BHA publishes its manifestos for local and general elections

8 March, 2010

The British Humanist Association (BHA) has published its manifestos for the upcoming local and general elections. The manifestos set out the BHA’s vision on a number of core areas of work, from human rights to faith schools to free speech. The manifestos also have questions for candidates on topics of interest to humanists, such as: What do they think the government’s policy should be on faith schools? What do they think about exemptions for religious organisations from aspects of equality legislation? Would they vote to retain or remove bishops from the House of Lords? Are they in favour of councils contracting with faith groups to deliver public services?

Pepper Harow, BHA Campaigns Officer, said, ‘We all know how vocal the religious lobby is – and that politicians often feel pressured to support and accommodate those views on matters such as faith schools or public ethical issues, even if that religious perspective is largely unshared by the rest of the constituency. We also know that non-religious voices and concerns are often not heard, but that if they were we could see real changes to policies that affect us all. Support for democracy and political participation at local and national levels is core to humanist thinking and we have a lot of issues where we need to make our voices heard.’

Notes

Read more about our work on this, and download our manifestos from our website.

Contact Pepper Harow on 020 7462 4992.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) is the national charity representing and supporting the non-religious and campaigning for an end to religious privilege and discrimination based on religion or belief.