Noticeboard
Aid agencies speak out
SCIAF’s Chief Executive Lorraine Currie is among 138 leaders of aid agencies who wrote to the Prime Minister expressing concern about the government’s decision to cut the UK aid budget to pay for defence spending.
The Minister of State for Development, Anneliese Dodds, resigned her post in protest at the government’s decision.
In their letter to the Prime Minister, aid agency leaders say that no government should balance its books on the backs of the world’s most marginalised people. They recognise that the country’s security is a government priority, but point out that a wealth tax of just two percent on wealth above £10 million (affecting just 0.4 percent of the population) would raise £24 billion annually.
Caritas Internationalis, the global network of Catholic aid agencies, also issued a statement deploring the cuts to aid agency budgets by wealthy countries, as did Pax Christi.
SCIAF is asking people to write to their MP to protest against the aid cuts.
It has also launched its annual WEE BOX appeal to help fund its work in some of the world’s poorest communities. If you don’t have your WEE BOX already, contact SCIAF on https://www.sciaf.org.uk/get-involved/appeals/752-2025-wee-box-appeal.
SLN Lenten Programme 2025-March 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th at 7.30pm-see attached
Next meeting of The Newman Society _
Thursday 3rd April The Immaculate Conception Maryhill, 2049 Maryhill Rd, Glasgow G20 0AA
Moral aspects of psychiatry
Professor Jonathan Cavanagh
Campaign against assisted dying
The campaign group CAAD (Campaign Against Assisted Dying) is offering MPs information it has gathered about growing public concern over proposals to change the law on assisted dying. The bill is currently going through parliament.
Questions have been raised about the fairness of the process. CAAD points out that a sizeable majority of committee members examining the bill are in favour. Agreement on the witness list was done in private. No witnesses with expertise on domestic abuse/coercive control were called and no strategic consideration was given to the role of palliative care.
The group has held conversations in communities across Scotland for three years and engaged with over 3,000 citizens. It has found widespread civic concern about the quality of the parliamentary process. Regardless of personal viewpoints, it argues that no one with concern for the civic good wants a legacy of regret caused by a flawed process.
For further information contact CAAD at assisthelp04@gmail.com