15.
Reporters obtained the figures under the Freedom of Information Act. They reveal the total number of people whose trials have ended or the charges against them dropped. In every case this was because of a failure to disclose evidence:
Over those four years, the number of completed prosecutions fell by almost 150,000 cases – from more than 736,000 in 2013-14 to just over 588,000 in 2016-17.
‘Systemic’ problems
Contrary to the complacent response of Alison Saunders, the Crown Prosecution Service admitted the justice system had ‘systemic’ problems. A CPS spokesperson defended the number of dropped cases due to evidence disclosure failures. He said they represented just 0.15% of the total number of prosecutions. However, he went on:
‘That is still too many … and we are clear that there are systemic disclosure issues across the criminal justice system which will require a collective effort in order to bring about improvement.
‘Getting this right is a priority, and along with the police and other criminal justice partners we are working to improve how we fulfil these vital disclosure obligations.’
Angela Rafferty QC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, blamed a ‘lack of investment, training and attention to the criminal justice system’.
She said barristers face ‘A daily struggle in respect of disclosure, delays and all the other disastrous consequences of a system that is openly described by MPs as at breaking point’. ‘The reasons for it must be properly explored and dealt with,’ she went on.
MP concerned
Anna Soubry is a long-serving Conservative MP and a barrister. @Anna_Soubry tweeted: ‘Appalled at the ill informed comments of #DPP Alison Saunders. There hv been longstanding problems w disclosure’ Anna Soubry said she feared Mrs Saunders was ‘part of the problem’.
Continue to pray for the administration of justice in England and Wales. In our January newsletter we stressed the need to bring back the need for corroborating evidence in England and Wales and Northern Ireland. In addition, our Scottish readers must defend it in Scotland. Scotland has its own legal system. A recent attempt to abolish the need for corroborating evidence north of the Border failed. We reported on that in our January newsletter as well. We have already sent it to members. If you are not a member and did not receive it, click below to support and join us:
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(Article Published in Christian Voice newsletter Summer Recess 2016)
A former fireman convicted of a sex attack and held in jail for four years had his conviction quashed in July 2016 in the Court of Appeal.
David Bryant, now 66, of Grove Road East, Christchurch, Dorset, was accused of committing an offence against a man named in court as Danny Day, who was a 14-year-old boy in the 1970s.
Mr Bryant was found guilty of buggery by a majority verdict of a jury in December 2013. He was jailed for six years in January 2014, but appeal judges later increased the sentence to eight-and-a-half years ruling that the original term imposed at Bournemouth Crown Court was ‘unduly lenient’.
MAJORITY VERDICT
Only a courageous and relentless campaign by his wife, who continued to believe in him, led to the evidence of Mr Day being called into question. The latter’s greed in demanding compensation on false pretences also saw his credibility evaporate.
Mr Bryant’s conviction was overturned as ‘unsafe’ by Sir Brian Leveson, Mr Justice Singh and Mr Justice Holgate in the light of the new evidence.
Mr Day alleged David Bryant carried out the attack with another man who was working as a fireman in Christchurch after they had invited the schoolboy to their fire station to play darts with them.
At a previous Court of Appeal hearing a judge said the alleged victim did not report the alleged incident until 2012 ‘after being motivated to come forward in the aftermath of the Jimmy Savile affair’.
CORROBORATING EVIDENCE NOT NEEDED
The need for corroborating evidence in sexual cases was abolished by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 in order to secure more convictions in rape cases.
Any case of alleged rape or sexual assault may now be determined simply on the word of the accuser against that of the alleged perpetrator. It all comes down to which of the two is more plausible. In some cases, particularly where celebrities are involved, police name the alleged rapist hoping other accusers will come forward to bolster the case.
A senior police source said in connection with the disgraced ‘Operation Midland’: ‘You don’t have forensics, you don’t have cell site evidence in these kinds of inquires. What you are looking for is other witnesses who are giving similar accounts.’
In Operation Midland the police believed a serial liar known as ‘Nick’ and both ex-MP Harvey Proctor and Lord Bramall, former Chief of the General Staff, endured months of suspicion. The singer Sir Cliff Richard also fell foul of supposed ’historic’ accusations with no merit.
But barrister Matthew Scott, writing on the David Bryant case at http://barristerblogger.com, says juries may not reach a proper verdict in a case where no evidence is offered other than the testimony of an accuser.
DAVID BRYANT CASE: ONLY ACCUSER’S WORD
Mr Scott says it is a ‘fallacy … that a jury of ordinary men and women, or for that matter a bench of magistrates or a single professional judge, can be relied upon, without extraneous evidence, to discern beyond reasonable doubt when someone is telling the truth.
