Welcome to my new blog. As I start this in February 2012, the UK is in the middle of a storm of media attention on the role of religion in the state. This was triggered just over a week ago by two high-profile legal cases, the banning of council prayers at Bideford, and the unsuccessful appeal by christian guest house owners against their conviction for barring a gay couple from their hotel.
Since then, I have seen various people reaching for the nearest microphone and decrying secularists as "militant", "illiberal", "chilling", "wanting to impose their minority view on society" and so on. I've found myself shouting at the TV more than once, so I decided to come here and try to do something about it.
The aim of this blog is to counter the attempts to portray secularism as some kind of dark force intent on destroying British customs and values. I'll try to do that by putting over the reasonable and reasoned argument for secularism as calmly and cogently as I can.
The first few posts that you'll see have been written pretty much back to back, they're my reaction to a few issues that have cropped up over the last week or so. After that, the idea is that as stories or comment on secularist issues hit the press, I'll come here and post my response. I've got no idea how long this will last, whether anyone will read it, or if it will change anybody's mind, but here goes.
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