The Labour Humanist

Our most esteemed Winterval Wally to date - Baroness Julia Neuberger

Oh how wonderful, we have our most esteemed Winterval Wally to date. The establishment's near favourite faith leader Baroness Julia Neuberger has just spouted this untruthful nonsense for the Washington Post:

"Some local authorities in the UK wanted to ban Christmas at one stage, and tried to invent a 'winterval', a winter festival, with no associations."

Oh no they didn't Julia and you are our latest nominee for Winterval Wally of 2007 for recycling lies in the Phoney War on Christmas. See here, here and here for more details on the award. 

Read the article and it seems Julia might be a potential recruit for this year's new culture clash, the War on Halloween. We shall watch with interest.

How faith schools proved to be electoral arsenic for the Conservatives in Canada

They may be wrong, but they are also popular. So goes the refrain about faith schools. So how to explain why in Canada when the Conservatives proposed to introduce religious schools into Ontario it became the main election issue, voters objected strongly leading the Conservatives into a crushing defeat. The Conservatives now describe their faith schools policy as "dead as a doornail". Well, fancy that. 

How faith schools destroy parental choice

Here's a shocking example of how the policy of handing over community schools to religious organisations and other Blair-inspired experiments have destroyed any hope of meaningful school choice for liberal or progressive parents who don't wish to send their children to non-selective, non-sectarian or non-fee paying schools.

From Hansard for October 22nd 2006

                Ken Purchase (Wolverhampton North East, Labour) Link to this | Hansard source

"The hon. Gentleman mentioned church schools, which are bedevilling—forgive the pun, which was not intended—education in his constituency. The reason given for establishing academies there is that they will provide more parental choice. My constituency has three private schools, a girls grammar school, four Church schools, two foundation schools, a city technology college, Walsall academy, St. Thomas More Catholic school and a raft of specialist schools. In fact, the situation has become impossible for a liberal-minded parent who wants a school for their child that is non-selective, non-sectarian and non-fee-paying. This is how, in the hon. Gentleman's constituency, like mine, the choice agenda has resulted not in a wide liberal choice for progressives, but in a narrowing down of opportunities, which are restricted basically to those of a regressive understanding of education."

Later in the same debate:

                Bob Russell (Colchester, Liberal Democrat) Link to this | Hansard source

"Although I have a Christian upbringing, I am not an Anglican, but come from good nonconformist stock. I have serious misgivings about two of Colchester's local secondary schools being shut down and their replacement academy handed over to the Chelmsford diocese. If the diocese wants to have a secondary school to promote Anglican teachings then let it, like the Brentwood Roman Catholic diocese, organise its own school in Colchester to serve the whole of north Essex for those parents who wish to have such a denominational school—not impose itself on a particular geographic area of the town whose parents may not necessarily wish to have their children taught under a religious regime. What parental choice will there be for those in Monkwick and Shrub End who do not want their children to attend a religious academy? Will other secondary schools in Colchester have places available to accept them?"

The Phoney War on Christmas: We have our 2nd Winterval Wally

Wow, if this story had appeared in a national newspaper we could have declared this year's phoney War on Christmas well and truly open. However, and slightly bizarrely, our latest nomination for a Winterval Wally award for trotting out myths about Winterval goes to Management Today magazine. In an article about a biblical toys franchise the magazine boldly states:

"Yet it seems like an unlikely time to be pushing religious toys, especially given that the multicultural nature of our country has already led to many schools ditching the term ‘Christmas’ in favour of the more inclusive ‘Winterval’."

Excuse me? Schools ditching Christmas in favour of Winterval! Where is the evidence for this, it's a new one on me. Of course, we know there isn't any, as evidence and truth play no part in the phoney War on Christmas. 

Anyhow, as no one has put their name to this article, on the online version at least, we will have to award this Winterval Wally award to the guy who signed off this guff, Management Today editor, Matthew Gwyther. Congratulations Matthew, you are our second* Winterval Wally of the season. Happy Holidays!

* Nathan Bevan from Wales on Sunday was the winner of the first Winterval Wally award.

Yes, you can have a TV career and not know if the Earth is flat

A creationist talk show host in the US says on air that she doesn't know whether the Earth is flat. Yes folks, perhaps we too often put creationism down to blind faith, when in fact it's often a case of extreme ignorance.  Watch this video clip and be amazed. (The celeb is Sherri Shepherd, presenter of ABC's chat show The View):

Quiz: Who said "secular schools can never be tolerated"

Thanks to this cartoon below from Ros Asquith. Who said "secular schools can never be tolerated (because such schools have no religious instruction....all character training and religion must be derived from faith.”). Answer: Adolf Hitler April 26, 1933. Hitler was no atheist, despite the desperate claims of some Christians. Hitler was a man of faith.  Link to the story that prompted the cartoon.

It was the Grey Vote that killed the November election

The Conservative surge in the opinion polls that killed off the prospects of a November election was built upon a large swing away from Labour amongst older voters. The Grey Vote - which accounts for at least one in four voters if you count just the 65+, or over 40% of turnout if you count in all voters aged 55+ - has proved the be the most volatile age-group in the electorate.