‘Unfortunately, as we have learnt time and time again, neither jury nor professional judge can do anything of the sort. Liars sometimes look shifty and nervously play with their hair; but so do people telling the truth, especially when defending themselves in the witness box under extreme pressure. At other times liars are utterly believable.’
In the case of David Bryant, there was no evidence save the word of Mr Day. The jury were unable to ‘spot the liar’, exactly as Mr Scott contends. He was believed. An innocent man spent over two years behind bars.
NOT BOXING CHAMPION
Mr Day waived his right to anonymity in a series of newspaper interviews after the conviction. But he was finally exposed as a liar after detective work by Mrs Bryant and a team of lawyers and private investigators, who worked on the case ‘pro bono’.
After David Bryant’s conviction, Mr Day launched civil proceedings against Mr Bryant and Dorset County Council, which ran the fire service.
In those proceedings he claimed aggravated damages because he said the assault had ruined his chances of appearing at the Olympics in 1984.
Mr Day claimed to be a boxing champion with a record better than Muhammad Ali. He said he had given up his place on the British boxing team at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 because of the trauma of the sexual assault.
PSYCHIATRIST REPORT
Mr Scott says: ‘Mr Day had made a mistake. His insatiable greed led to his downfall. Unlike his allegation of rape, where it was just his word against Mr Bryant’s, his claim of having been an Olympic standard boxer was demonstrably untrue. There was no evidence that he had ever so much as stepped foot in a boxing ring.
‘Then he relied on the report of a psychiatrist to prove the extent of his suffering. But this led to his medical records – inexplicably perhaps overlooked or ignored by the police in the original investigation – being examined. It turned out that, to use the language of Mr Justice Singh: “over a period from 2000 to 2010 the complainant in this case had to seek medical attention from his GP in relation to what can only be described as his being a chronic liar”.
‘When the case eventually made its way back to the Court of Appeal even the Prosecution conceded that the conviction could not possibly stand and Mr Bryant was finally set free.’
BIBLICAL STANDARDS OF EVIDENCE
Under a Godly system, a miscarriage of justice such as has happened to David Bryant could not occur. The scriptures show some basic principles:
Firstly, no-one shall be convicted on the evidence of only one witness. Two or three witnesses are required to establish a conviction. God’s eternal standard is especially important in capital offences, but it applies to all.
READ: Exod 23:7; Numb 35:30; Deut 17:06; Matt 18:16; John 8:17-18; 2 Cor 13:1; 1 Tim 5:19; Heb 10:28.
Secondly, perjury is punishable by the same punishment as would have been inflicted upon the innocent man were he to have been found guilty. The witnesses bear the primary responsibility of conviction.
READ: Deut 17:07, 19:15-20, 1Kgs 21:13; Est 7:10.
Corroborating evidence, forensics, CCTV, for example, can plausibly stand as a ‘witness’. But the testimony of a single individual will not meet the standard. It should not even meet the lower standard of ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ adopted by our courts.
INNOCENT SHOULD NEVER BE CONVICTED
It was a solid Rabinnic principle that the innocent should never be convicted even if that meant some of the guilty also went free. The English jurist William Blackstone expressed the ratio like this: ‘All presumptive evidence of felony should be admitted cautiously; for the law holds it better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent party suffer’.
Matthew Scott writes: ‘What I cannot accept is that criminal courts should be asked to decide cases from decades ago which depend on the word of one complainant against one defendant.
Distressing though it may be for individuals who were sexually abused when they were children not to be believed, the danger that justice will not be done in such cases is simply too great.
‘In 2003 the then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, quashed a conviction largely on the grounds that there was no rational way of deciding who was telling the truth in a case which turned on which of two people was right about an incident that allegedly occurred about 30 years earlier:
‘“At the heart of our criminal justice system is the principle that while it is important that justice is done to the prosecution and justice is done to the victim, in the final analysis the fact remains that it is even more important that an injustice is not done to a defendant. It is central to the way we administer justice in this country that although it may mean that some guilty people go unpunished, it is more important that the innocent are not wrongly convicted.”’
PRINCIPLE ‘IGNORED’ BY THE COURTS
But Mr Scott says even this principle is being ignored by the Courts. The matter is left to juries, and for the court of appeal to put right any wrongs. But juries should not be expected to convict on one party’s word against another, and the court of appeal cannot be relied upon.
READ: Psalm 89:15; Prov 16:12, 25:5, 29:2,14; Isa 16:5.
PRAY: Thank God for the eventual acquittal of David Bryant and praise God for his wife who stood by him. But cry to God in anguish that such injustices are not rare in our land and are not easily put right.
