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City Hall Drinks Reception

We are delighted to be organising an event in the evening of 9 February at City Hall in London, with Young Humanists and other political humanist groups. This will be the first event of its kind, and aims to be an informal way for our political groups and younger humanists to get together and chat about the cross-party political issues that matter to us. This event is open to all ages however it’s already proven so popular that we’ve started a waiting list. Find out more below and register on the BHA’s website.

Info and information

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Young Humanists, the BHA section for humanists aged 18-35, has teamed up with the political humanist groups – Humanist and Secularist Liberal Democrats, Labour Humanists, and Conservative Humanists – to bring you a very special evening at the striking City Hall, home to the Mayor of London and Greater London Authority (GLA).

We’ll talk about the most pressing issues facing non-religious people and how you can join efforts to build a secular state for all.

You’ll hear speeches from Tom Copley AM of the Labour Party, Andrew Boff AM, former leader of the Conservative Group in the London Assembly, Dawn Barnes, Liberal Democrats Federal Executive member and London Assembly candidate, Darren Johnson AM, former Green Party mayoral candidate, and Pavan Dhaliwal, Director of Public Affairs and Campaigns at the British Humanist Association.

Discuss what you’ve heard over a glass of wine, all while soaking up spectacular views of the Capital. Most importantly, you’ll have the chance to find out how you can stand up for the rights of people who live their lives without religion, and help to build a secular state for all.

The event is free, but booking is essential.

The event is kindly sponsored by BHA trustee and young humanist Tom Copley AM.

PS – don’t forget to tell your friends you’re going on Facebook.

When
February 9th, 2016 7:00 PM   through   9:00 PM

Location
Chamber Viewing Gallery
City Hall
The Queen’s Walk
London, SE1 2AA
United Kingdom

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Congratulations to the new leadership team

Congratulations to the new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and deputy leader Tom Watson. We look forward to working with you and your team to shape our party to be more equal, ethical and secular.

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Save the Date! No Prayer Breakfast at Labour Conference

We are delighted to announce that we will be holding our ever-popular No Prayer Breakfast at Labour Conference in Brighton this year. If you are attending Conference, join us from 08:15 on Monday 28 September, in the Stanmer Room in Hilton Metropole (secure zone).

We’ll have fantastic speakers – keep an eye out on our website, Facebook and Twitter for updates.

This is a joint event with the British Humanist Association (BHA).

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Clive Lewis MP to Chair All Party Parliamentary Humanist Group

We are delighted that Labour MP Clive Lewis will take over as chair of the All Party Parliamentary Humanist Group (APPHG). We thank outgoing chair Lord Warner, who had led the group since 2010.

Clive is the new MP for Norwich South.

The APPHG brings together over 100 humanist MPs and Peers from across the parties in Parliament and is supported by the British Humanist Association (BHA). The APPHG has covered issues such as inclusive education, human rights including freedoms of belief and expression, equal marriage, teaching evolution in schools, calling out and opposing religious privilege, human fertilisation and embryology, stem cell research, secular public services and much more.

The APPHG has regular meetings and its members raise key secularist and humanist issues in both Houses of Parliament through debates, questions and amendments to legislation. Labour Humanists will continue to work to support Labour MPs and Peers, working constructively and collaboratively with humanists from other political parties and affiliations for our shared aims.

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New Labour Humanists Leaflet

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‘No Prayer Breakfast’ a secular success at Conference!

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.

Panel at Labour Conference
(LtoR) Sunny Hundal, Naomi Phillips, Polly Toynbee, Angela Eagle, Tom Copley, Andrew Copson, Kelvin Hopkins (Owen Jones had to leave before this photo was taken!)

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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.

 

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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

 

 

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Congratulations to the BHA

The British Humanist Association (BHA) celebrated its most successful year so far at its AGM. Read all about it here. Labour Humanists works closely with the BHA team and we could not achieve nearly as much without their support on faith schools, on events, on equalities – in fact across all our work. We look forward to continuing to work with the BHA and other affiliated organisations, including humanist groups from other political parties.

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Getting humanist voices heard within Labour

Last year, Labour Party Chair and Labour Humanists Patron Angela Eagle implored us to make our voices heard within the Party, if we want to see real changes to policy.

We’ve been doing lots of work to represent the views of our members both behind the scenes and through open activism. Over the past few months we have also worked to develop responses to Labour’s policy challenge and we have submitted amendments to the consultation papers which aim for a more equal, ethical and secular Labour.

Our ambitious position covers schools, where we want a state system with high quality education and no religious discrimination in admissions or against teachers. We want stronger, cohesive communities with a focus on human rights and inclusive, secular public services. We want Lords reform which finally ends the undemocratic system where Church of England Bishops get seats in our Parliament as of right. We want a global role for Britain which strongly supports freedom of belief and expression and which opposes blasphemy laws wherever they are.

We have encouraged our members and others to work through their CLPs and NPF representatives to move these amendments and we have also submitted four papers to Labour’s policy review website*We have now submitted these amendments to Labour’s Your Britain policy review website. Members can view, comment and vote in support of these papers on educationcommunitiespolitics and Britain’s global role*

The deadline for CLPs to make amendments is 13 June so we are encouraging anyone who has not done so to get in touch with their local Party and suggest changes.

Members can also comment and vote in support of our papers on the Your Britain website – please do so!

Thank you for your support.