Views, Visions and Values.

Sunday, 3 August 2014

Red Len’s right-hand man backs the pro-Putin rebels: Unite union’s chief of staff brands Kiev rulers ‘fascist’ Daily Mail

Andrew Murray has launched a group supporting pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine

 Andrew Murray is chief of staff of Britain’s largest trade union Unite

 Mr Murray was chairman of the Stop the War Coalition from 2001 until 2011

 ‘We must demand that our government stops supporting EU and Nato expansion'

The chief of staff of Britain’s largest trade union Unite has launched a group supporting pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.

Rebel groups are now widely suspected of shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in the east of the country.

Andrew Murray, right-hand man to the Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, spoke at the inaugural meeting of a campaign called Solidarity With The Antifascist Resistance In Ukraine (SARU) in June.

‘We must demand that our government stops supporting EU and Nato expansion and stops supporting the Kiev government.’

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, the union's chief of staff has launched a group supporting pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine

Since the airliner was shot down last month, with the loss of all 298 people on board, SARU has held a demonstration outside the Ukrainian Embassy in London, against ‘repression in Eastern Ukraine’.

A posting on the SARU website read: ‘Protesters also spoke up against the media coverage of the downed Malaysian flight MH17 over Eastern Ukraine, criticising the haste [sic] attribution of guilt to Russian President Vladimir Putin.’

Elsewhere it suggested that the airliner flew ‘lower than usual over the danger zone at the request of the Ukrainian dispatchers’.

What We Get Wrong About 'Finding God's Will', Relevant Magazine, via Elim

What is God’s will for your life?

This question tends to haunt us while we go through our college years. We struggle through it by choosing our major, deciding where we will spend our summer, figuring out where to go to grad school, and so many other decisions.

If you are like me, anxiety creeps up on you every time you think about your future plans.

But why do we get so anxious? For me, I start thinking about how I have one opportunity at every decision I make, and when I choose one path, I am saying no to another. But how do I know the path I choose is the right one?

The phrase we have all heard in answer to this question is we need to find God’s will for our life. And for the past 21 years, I thought I had to keep praying for God to open my eyes to the will he had laid out for me. That if I just kept searching long enough and hard enough, I would know exactly what I was supposed to do in the future.

Chandler Vannoy

Fighting on God's side?

THE BATTLEFIELD PREACHER

Another young man who died tragically young at Passchendaele was Albert Penn. Penn was not long married, and his wife Florence had just given birth to their daughter when he signed up. Devout and sincere Christians, they’d met at the Wesleyan Methodist chapel in their village, where he ran the boys’ Bible class and she ran the equivalent for girls.

Penn was refused when he first volunteered because Florence was pregnant. ‘Come back when the baby is three months old,’ he was told. He did. Eight months later, when baby Mary Estelle was just 11 months old, he was dead.

Penn died on 30 October 1917; he was just 28 years old. His body was never found, but his name is listed among the missing soldiers on the memorial at Tyne Cot, near Ypres in Belgium.

Businessman sets up private toll road just 340 yards long charging motorists £2 a time to bypass closed section of main road. Daily Mail.

Mike Watts at the Kelston Toll Road - the first privately run toll road to be built since cars became a familiar sight on British roads more than 100 years ago

 The A431 Kelston Road between Bath and Bristol was shut in February following a landslip and won;t be repaired until the end of the year

 Local resident Mike Watts put up £150,000 of his own money to build bypass

 The route which opened yesterday is first privately run toll road to be built since cars became a familiar sight more than 100 years ago

 The toll road is just 340 yards in length but avoids a 10-mile detour

 Local council about road unhappy citing health and safety concerns

A savvy grandfather who was sick of roadworks near his home has defied his council and built his own bypass toll road - the first for more than 100 years.

Businessman Mike Watts decided to open the thoroughfare - made of a mix of asphalt and chippings - to bypass a closed section of the A431 between Bath and Bristol.

That'll be £2 please, sir: A driver pays up to avoid a 10-mile detour on the A4 although the local council do not approve of the road which cuts through an unused field

The Kelston Road was shut in February following a landslip and officials say that it will not be repaired until the end of the year.

But a new makeshift road, which costs £2 a time to use, re-opens the important 'back road' - which is used by commuters going between the two cities.

Local villagers in nearby Kelston have repeatedly criticised Bath & North East Somerset Council for not re-opening the main road sooner and say it has caused major traffic problems in the area.