Author Archive
Reading MPs on Popes and pills
Posted by: | CommentsReading West’s MP, Martin Salter has an interesting take on the Pope’s recent comments on the UK’s equality legistlation:
I’ve never been entirely comfortable with the relationship between organised religion and politics. You only have to look across the water at Northern Ireland to understand the minefield that this lethal cocktail can create.
However, yesterday’s comments by the Pope on Britain’s lawmaking could possibly be the first time that a bloke in a dress has complained about equality legislation.
For more, click here
And while we’re pondering the pontiff, here’s a link to the National Secular Society’s Make the Pope Pay petition, asking the Catholic church to find the cash for his upcoming visit to the UK.
Meanwhile, Reading East’s MP, Rob Wilson, has been promoting so-called Traditional Chinese Medicine. What was he thinking?
Proposals for faith Academy school in Oxford abandoned
Posted by: | CommentsHowever, in a statement yesterday from the Secretary of State for Education, Ed Balls MP, he announced that the ULT had informed him that they will instead now … focus their full energies on improving Sheffield Park Academy and ensuring that all their Academies make good progress.
BHA Campaigns Officer Paul Pettinger said had both Academy proposals gone ahead they would have significantly reduced parental choice in their respective areas and meant that in reality many families would only have had a choice of sending children to local denominational schools, rather than between either denominational or non-denominational schools.
The Government say they want to increase choice in edcuation. However, there has been clear local hostility to the proposed creation of more faith schools in Northampton and Oxford. A staggering 97% of the respondents to the recent consultation on replacing Weston Favell School with a ULT school opposed the idea. If the Government is to be true their word then they will clearly have to veto any future plans to create new faith schools in either Oxford or Northampton.
Hampshire Skeptics in the Pub
Posted by: | CommentsBerkshire Humanists may be interested in Hampshire Skeptics in the Pub. They say:
Looking around at the Skeptics in the Pub groups it’s pretty obvious that there’s no group in the middle of the South of England.
There are groups meeting regularly in London, Bristol and Oxford but nothing in the middle of the South. This area of the country is a skeptical vacuum just begging to be filled with insightful and informed comment from those driven by science, reason and critical thinking.
If you live in Hampshire and the surrounding area in or near places such as Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton, Portsmouth, Guildford, Farnborough, Reading, Newbury, Andover or Salisbury and you would like to join a Skeptics in the Pub group that potentially could move along the M3 corridor for meetings, please let us know.
We already have some awesome skeptical luminaries who have offered to speak. So we need to generate as much interest as possible in order to plug the hole in the dyke of reason and do something to hold back the flood of woo washing over us.
Also, if you do know of a small skeptical group or happen to be a member of one in the South please let us know so we can get in touch with them.
For more, see http://www.hampshireskeptics.org/?p=188
See what you missed!
Posted by: | Comments
Happy Hungry Humanist
The Berkshire Humanists’ summer barbecue was a great success with the sun shining, the barbecue sizzling and the children playing.
And then there was the cake, which I can assure you, tasted even better than it looks.
BH in the Reading Post
Posted by: | CommentsSome chap going on about godlessness in schools…..
From a member
Just seen this on the Reading Evening Post website. Some chap going on about godlessness in schools. Might be worth considering for the BH site.
Full story here