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Although the BBC Trust rejected the NSS’s complaint that Thought for the Day breaches impartiality guidelines and ruled that it was within the discretion of BBC Executives to keep it exclusively religious, Radio 4 Controller Mark Damazer has hinted that the programme might be opened up anyway.
It is reported that the Government is considering rephrasing the census question about religion after complaints from the National Secular Society that the question in the 2001 Census led to a vast overestimate of the number of religious people in Britain.
The National Secular Society’s Keith Porteous Wood last week called at a high-profile education conference for the Government to end discrimination in employment against non-religious teachers in “faith schools”.
A new curriculum for primary schools in maintained (publicly-funded) schools in England makes the teaching of evolution a mandatory topic in science lessons.
Before we cheer too loudly at the defeat of Tony Blair’s effort to become president of the European Union, we should take another look at the man who did eventually win the title, Herman van Rompuy, presently Prime Minister of Belgium.
The resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Committee that seeks to outlaw “defamation of religion” was passed again this year, although with fewer votes in favour.
You can tell an election is approaching when politicians start ladling praise on to “faith groups” presumably in the hope that they’ll reciprocate with votes. The Sunday Telegraph reported this week that Communities Secretary John Denham is setting up a panel of religious advisors to give input on policy-making.
The Scottish Government has set up close links with the Muslim Council of Scotland to work towards challenging “Islamophobia” and breaking down barriers between communities. It is not clear what form this co-operation will take or how much taxpayers’ money is involved.
The BBC Trust has rejected complaints by the National Secular Society that the Thought for the Day slot is discriminatory because it fails to include non-religious voices.
Speaking in Lancashire this week, the Archbishop of Canterbury pleaded with local politicians in Burnley, Blackburn and Preston not to “play the race card” when searching for votes, but at the same time he denied that “faith schools” played any part in keeping communities separated from each other.