Older voters swung from Labour to Conservative in dramatic numbers in the key polls during party conference season. Here's the evidence. In the ICM/News of the World poll of voters in marginal seats the Conservatives had opened up a decisive 56%-32% lead over Labour amongst voters aged 65+ and were ahead 47%-33% amongst voters aged 55-64. In the same poll Labour led the Conservatives 41%-30% amongst younger voters aged 18-24. But doing well amongst younger voters amounts to very little to any party struggling with the Grey Vote, because if its sheer size, and critically, the much higher voting turnout amongst older voters. In this poll a pathetic 16% of young voters said they were "certain to vote" compared 72% of voters aged 65. It's a clear political calculus that any party who seeks power needs to be polling strongly amongst large groups of voters who actually bother to vote. Doing well with the apathetic counts for very little. Here's some ICM numbers:

Certain to vote:
18-24     16%
25-34     37%
35-44     51%
45-54     52%
55-64     69%
65+        72%

Voting Intention
            Lab    Con    LD

18-24    41%    30%    29%
25-34    46%    45%     8%
35-44    45%    41%     6%
45-54    34%    43%    11%
55-64    33%    47%    13%
65+       32%    56%     9%

Source: ICM for the News of the World. Published October 7 2007

With all the usual caveats about the fallibility of polls, and not comparing panels of identical voters, look at two other national Yougov polls to show the large swing amongst older voters. The Yougov polls for Channel Four News over the last two weeks (here and here showed a nine point lead for Labour with voters aged 55+ turn a week later into a Conservative lead of four points. Compared to the 35-54 age bracket where Labour's lead only dropped from 11% to 9% over the same period. The Grey Vote appears highly volatile compared to other age groups.

The Grey Vote may not be on the radar screen of our youth-obsessed media, but there are compelling reasons why older voters should be a priority segment for Labour's strategic campaign planning. The Party has lost ground since 2005 amongst this key sub-section of voters.

There are a range of issues where Labour has a good story to tell, but needs to do much more to improve the quality of life for older voters. Labour's investment in the NHS has transformed both the quality of our local health services and dramatically reduced waiting times for operations. But, there are too many reports around of poorer standards in services for older people. Likewise, long term care is far from being a settled issue, too many voters feel the funding arrangements are unfair and too many older people suffer abuse and neglect in care homes, and yes, Inheritance Tax, needs to be looked at. As Neasa MacErlean points out in yesterday's Observer, there are real issues of perceived injustice within the current system.

It's Early October, but we are able to name our first Winterval Wally award

The phoney War on Christmas slowly grinds into gear. And so we have our first Winterval Wally of the new season. Please step forward Nathan Bevan of Wales on Sunday.

This blog is awarding (recap here) the Wally awards for journalists, bishops and anyone else who falsely trot out myths about the phoney War on Christmas.

Strangely, this first award has come around from the surprise new front of the War on Halloween.

In today's Wales on Sunday, Nathan Bevan, in a story about the War on Halloween, trots out the biggest myth about the phoney War on Christmas:

"The row is the latest in a long-running series of much maligned PC re-brands in Britain which, in 1997, saw Birmingham City Council effectively cancel Christmas – instead dubbing it Winterval – so as not to offend people of other religious faiths."

No Nathan, Birmingham did not "effectively cancel Christmas", if you'd bothered to conduct 2 minutes of desk research and you would know that. You are our first Winterval Wally of the year. Congratulations.

The War on Halloween!

Forget the phoney War on Christmas, we now have the War on Halloween!:

"A primary school is considering plans to abandon its Halloween celebration in case it offends religious parents.

Teachers want to rename the party planned for the night of October 31 as an "Autumn Festival".

But parents criticised the proposed move as "another example of political correctness gone mad".

Pupils at Tonna Primary School in Neath, South Wales, were looking forward their Halloween disco. But they were left disappointed after staff told parents that the Halloween disco "might offend". One mother said: "It's unbelievable that they should mess around with a night of fun for the kids who have been looking forward to it. I think it's political correctness gone mad again."

Did the Tories spin or just plain lie about Cameron's "unscripted" speech

Already covered here and here, but this needs to be distributed more widely around the web. The Conservatives have claimed Cameron's big conference speech was unscripted. But Kevin Maguire's blog comes up with a different story:

"If David Cameron's audition to be a cable TV daytime host was unscripted, a line swallowed by many newspapers and broadcasters, can anyone explain why the "speech writer" was last night having his hand shaken by fellow Tories?

A lawyer acquaintance waiting in a Euston station taxi queue at about 7.45 watched as a well spoken man enjoyed the plaudits of fellow Cons fresh off the train from Blackpool.

Anyone know him? He looked in his 30s, fairish hair, dark suit. chequed shirt and a tie with an emblem or motif from a university or club.

Reading a London Evening Standard headline hailing "1 hour 10 mins without a script", he laughed and claimed he wrote the address  before boasting "they believe he extemporised!" Another Tory laughed too then grabbed his hand before saying: "Seriously though, great speech. Congratulations."

