Latest News
Stop league tables for five-year-olds
A Quaker mother has pioneered a campaign against the introduction of school league tables for five-year-olds. Frances Laing of Chester Meeting has attracted over a thousand signatures for a petition calling on the government to abandon the idea.
Arms exports now all right for Stephen Green
The government’s new trade minister has confirmed that he is happy to promote arms exports – only hours after a national newspaper claimed that they were troubling his conscience.
Quaker rescues recorded
350th anniversary celebrated
Quakers around the world are marking the 350th anniversary of the first formal declaration of the Quaker Peace Testimony. Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) have launched a wide range of initiatives to stimulate awareness of the testimony and action throughout 2011. They are encouraging Friends to reflect on the historic declaration and...
Woodbridge arises
A new Meeting has been opened at Woodbridge in the east of England bringing Quakerism back to its roots in the area. The first Meeting began in 1678 and closed in 1937.
Armed Forces Bill and human rights
Defence Secretary Liam Fox was urged to uphold the human rights of forces personnel as he presented his Armed Forces Bill to the Commons this week.
Children robbed of their childhood
Retailers are robbing young people of their childhood by making them feel valued for what they own and not for what they are. That’s the claim of the Mothers’ Union (MU), whose campaign against the commercialisation of childhood is putting pressure on business to change advertising practices.
Yes, Friends, Wikileaks explodes the ‘free’ and ‘civilised’ world we know
I was thrown into a torrent of thought by a letter in the Friend (17 November) asking why there had been no voice from Friends in response to disturbing, and often horrific, information coming out of the website – Wikileaks. Hundreds of thousands of official British and American communications have been leaked...
Quakers and the new year honours list
Quaker Homeless Action fields two Christmas shelters
Christmas 2010 saw a new enterprise undertaken by Quaker Homeless Action (QHA) in central London. A youth shelter was pioneered in anticipation of further needs arising in 2011 as the cuts to housing benefit and other benefits bite. According to the Shelter website: ‘Under the current rules, if you are single, under...