The daily slot on the Today programme on Radio 4, which features a religious person speaking for 2 minutes and 45 seconds, has been accused of being irrelevant to a mostly non-religious audience.

In an interview with the Radio Times, presenter John Humphrys said it was “deeply, deeply boring”.

He said: “Sometimes it’s good and the guy or woman is delivering an interesting thought in a provocative way.

“It seems to me inappropriate that Today should broadcast nearly three minutes of uninterrupted religion, given that rather more than half our population have no religion at all.”

Nicholls, who’s also the director of Affinity, a partnership of gospel-believing churches told Premier he sides with Humphrys.

He said: “I think it is a pretty boring slot.

“It’s dull because it’s kind of empty of anything cutting edge.

“It is difficult to compress to about two and a half minutes something that is meaningful and punchy”

Nicholls said that for non-Christian it just encourages people to be nice to each other and that even for Christians “it doesn’t really have a lot of bite to it normally, it’s fairly bland and fairly unchallenging and sometimes, even worse than that, it’s actually contradicting what the Christian message is.”

He concluded that he would like the segment to continue, but for the Christians invited on to think carefully about how listeners could actually be provoked to think about their life and about Jesus.

He also said he was happy for Atheists to be on…

Last week Barnabas Fund obtained figures that claim that the UN has only recommended “tiny token” numbers of Syrian Christians, Yazidis and other minorities for resettlement in the UK.

The charity said the overwhelming majority of refugees recommended by the UN have been Sunni Muslims who form the majority in Syria. But Christians, and other minorities have been repeatedly targeted for attack by Islamist groups such as IS.

The new statistics, obtained in a Freedom of Information Request to the Home Office by Barnabas Fund, of the religious background of Syrian asylum seekers recommended by the UNHCR for resettlement in the UK revealed:

• In 2015 out of 2,637 refugees there were only 43 Christians, just 13 Yazidis and only one Shia Muslim.
• In 2016 the statistics were even worse. Out of 7,499 refugees there were only 27 Christians, five Yazidis and 13, Shia Muslims.

Christians make up 10 per cent of Syria’s pre-war population and Shia’s make up around 1.5 per cent.

Martin Parsons, Head of Research at Barnabas Fund said: “This is shocking behaviour by both UN and UK officials. In 2005 the UN formally adopted the responsibility of states to protect citizens from genocide and crimes against humanity.

“These statistics show that the UN has itself failed miserably and inexcusably in this respect.

“Christians and other minorities in the Middle East have been treated shamefully by the UN. And the UK government has abjectly outsourced its own responsibilities…

The maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) – known as the crack cocaine of gambling – is to be cut from £100 to between £50 and £2.

The high-stake, high-speed electronic casino games are said to be dangerously addictive and currently allow a stake of up to £100 every 20 seconds, enabling a player to theoretically gamble away £18,000 an hour.

However, the groups including The Salvation Army, The Methodist Church, the Evangelical Alliance UK and  CARE, warned that the range of options presented for a maximum stake for fixed odd betting terminals is too wide.

In a joint statement they said: “Fixed odds betting terminals present serious problems in society and for local communities, families and individuals. 

“Evidence links them to patterns of addictive behaviour, large financial losses and anti-social and criminal behaviour.

“While we welcome the Government’s consultation, anything approaching an upper limit of £50 would not go far enough to reduce the negative impact these machines can have on individuals, families and the wider society.

“Not only is there a major challenge presented by fixed odds betting terminals, there are also wider issues associated with gambling that require serious political commitment to address.”

Ian Geary, The Salvation Army’s Public Affairs Adviser, told Premier he would like the government to view gambling addiction as a public health issue and also have stricter rules on gambling -.

He…

The event at the Round Church is an initiative of the Christian think tank, the Jubilee Centre, with the aim being to publish a set of 95 ways to change the world.

For the past year, people have been invited to contribute their ideas for original theses. Topics have ranged from economics to the environment to supporting marriage.

More than 100 suggested theses were sent in from around the world and 95 were chosen to be nailed to the church door in the re-enactment of Martin Luther’s action five hundred years ago.

Calum Samuelson from the Jubilee Centre told Premier the aim was to get people thinking about big issues in society and culture that inhibit people from true human flourishing.

He said: “The issues have ranged from things like pornography to the problem of debt to concerns about environmental issues, things surrounding artficial intelligence, robots, really the whole gamut.”

The hope is that society can be taken forward positively as a result of discussions around these new theses.

Listen to Calum Samuelson speaking with Premier’s Paul Hagger here: