TAKE ACTION! Write your MP and to Nick Clegg, calling on them to support the amendments to the House of Lords Reform Bill to remove the Bishops from Parliament.
The British Humanist Association (BHA) is calling on its supporters to e-mail their MPs and Nick Clegg, to urge them to support new amendments to the House of Lords Reform Bill. If passed, the amendments would remove the Bishops from Parliament, which we have been calling for via our Holy Redundant campaign. As part of their proposed reform of the House of Lords, the government plans to retain the Bishops in the Lords. However, this aspect of the reform was heavily criticised last month during two days of Parliamentary debate on Lords reform, with one in every five speakers referring to ending the role of the Lords Spiritual in a reformed House. Within hours of the Bill’s introduction, amendments to remove the Bishops had been tabled by Chris Bryant MP (Rhondda).
A backbench Conservative rebellion resulted in the last-minute withdrawal of a Programme Motion, which would have speeded up the passage of the bill by limiting the debating time on it to twelve days. The government still intends to introduce a Programme Motion, but will now have to wait until Parliament’s return in the autumn. In the meantime, ministers are meeting parliamentarians of all parties, trying to obtain concessions which might guarantee support for the Bill in the Commons.
The BHA’s campaigning on this issue, along with thousands of messages to MPs from our supporters, has helped to push the role of the Bishops firmly onto the political agenda. But if the new amendments to remove the Bishops are to be successful, it is crucial that we maintain the pressure on MPs and Cabinet Ministers. We are continuing to ask our supporters to email their MPs and Nick Clegg via our Holy Redundant campaign website. Our standard letter now refers to the new amendments, so if you have written to your MP before about this issue, prior to the amendments being tabled, you can still write again.
Pavan Dhaliwal, BHA Head of Public Affairs, commented ‘The Bishops’ presence in the House of Lords represents an unjust form of religious privilege. In a modern society which is both multi-faith and increasingly non-religious, it is unfair that seats should be reserved in Parliament for one branch of one particular religion. You can still put pressure on MPs and the Deputy Prime Minister to back the removal of the Bishops from Parliament, by sending them a message via our “Holy Redundant” website calling on them to support the new amendments to the House of Lords Reform Bill.’
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For further comment or information contact Pavan Dhaliwal, Head of Public Affairs at pavan@humanists.uk or on 0773 843 5059.
You can e-mail your MP and Nick Clegg via our Take Action page: http://campaign.publicaffairsbriefing.co.uk/emailsupport.aspx?cid=25dc6b80-d852-4f30-b7c8-e6e647191e4f
Look at the Holy Redundant website to find out about other ways in which you can help our campaign: http://holyredundant.org.uk/how-you-can-help/
Holy Redundant on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/holyredundant
Holy Redundant on Twitter: https://twitter.com/holyredundant
The new amendments to the House of Lords Reform Bill tabled by Chris Bryant MP: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/2012-2013/0052/amend/pbc0521007a.1-7.html
The British Humanist Association is the national charity working on behalf of ethically concerned, non-religious people in the UK. It is the largest organisation in the UK campaigning for an end to religious privilege and to discrimination based on religion or belief, and for a secular state.