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Community
Church acts to check growth of gambling Watching where the Church puts its money Hedgehog victory over fast food giant! More and more women now trapped as ‘super carers’
Church acts to check growth of gambling The Church of England and other denominations are continuing to question whether the Government’s plans for regulating advertisements for gambling, when the provisions of the Gambling Act 2005 come into force next year, are realistic or achievable. They come at a time when there are an estimated 300,000 problem gamblers in Britain and internet gambling has become big business.
Mobile phone gambling and fixed-odds betting terminals – casino-style machines – are among the new generation of high-tech games. As one counsellor said recently: “In the old days, to engage in gambling you had to go out and find it. Now gambling comes to find you.”
The stated aims of the Gambling Act, in brief, are to prevent gambling being a source of crime or disorder; to ensure that it is conducted in a fair and open way; and to protect children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by the industry. Replacing 40-years-old legislation, the Act is not designed to reduce gambling but to strengthen regulation. Companies based in the UK, including on-line operators, will have to be licensed. A Gambling Commission has been set up to enforce the new laws.
The Church has called for all advertisements promoting gambling to carry health warnings about the dangers of addiction and for compliance with advertising rules to be a condition of operators’ licences. In a submission signed by the Rt Revd Tom Butler, Bishop of Southwark, the Church proposes a lower age limit of 25 for all people shown gambling or playing a significant part in gambling advertisements. Adolescents should not be led into identifying with or imitating the behaviour of gamblers.
Resistance to the idea of a casino is particularly strong in the diocese of Canterbury. The Bishop in Canterbury, the Right Revd Stephen Venner, expressed concern that a casino would undermine the area’s reputation as a place of pilgrimage and history. When the local Council organised an on-line survey of residents in the area, 3,000 respondents voted eight to one against having a casino.
“I am sure that the Council will hear the clear democratic voice of the people and take a final decision to drop the idea,” said the bishop.
The charity Gamcare offers help to those affected by problem gambling. Call 0845 6000 133 or email info@gamcare.org.uk
Watching where the Church puts its money Investing ethically has become an increasingly important issue for any organisation that is concerned with moral values. It is the job of a little-known body called the Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG) to keep an eye on the three main investment bodies of the Church of England: the Church Commissioners, the CBF Church of England Funds, and the Pensions Board.
One of the challenging issues for the EIAG in the past year has been the call for the Church to disinvest from Caterpillar, the American manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, because of its sale of bulldozers to Israel and their use to demolish Palestinian homes and infrastructure.
A detailed review resulted in a decision that there were no current grounds to recommend disinvestment, there having been no further sales of such equipment to Israel since 2001. However, the EIAG was clear that, were sales to resume, the matter would have to be re-visited. It also stressed the urgent need for dialogue around investment and reconstruction in both Israel and Palestine if conditions which allow peace and justice to prevail are to be nurtured.
As a major stakeholder in business, the Church has great opportunities to use its power for good by positive investment in firms that have good employment and environmental practices. Ethical investment can of course be done at the parish level as well as centrally. The Church is also well placed to promote socially responsible investment in society at large.
In its annual report, the EIAG points out that engaging in constructive dialogue with firms when issues of concern arise is a profoundly Christian response, based on Christ’s own willingness to have challenging and transformative encounters with those shunned by the religious communities of his time. “Churches may not have the financial clout of big business, but they do have influence and moral authority, and they have national and international networks. Responding to our neighbours through involvement in the international economic system is an appropriate expression of the Christian faith in the global age.”
Hedgehog victory over fast food giant! It has been a long hard battle, but the British Hedgehog Preservation Society is celebrating the news that McDonald’s have changed the lid on their McFlurry dessert.
The original containers trapped many hedgehogs, some were released by kindly passers by, some were found dead, and it will never be known how many were never found at all. The new lid has a smaller aperture so the customer will take the lid off to get to the ice cream. Even if the cup does get thrown to the floor with the lid attached, the hole should be too small for hedgehogs to push into.
From the 1st September 2006 every McDonald’s restaurant in the UK has been using the new lids on their McFlurry cups, and by doing so many hedgehog lives will be saved.
More and more women now trapped as ‘super carers’ The numbers of women in their forties and fifties who are caught between the demands of holding down a job and looking after a younger or older relative will rise by 50 percent by 2020, according to a recent study.
This so-called ‘sandwich’ generation is trapped by falling birth rates and increasing longevity. More and more of these women are taking on the role of a ‘super carer’ – looking after both children or grandchildren and elderly relatives at the same time.
It puts a huge strain on the ‘have it all’ generation of women who were supposed to have more personal freedom and greater wealth than their predecessors.
Currently there are an estimated 2.5million ‘super carers’ in the UK, but the figure is expected to rise to 3.9 million. Most are aged between 45 and 55, and as super carers, face increased stresses which have an adverse effect on their overall health, wealth and well-being.
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