That Cameron somehow made it up as he went along, apart from a few notes, is the best piece of spin for years."

More evidence of the spin/lies from the comments at Bloggerheads:

Well, at least according to Tara Hamilton-Miller writing for the New Statesman... :

--'On Sunday evening, Cameron's speechwriting team of Steve Hilton and Danny Kruger were ensconced in the leader's suite at the Imperial. The first draft was too long at 12,000 words, so they were up into the early hours meticulously slashing it. "The danger is you have to cover everything without making it look like a shopping list, but you don't want to lose the theme," said an aide.'

Posted by: Jherad at October  5, 2007  2:35 PM 

"Pushy homos and uppity females getting you down?"

"Pushy homos and uppity females getting you down? Why not cloak your hate in faith and say: It's my religion!" At the Labour Humanist we like to promote some of the independent political cartoonists out there. So please do check out Mikhaela Reid. And here's a great example of her work:

Is it me, or is the War on Christmas getting earlier every year?

Is it me, or does the (phoney) War on Christmas start earlier and earlier with each year that passes? Local supermarkets are already stocking the shelves with Christmas items, but how long before the attacks on the great British Christmas begins? How long before archbishops and the popular press start rolling out the myths of PC kill joys banning Christmas in favour of something called Winterval or Luminos?

The "story" rolled out on an annual basis is that mysterious "politically correct" officials will advance an anti-Christian agenda by "banning" all kinds of Christmas activities. In tabloid short hand this becomes the "war on christmas". It's all very surreal, for a start most Brits, regardless of their beliefs, love their Christmas. I love Christmas, as do most of atheist friends and family. Christmas, alongside the New Year celebrations, make a fantastic end of year come mid-winter jamboree, a chance to celebrate with work colleagues, a chance to put some thought into buying presents for those you care about, and most certainly, yes a chance to indulge in some nice food, fine wines and hard spirits.  But, this isn't the Christmas that the likes of the Daily Mail wish to defend, in fact, they don't like our Christmas, and pine (sic) instead for a enforcement of a purely religious festival.

Last year the phoney War On Christmas started in early November, but there was early skirmishing in September when Steve Doughty on the Daily Mail enthusastically reported comments by the Archbishop of York that Muslims should integrate more and no-one should consider Christmas cards to any way embarass our Muslim friends and neighbours. The War got into full swing on November 7 when the Royal Mail were attacked over the outrageous crime of producing festive stamps that featured Santa Claus and snowmen. Four days later the Archbishop of York (again) attacked the rights of businesses and individuals to send secular or non-Christian Christmas cards. By December the Daily Mail was complaining that only 1 in 100 Christmas cards in shops depicted religious themes, never mind that the British public seemingly prefer secular themes.

In 2005 the campaign was launched by, yes you guessed it, the Daily Mail on November 2 with claims that Lambeth council had renamed its Christmas lights in order to avoid causing "offence".

For any tabloid hack writing a War on Christmas story it is apparently compulsory to include references to a PC campaign to re-name Christmas..."Winterval". The evil geniuses behind this campaign are said to be Birmingham City Council. This is because winterval came to prominence in 1998 when Birmingham City Council used it as a title to encompass the three month collection of multi-faith and secular events, running from October to January, and including Diwali, Bonfire Night, New Year and other seasonal events as well as Christmas itself. Winterval ran for 2 years - 1997 to 1998 and was intended as a way to drive business into Birmingham's newly rejuvenated town centre.

But what's facts got to with it. Oliver Burkeman on the Guardian set out to investigate the facts behind the War on Christmas stories, and found them to be a load of old baubles:

."..a few awkward facts. Luton does not have a festival called Luminos. It does not use any alternative name for Christmas. When it did, once, five years ago, hold something called Luminos one weekend in late November, the event didn't even replace the council's own Christmas celebrations, let alone forbid anyone else from doing anything. Similarly, Christmas is not called Winterval in Birmingham. The Royal Edinburgh Hospital for Sick Children never banned a Christmas CD for mentioning Jesus. And Chester council's "un-Christian" Christmas card says - as cards have done for decades - "Season's Greetings".

"We're not going to have a war, we're going to have the appearance of a war," says the cynical spin doctor in David Mamet's screenplay for the 1997 movie Wag The Dog, about an imaginary conflict created to whip up support for an ailing president. But he might equally have been talking about the 2006 war on Christmas - a war that tells us much about the growing politicisation and sense of entitlement among religious groups in Britain, but which turns out to have been almost entirely invented."

So, when's it going to start? There can be no question of if or maybe, we know for sure that bishops and archbishops will make alliance with journalists to play fast and loose with the facts and launch another phoney War on Christmas. The ironic thing about all this is that there really appears to be absolutely no war on traditional Christian activities, but there is a crusade against the secular Christmas much enjoyed and valued by most Brits. 

Let's keep our collective ears to the ground and see who fires the first shots in this year's annual pantomime of nonsense. Perhaps we should develop an idiot award for bloggers, bishops and hacks who trot out the winterval myths...perhaps an award for being a winterval wally, the Wallies for short?