It was December 2012 and the Conservative Minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd MP, suggested that wealthy pensioners (or at least those with enough income) could give their winter fuel payment to charity instead of using it for themselves. We were still at a kind of peak ‘Big Society’ of Read more…
Last night I visited the Republic of Frestonia – or at least I would have done if I had been there from 1977 to the 1980s. The Free and Independent Republic of Frestonia attempted to secede from the United Kingdom in 1977 in protest to plans to redevelop the area. Read more…
With the dust slowly settling on yesterday’s election results, it wouldn’t surprise you to know that I’m often asked if Judaism is implicitly socialist or capitalist (or latterly neo-liberal). Of course, it’s a nonsense question. If we’ve learnt nothing else about how religion can be abused over the centuries, it’s Read more…
If it was your own family that had fallen on hard times the last thing you would want is for an unknown member of the public to be sitting in judgement deciding whether they were worthy of support. But that’s exactly the problem with charitable giving – it’s all dependent Read more…
I wrote in my weekly message to The LJS community about the campaign ‘Enough Food For Everyone IF’ – which is seeking to do everything possible whilst the UK holds the G8 presidency to bring an end to hunger of the 1 billion people who do not have enough food Read more…
This is an adapted version of my piece for the LJS’s monthly newsletter in March 2013. Our celebration of Pesach this year is particularly poignant. Every year we pick up and read our Haggadah, the book that has developed with our history to be our guide book during the season Read more…
This is a cross post from my Thought for the Week for The LJS. Dear Friends, I know I’m not alone in being astonished by the news regarding the amount of horsemeat that has found its way into our food disguised as beef product. The comments that I heard, regarding Read more…
I was struck by the advice of Nick Hurd MP that whilst we may be recipients of a universal benefit we should give it away to a charity if we do not need it. I am sure Mr Hurd has a tricky role as Minister for Civil Society (what a great Read more…
I can remember, as a child, we used to sit down for dinner on Friday night and the topic of conversation would frequently turn to a social justice issue. My parents, with their strong social conscience, never avoided the opportunity to discuss any topic that their three children raised. Sometimes Read more…
In a rather unfocussed way I’ve been tuning in and out of the discussion unfolding about poverty in the UK. I briefly read the paper produced by the Centre for Social Justice which deals with a specific issue of whether we should redefine the meaning of poverty since there will always Read more…