Plans by the Scottish government to assign a state guardian to every child in the country have been criticised by a number of prominent figures, including sociologists, Members of the Scottish Parliament and charities. An editorial in the Scottish Daily Express said that the plans constitute a “gross interference” in family life. Scotland’s SNP government...
A new study from the UK’s Department for Education shows that growing up with married parents tends to make children more confident, kind and responsible while showing lower levels of anti-social attitudes and hyperactivity. The analysis of 3,000 children from the early years to the age of 16, found a “small but significant tendency” towards...
Ireland’s two biggest organisations representing Muslims have said that that they “see no need for neither an ‘Upheaval’ nor a ‘Revolution’ in the Irish education system”, and that Catholic schools were “very accommodating” to Muslim students, the Irish Times reports. In a statement, the Islamic Foundation of Ireland (IFI) and the Islamic Cultural Centre of...
An Australian man who fathered twin girls with a Thai surrogate mother has been charged with sexually abusing the children. The Irish Independent reports that the man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was charged in an Australian court last year with indecent dealings of a sexual nature with the children. The twins were...
A prominent spokesperson for the Muslim community in Ireland has called for radical changes to be made to the education system. The Irish Times reports that Dr Ali Selim of the Islamic Cultural Centre (affliated with the Clonskeagh Mosque) has called in a new book for reform of school admissions policies, as well as latitude...
A marriage registrar in the UK who was sacked for refusing to conduct same-sex weddings has been reinstated after a successful appeal. Margaret Jones, 54, who had been dismissed for “bringing the council into disrepute”, was offered her job back after an appeal hearing ruled that her employer had failed to take a “balanced view”...
Theresa May, the UK’s Home Secretary, has said the government will begin an investigation into “institutionalised political correctness” after the Rotherham child abuse scandal. The Daily Telegraph reports that Mrs May was responding to the publication of a report last week by Prof. Alexis Jay which found that more than 1,400 children in the northern English...
A Dutch euthanasia clinic is being investigated for ending a woman’s life because she did not want to live in a nursing home, with the euthanasia monitoring committee saying that the clinic did not observe the formal guidelines. Prosecutors in the Netherlands are currently deciding whether to proceed with a case against the Levenseindekliniek (End...
Ultra-militants from the group calling itself the Islamic State (IS) have launched “a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing” in Northern Iraq, according to a new report from Amnesty International. The report, collating evidence gathered over the last few months as IS expanded its influence in the region, says that the militants have been carrying out...
A British surrogate mother of twins is raising one of them after the comissioning mother allegedly rejected her for being disabled. The mother, also British, took the healthy boy but refused to accept his twin sister because of her severe muscular condition Congenital Myotonic Dystrophy, the Sun reported. The surrogate mother, referred to as “Jenny”...
