Justice for All

Early advice and help can stop people becoming homeless, be consumed by debt or be treated unjustly at work or by landlords. The Baptist Union of Great Britain, the United Reformed Church and the Methodist Church are supporting the Justice for All campaign. This campaign is needed because community legal and advice services which help the most vulnerable in a community get treated fairly are under threat through the Government's Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill and through spending cuts.

The President of the Methodist Conference, Revd Leo Osborn, said recently:

"It is clear that over the coming months and years the
numbers of people in living in poverty will increase. Decisions regarding benefits and housing will become
increasingly crucial in people’s lives. Sadly there are people that seek to exploit those who have fallen on hard times. This is a time when legal advice and access to justice for the poorest will become increasingly important and it is vital that the government recognises
this priority.

"Justice should be available to all, it is not a commodity to be bought and sold. Any system which makes just treatment dependant on a person’s income is profoundly at odds with Gospel values."

Research by Justice for All suggests that under the new arrangements, a third of the country may not have face to face employment, housing or debt advice.If you would like to write to your MP in advance of the report stages debate in the House of Commons, find out more information from the Justice for All website or use their online tool to write directly to your MP.

Food for thought

Today I had a good lunchtime chat with Edward Davies, my opposite number at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. We had lunch in the cafeteria on the Terrace of the House of Commons, followed by coffee in Wesley’s Café. Parliament is currently in recess so it was very quiet, apart from the occasional group of tourists.

Lunch with Edward was a chance to get to know him informally, as he has only recently started working in a new post for the Catholic Church. It was also an opportunity to discuss what issues we were working on and plans for the future.

We talked a bit about the widely-reported address of the Methodist President to the Church of England General Synod that was in a lot of the national newspapers today, as well as the state of the media and the reporting of religious news.

The forthcoming General Election is at the very top of both our agendas at the moment. With Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, we have helped to put together resources for local churches.

Now is the time is the latest example of collaboration between ourselves and the Catholic Church, and other partners. This campaign aims to raise awareness about the state of nuclear weapons in the world and is a call for action at the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in the spring.

As far as future plans are concerned, the visit of the Pope later this year is likely to throw up a number of opportunities for all Christians to speak about political and social issues. We also talked about the challenge of political extremism in the context of approaching elections – and what all the churches might do together.