Seasonal thoughts
Polly Toynbee muses on religion.
Labour has encouraged the power of the religions to a remarkable degree, consulting them on endless committees. To be an atheist is now unacceptable in a political leader: when Nick Clegg confessed his non-belief, he had to recant and re-define himself as an “agnostic”…Expect a worsening clash in the new Equality Commission between religious rights and gay and women’s rights.
As the pope and the guy from Saddlesore church are merrily performing even as we speak. Gay rights? What gay rights? Homosexuality is a sin and don’t you forget it. Being a woman isn’t exactly a sin, but it sure as hell is not the way to get to be head of a church and tell everyone what to do – so piss off with your rights.
What I don’t understand is this: In the U.K., as in the U.S., these gits are elected. But in the UK, the genuinely religious are in the minority and the atheist and agnostic and merely pro forma religious who would definitely prefer that religious nutjobs don’t run the government are in the majority. So why don’t you just vote these fekking retards (and I mean this in the literal sense of those who retard progress, not in – well, okay, in addition to – the pejorative sense of mentally disabled) out of office? WTF?
We’re stuck with them, because our citizenry are backward therefore they elect backward politicians. What’s your excuse? Seriously! I want to know!
Our citizenry are backward too – just not so religious. Religion is seldom on the political agenda, although there was an item about disestablishment on the Today programme this morning. But then, most of our citizenry consider the Today programme ‘intellectual’. I wish.
G.For the most part the Brits are much less religious than their American counterparts but for some strange reason the electorate still seem to favour politicians who are religious. Also the parties themselves have strong historical ties to the church, the tories with the C.O.E and Labour with methodism and low chuch of England,this also tends to make the candidates that are selected unrepresentetive of the population in general. This problem could be easily fixed if we had primary selection like the U.S.but that will probably never happen.