“As we leave the European Union we must seize an historic opportunity to forge a bold new role for ourselves in the world and to unite our country as we move forward into the future. And, with our international partners, we must work together to promote trade, increase prosperity and face the challenges to peace and security around the world. “As we gather with our friends and families at this time of year we proudly celebrate the birth of Christ and the message of forgiveness, love and hope that He brings.” – Daily Telegraph
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“He said: “The UK has taken a massive step forward in the past year, 2016 was the year the British people voted to get their country back.However, to take back control we must repeal the 1972 Act and 2017 is the year this must be delivered.” He praised the thousands of campaigners across Britain who delivered the vote which has won the country’s freedom from Brussels rule. He added: “This commitment will not go unrewarded as there are so many benefits the country will see because of the Brexit vote.” – Daily Express
“And Labour’s deliberate, yet secretive, policy of mass immigration is one of the main reasons that Copeland, even though it contains far fewer migrants than many northern constituencies, voted by a large majority to leave the EU in June’s referendum. It is also why so many traditional Labour voters have deserted the party in recent elections — many of them to Ukip. As a result, Labour is at a crucial crossroads. It can either allow itself to wither in the north of England in the same way it has in Scotland. Or it can seize the moment and try to regain its position as the champion of Britain’s working classes.” – Daily Mail
“In a Christmas video message, the Lib Dem leader said the Christian message should encourage the UK to welcome refugees. Mr Farron said: “As a Christian, I think Christmas is about a God who gave himself up for us and came to Earth in order to do that and urges us to follow him and to believe we should do to others what we would have them do to us. “Imagine the UK was a war-torn and terrible place to live and imagine that Eritrea, Sudan or Syria were peaceful places.” – Daily Express
“Official figures on Friday showed that the spending splurge was strong enough to revise up growth in the third quarter and boost imports, pushing the trade and current account deficits further into the red.
The data show that the UK economy was much stronger than expected after the vote to leave the EU. However, the spending was not backed by rising incomes, raising concerns about the sustainability of this next year. While the Treasury and the Bank of England had expected a vote for Brexit to slow the economy to close to zero growth in the third quarter, the official figures now show growth of 0.6 per cent, revised up by 0.1 percentage point from the previous estimate.” – Financial Times
“The fact that a man whose terrorist leanings were known to German spy agencies had dropped off their radar before the attack and managed to evade police while travelling at least 1,000 miles around the continent in spite of a European arrest warrant raised difficult questions for security agencies and politicians across Europe. Paris-based web portal Monde Afrique on Friday claimed the Moroccan intelligence agency had twice alerted German authorities to Amri’s “fervent” support for Islamic State and his contact with two of their representatives in advance of Monday’s attack, once on 19 September and again on 11 October.” – The Guardian
“We in the West should recognise that the Islamists are, perversely, right to identify Christianity as more central to our civilisation than we nowadays tend to admit. It is particular fun for jihadis to drive a death-dealing lorry into a German Christmas market, or murder a priest in France while he is saying Mass: by doing so, they strike at what they believe is their greatest foe. They often shout “God is great!” when they are about to kill. The religion which, at Christmas, proclaims God’s greatness in a birth is the very opposite of their death cult.” –
“I don’t believe in the equivalence of all faiths; I don’t (unlike the prince in Thursday’s broadcast) see all faiths as paths to the same destination; I think modern Christianity tends in a better direction. I’ve seen at close hand the work of missionaries in Africa and have no doubt that the church, especially the Protestant church, with its emphasis on the individual’s unmediated relationship with a deity, does more to liberate from superstition than it does to impose (though it does) superstitions of its own…I feel (sometimes) respect and (often) admiration and (always) tolerance towards Islam, but I cannot warm to militancy, exclusivity or intolerance. I am cool, too, towards the exceptionalism of some Judaic belief. Christianity has over the past two centuries moved decisively away from the making of differences, and towards the brotherhood of man.” – The Times (£)