We held our AGM 2015 at the Labour Party conference in Brighton on Monday 28 September. Read the chair’s report.
Tag: labour conference
We’ve held our ‘No Prayer’ Breakfast fringe event at Labour conference for several years and this was our most popular so far. Unfortunately for late arrivals (including some of our panel!) it wasn’t just a case of ‘no prayers’ but also ‘no breakfast’ as there were many more people than we had expected! Along with NPB regulars Polly Toynbee, Angela Eagle MP and Kelvin Hopkins MP, we were delighted that the new chair of the All Party Parliamentary Humanist Group, Clive Lewis MP, was able to join us. We also welcomed back Tom Copley AM and Labour Humanists’ Naomi Phillips. Andrew Copson, British Humanist Association chief executive, chaired the event.
The speakers made clear the importance of having humanists in Parliament and of taking a humanist approach to policy making. Clive Lewis said that the rational, evidence-based thinking that’s core to Humanism applies well to politics. Specific issues raised by the panel included assisted dying and the need to continue to campaign for a more ethical law, despite a recent loss in Parliament. Polly Toynbee criticised the religious lobby specifically for its opposition to progressive laws. Faith schools were a big concern for both panel and audience – isn’t it time for Labour to oppose religiously selective and discriminatory practices by so many state schools? Human rights and equalities, including gender equality and free speech were also discussed. As humanists we can make a particular contribution to the debates and we should be leading the way within Labour on those issues.
Please do join us and help us campaign for a more equal, ethical and secular Labour.
A huge thanks to the British Humanist Association (BHA) for supporting this joint event.
We have a fantastic panel of speakers for our ‘No Prayer’ Breakfast meeting at Labour conference in Brighton.
Polly Toynbee – journalist, author and former British Humanist Association (BHA) president
Angela Eagle MP – shadow business secretary and shadow first secretary of state
Clive Lewis MP – chair, all party parliamentary humanist group
Andrew Copson – chief executive, British Humanist Association (BHA)
Tom Copley AM – London Assembly member
Kelvin Hopkins MP – co-chair, all party parliamentary humanist group
Chaired by Naomi Phillips, Labour Humanists
Please note – this meeting is in the secure zone so is only open to conference pass-holders.
We were delighted to hold another successful ‘No Prayer Breakfast’ fringe meeting at Labour Party Annual Conference on 23 September 2014. The event was described by Kelvin Hopkins MP as being his conference highlight when we hold them, and the atmosphere was certainly very positive, especially for 8am!
We worked closely with the British Humanist Association (BHA), to which we are affiliated, to put together the biggest panel of prominent speakers we’ve had so far. Chaired by Naomi Phillips, we heard from:
- Angela Eagle MP, Chair of the Labour Party and Labour Humanists’ Patron
- Andrew Copson, BHA Chief Executive
- Owen Jones, author, commentator and Chavs author
- Polly Toynbee, author and journalist
- Kelvin Hopkins MP, Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Humanist Group
- Sunny Hundal, journalist and blogger
- Tom Copley, Member of the London Assembly
Read what happened on our Storify of the event. You can also read the BHA’s report of their activities at all the Party conferences.
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Report from AGM 2014
Labour Humanists held our AGM 2014 at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester on Tuesday 23rd September. Read the Chair’s report and minutes, and the Treasurer’s report.
Very pleased to see Labour’s commitment to education, to a stronger school admissions code, to supporting teachers, to compulsory SRE in every state school.
My constituency party Chipping Barnet supports inclusive schools and the best teachers free to teach in any state school.
That is why Labour needs to go further and address the issue of state-funded faith schools. A third of state schools have a religious character and that number is growing through the Tories’ largely unregulated and growing academies and free schools programme.
Many state funded faith schools can and do select pupils on the basis of the religion of their parents. Labour should strengthen its position to make clear that whether someone believes in god or not, or which god they believe in, should have no bearing on whether their child can access a high quality education at their local school.
Those schools can and do put religious requirements on teaching jobs too. Allowing state funded schools to hire, fire, or set a ceiling on promotion for, suitably qualified teachers on religious grounds, must be at odds to Labour’s commitments to equality and to improving teacher quality.
Where I live, all new primary schools just opened or proposed are religious ones- Jewish and Christian. In 5 years time my daughter will be starting school. As a non-religious person who absolutely shares Labour values of equality and for inclusive high quality education, in 5 years time where should I send my daughter, when my local schools are faith schools, not inclusive, and have religious indoctrination as part of the ethos and curriculum?
Conference, let there be no doubt – our education system is only safe with Labour. Only Labour truly supports teachers. Only Labour fights for every young person to reach their educational potential regardless of their background. That is why I am a member.
And that is why Labour should not ignore or play down the threat to our values of equality and inclusion.
Labour must continue to fight for the right to every young person to have a high quality education at their local school
And we should have a national review of religion in education, ensuring the teaching of non-religious world views such as Humanism equally alongside religious perspectives.
We must look to strengthen out policy and rule out any state funded school from discriminating, selecting and segregating along religious grounds.
We are delighted to announce that, jointly with the British Humanist Association (BHA), we will be holding our ‘No Prayer Breakfast’ fringe meeting at Labour Conference. 8am Tuesday 23 September, Hilton Hotel, Manchester. The venue is just outside the secure zone which means that it is accessible to people not attending conference this year too. We’ll be announcing our line up of fantastic speakers soon.
Here’s a short write up from our 5th No Prayer Breakfast in 2012.