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Should Humanism Matter in Politics?

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LtoR – Maggie Ardiente, American Humanist Association; Tom Copley, London Assembly Member; Julie Pernet, European Humanist Federation; Kerry McCarthy MP, Shadow Foreign Office Minister; Naomi Phillips, Labour Humanists

 

Sunday 10 August at the World Humanist Congress in Oxford kicked off with a political session, ‘Should Humanism Matter in Politics?’ This meeting was packed out with Congress delegates from around the world and was chaired by Labour Humanists’ Naomi Phillips. On the panel were Kerry McCarthy MP (Shadow Foreign Office Minister), Tom Copley AM, Maggie Ardiente (American Humanist Association) and Julie Pernet (European Humanist Federation). All speakers spoke from their personal and professional perspectives about whether Humanism matters in politics, whether there should be more humanists in politics, and if the personal beliefs and life-stances of our elected represented matters should matter.

We’ve been a bit lazy and used Tweets from the European Humanist Federation (thanks!) to describe what happened – see this on Storify.

The meeting was also filmed – we’ll link to that when it is published soon.

Here are some photographs from the event – you can find many more on the World Humanist Congress group on Flickr.

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Tom Copley, London Assembly Member
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Kerry McCarthy MP, Shadow Foreign Office Minister
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Maggie Ardiente, American Humanist Association
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Julie Pernet, European Humanist Federation
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Naomi Phillips, Chair, Labour Humanists