Government minister Baroness Warsi will declare in a speech at Churchill College, Cambridge, that religion is being put back at the ‘heart of government,’ as it was under Sir Winston Churchill and Baroness Thatcher after public policy was ‘secularised’ under the Labour government. She will go on to say that Churchill and Thatcher would have welcomed the Coalition’s promise to protect the right of town halls to hold prayers and the creation of more faith schools under Michael Gove’s Free Schools programme.
She will state that the Coalition is one of the ‘most pro-faith governments in the West’, and that religious groups must be allowed to provide public services without the state being ‘suspicious of their motives, I know that Mrs Thatcher would have approved of devolving power to faith communities.’
The British Humanist Association (BHA) has expressed its disappointment at the government’s position, saying that it is underpinned by a distorted historical narrative, mistaken assumptions about contemporary British society, and a wrong-headed political approach to secularisation and diversity.
BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson responded to the Secretary of State’s claims:
‘The idea that government should have a “reverence for religion”, rather than advocating a level playing field for those of all religions and none, will concern everyone who wants to see a more equal and unified society. Only a minority of people in Britain practise any religion and over half of the population sees itself as non-religious according to the latest British Social Attitudes survey. In social terms, evidence suggests that religion makes no difference in terms of a person’s social and moral behaviour – the same percentage of religious as non-religious people do volunteer work, for example. And people certainly don’t want to see it have more influence in government – in a 2006 IpsosMori poll, ‘religious groups and leaders’ actually topped the list of domestic groups that people said had too much influence on government.
‘The minister’s remarks are deeply concerning for anyone who values reason and evidence in public policy and fairness and secularism in our political life.
‘They are also built on quite false historical claims. To suggest that Christianity and other religions were somehow sidelined or suppressed by the last government is ridiculous. Aside from the continuing privileges in law for religious groups and individuals, religious organisations received millions of pounds in public money and the Communities and Local Government Department gained a dedicated “Faiths Directorate.” Their policy encouraged religious groups to run public services and began the expansion of state-funded religious schools.
‘Ironically, in light of the content of Lady Warsi’s remarks, Labour’s anti-secular agenda was a total reversal of the policy that had obtained in the premiership and education secretaryship of Mrs Thatcher, under whom state-funded religious schools declined in number dramatically. Even more ironically, Sir Winston Churchill – in the very college in which Lady Warsi is speaking and which bears his name – said he would rather have a quiet room where all people could go and think instead of a Christian chapel, and he was known throughout his life as easily one of the Prime Ministers most sceptical of religion that we have had.
‘Misleading historical claims in support of current policy will not disguise the fact that current government policies are rapidly expanding the nature and extent of religious privilege and discrimination in our public life to a degree that it is very unlikely any British Prime Minister of the twentieth century would have approved.’
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For further comment or information, please contact Andrew Copson, Chief Executive at Andrew@humanists.uk or on 07855 380 633 or Pavan Dhaliwal, Head of Public Affairs at Pavan@humanists.uk or on 0773 843 5059.
The British Humanist Association is the national charity working on behalf of non-religious people who seek to live ethical and fulfilling lives on the basis of reason and humanity. It promotes a secular state and equal treatment in law and policy of everyone, regardless of religion or belief.