News and Opinion

Leicester Secular Society supports the call by the National Secular Society urging the Government to protect freedom of speech by rejecting calls to reintroduce "blasphemy" laws. Read more Image by Ali Burhan from Pixabay

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Support the campaign of the National and Leicester Secular Societies. End the archaic, unfair and undemocratic bishops’ bench in the House of Lords. CAMPAIGN ALERT! Support the Hereditary Peers Bill amendment! Gavin Williamson MP has tabled an amendment to the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill, which would remove the automatic seats for bishops in the Lords. We need your help - ask your MP to support the amendment. Twenty-six Anglican bishops are given seats as of right in the House of Lords. This is unfair, undemocratic and undesirable. It's time to abolish the bishops' bench. Two archbishops and 24 bishops of the Church of England currently have automatic seats in the House of Lords. They are sometimes known as 'the lords spiritual'. We campaign for a secular upper house with no specific religious representation, whether of Christian denominations or any other faiths. In a secular state no religion or its leaders should have a privileged role...

Leicester Secular Society condemns the recent sectarian appeal to voters by “Make the Muslim Vote Count” https://themuslimvote.co.uk , a Birmingham based organisation which states that - “ Our goal is simple This election signals a shift for Muslims – no more political apathy. We will no longer tolerate being taken for granted. We are a powerful, united force of 4 million acting in unison. We are focused on seats where the Muslim vote can influence the outcome. We are here for the long term. In 2024, we will lay the foundations for our community’s political future.” Links to this organisation have appeared on election leaflets urging electors to vote for Claudia Webbe who is standing as an Independent in Leicester East. The organisation claims that "This is not a religious campaign - it is a political one” . However this is contradicted by their use of the word Muslim and their statement that "We are a powerful, united force of 4 million acting in unison."  ...

I would like to give thanks to humanity and in particular the Neuro Trauma team at Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham, for saving my life. On the morning of Monday 27th May my wife discovered me unconscious on the bathroom floor. The emergency services took me down to Leicester A&E where a brain scan showed that blood had been leaking from a vein into my right cranium, putting pressure on the brain. The scan was sent through to the Neuro Trauma team at Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham who said they needed to operate urgently. I was rushed to Nottingham and on Monday night operated on to remove the blood causing the problems and seal the vein.  I regained consciousness Tuesday morning with all my faculties (as far as I can tell). The surgeons assure me that I should be back to normal in a month or two. Without the human endeavour of millions of people that develop and support our communication and transport systems and in particular the ability to scan the brain, my treatment ...

From Frank   You'll have heard that I'm not well.  Here's an update about how we are. And I'll start with me, which I know isn't really polite, but here goes.   It's cancer of the gall bladder, and it's spread to other organs making it inoperable.  And because chemo carries a high risk of blood clots (which I didn't know about before) alongside all the other side effects, that's ruled out because of the stent plumbing in my heart.  So, I'm not going to get better.  In spite of it all, I'm in good spirits - happy in fact.   This is of course most devastating for Eleanor - we came here to an area we didn't know at all for life's last big adventure, and we've grown to love with the diverse land-, river- and seascapes around and across Morecambe Bay and the Forest of Bowland.  The community here isn't perfect but mostly supportive and interesting, and we have both got stuck in with playing an active part in hel...

The Government is planning to allow all state schools to  select all their pupils on the basis of parental religion, and allow religious groups to run state special schools for the first time. Please write to your MP to oppose this. Both Humanists UK and the National Secular Society provide links making it very easy to send an email (that you can personalise) to your MP. Links to these appear below. Humanists UK Letter National Secular Society Letter Alternatively you can copy and paste the text below into a letter and amend it as you see fit. Please ensure that you include your full name and address when writing to your MP. They will ignore your letter if they cannot establish that you are a constituent. Dear ******** , I am writing as your constituent to ask you to oppose new Government proposals to scrap the cap on new faith school admissions, which has been in place since 2010. Faith school admissions cap The cap works: the 50% cap has proven to increase ethnic integ...

This year the Easter weekend starts on 29 March, next year it will be 18th April and in 2026 it will be on 3rd April. This ‘moveable feast’ can vary by more than a month from March 22 at the earliest to April 25 at the latest. This variation in the length of school terms can play havoc in schools resulting in less time in school immediately prior to external examinations. In Leeds, the school Easter holiday has been fixed since 2010. The two week Easter holiday in Leeds has always taken place during the first two full weeks in April, regardless of when Easter falls on the calendar. Now the Welsh government is consulting on decoupling the school spring break from the Easter public holiday in Wales. It seems nonsensical that the school terms in Leicester and Leicestershire are structured around Christian observances. According to the 2021 census, Christianity is not the majority religion in either Leicester or Leicestershire (24.7% Leicester, 45.7% Leicestershire) ...

The Society hosted a talk on the caste system on 3rd December 2023. Before the talk on 19th November the Secretary of the Society received the following email - We write to express our deep concern and offense regarding the title of an event scheduled to take place at your venue, titled "Hinduism: Wretched Immoral Compass." It has come to our attention that such a choice of words is not only derogatory but also appears to be anti-Hinduism.   Hinduism, a faith with a rich history spanning thousands of years and followed by over one billion people worldwide, deserves respect and understanding. Using such inflammatory language seems designed to appeal and incite hatred towards Hindus, who are one of the largest and most peaceful communities globally. As a secular society, we believe it is your responsibility to avoid language that may be offensive or disrespectful towards any faith.   We urge you to consider the implications of this event title and whether it aligns with t...

Dear Mrs. Hunt, We were very concerned to read your letter of 26th November 2023 (on House of Commons stationery and published on your website) to the Leicester Diocese of the Church of England. In this you oppose the proposals being put forward by the Diocese as an MP. We would have no concern if you wrote as a member of the Church of England, but intervening as a Member of Parliament is blatant political interference in the way a religious body can operate. We appreciate that the Church of England has yet to be disestablished, but as the Member of Parliament for Loughborough, you speak on behalf of a population the vast majority of which does not involve itself with the Church of England. The 2021 census shows that the religious breakdown of Loughborough’s population is 43% non religious, 41% Christian (of various denominations), 4% Hindu, 4% Muslim and 8% other. Those actually involved on a regular basis with the Church of England, based on attendance figures, constitute only abo...