Government consultation "Face-to-Face and Side-by-Side"

[Alan H]

“Face-to-Face and Side-by-Side”: A framework for inter faith dialogue and social action was published by the Department for Communities and Local Government in December 2007. With the help of some of our members, I've written the attached response.

[Ted Harvey]

Alan H this is really good; authoritative without being over-bearing, carefully weighted on what some will see as the 'sensitive' bits and strongly evidence-based. The latter means that it cannot reasonably be dismissed as mere lobbying or subjective opinion.

Well done all concerned, this is the kind of material that assures or persuades public policy advisers and policy makers that Humanist organisations have legitimate interests and are well capable of contributing constructively to such consultations and debates.

Can I take it that, as individual posters here, we can disseminate the piece so long as we fully attribute it?

(ps I informally, and incidentally, learned in the past week that the Human Rights Commission in Scotland is running some sort of intiative or programme called 'Faith and Belief'. On enquiring I was told that, 'well no, it doesn't directly engage with secularists, but they can always have their say'. It would have been out-of-context for me to have enquired further at the time but I'm going to find out more about this.

[mdean]

well put all.

[Alan H]

Ted/mdean

I really appreciate what you've said. I would have liked to have spent more time on it, but these things are usually left to the last minute. Anyway, discussing 'social capital' and 'community cohesion' isn't exactly an area I'm that familiar with, so all I did was try to express a few rational arguments why their consultation was a bad idea.

Of course any member here can use it [---][/---] I'd be grateful if they could attribute it and link back to here so others may discover Think Humanism.

The BHA submitted their own response and, knowing Andrew Copson, it will be very well presented, well evidenced and thoroughly excellent! All submissions will be published on the DCLG website, further promoting our view. I strongly feel that this is an area where we can all contribute. This can be anything from a well thought out response to just a few lines, promoting the ideas of Humanism. Both can be effective in raising both the Government's and the public's awareness of Humanism. In future, I'd like to see even more cooperation on responses like this as well as individuals putting their tuppence-worth in [---][/---] the more the merrier!

(ps I informally, and incidentally, learned in the past week that the Human Rights Commission in Scotland is running some sort of intiative or programme called 'Faith and Belief'. On enquiring I was told that, 'well no, it doesn't directly engage with secularists, but they can always have their say'. It would have been out-of-context for me to have enquired further at the time but I'm going to find out more about this.

That's interesting. Do you have any more details? I've attached the BHA briefing that they sent out to their local Groups on the FF & SS consultation, which addresses some of the issues surrounding the lack of consultation with non-believers.

[Ted Harvey]

Alan M I will be finding out more this coming week and I'll let you know what I find out

[tubataxidriver]

The BHA submission has also been published now on the BHA website http://www.humanism.org.uk/site/cms/new ... ticle=2425

The consultation paper was so poor and non-compliant with the Government's own equalities legislation that it took the BHA several pages to complain about this. The Govt seem obsessed with the "f" word ("faith", that is) and ignores the official "religion and belief". Perhaps we should campaign for them to stop using the "f" word.

[Alan H]

TTD

Thanks [---][/---] I've printed it out and will read it later.