A LIBERAL-DEMOCRAT Bill to scrap the requirement for each day collective worship in non-faith schools and replace it with inclusive assemblies has returned to the House of Lords.
The Education (Assembles) Bill, a Private Member’s Bill from the Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Burt — the vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group — was given its First Reading late last week. The date of the Second Reading is yet to be announced.
A previous version of her Bill had its second reading in September 2021, where it gained support from several peer, amongst them the previous Bishop of Oxford, Lord Harries, and a number of other peers (News, 17 September 2021). Other peers, including the current Bishop of Oxford, Dr Steven Croft, opposed it.
Responding on behalf of the Government on the time, Baroness Chisholm, then a Conservative peer, had said that there was “no have to amend the present laws on collective worship. Collective worship is already flexible and inclusive in nature.” And because the Bill didn’t have the backing of the Government, it didn’t progress through the Commons to the ultimate stages.
The latest version of the Bill is a duplicate of the primary. Its purpose is to “amend the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 to make provision regarding assemblies at state schools with out a designated religious character in England; to repeal the requirement for those schools to carry collective worship; and for connected purposes.”
Legal challenge. The Liberal Democrats met in Brighton this week for his or her autumn conference. Documents leaked to The Daily Telegraph over the weekend suggested that the party wouldn’t accept members who were against abortion for religious reasons.
David Campanale, an Anglican layman who was deselected as a Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate earlier this 12 months, is suing the party under the Equality Act, claiming that he has been subject to discrimination due to his Christian beliefs (News, 14 June).
A 34-page legal defence submitted by the Lib Dems to Liverpool County Court last week, seen by the Telegraph, reportedly claims that the party “had a right to deselect” Mr Campanale, because his “expressed religious beliefs against abortion, gay marriage and legal sex change conflicted with the basic values set out” within the party’s governing document.
Mr Campanale, a former BBC investigative journalist who held a seat as a Liberal Democrat councillor from 1986 to 1994, was announced because the Liberal Democrat candidate for Sutton and Cheam in January 2022, having first been approved as a prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) in 2017. According to his legal claim, submitted in May, he was “almost immediately” the topic of complaints made by members of the local party, culminating in attempts to deselect him.
A petition which called on the party to reinstate Mr Campanale — and which warned that failure to do would send a “chilling message to Christians” — was signed by the Bishops of Winchester and Guildford (Letters, 24 May and 31 May).
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Williams, told the Telegraph that the Lib Dem’s stance could set a “worrying precedent” that will make it “not possible” for some people of religion to hitch political parties.
“The Liberal Democrat Party’s response to Campanale’s legal challenge has been to say that reservations about, for instance, abortion or same-sex marriage are in conflict with ‘fundamental values’ held by the party.
“If it’s indeed not possible even to carry dissenting views, this must make it not possible for Orthodox Jews and most Muslims in addition to Catholics and other Christians to represent the party. Is this really what the Lib Dems are saying?
“You may or may not agree with the private beliefs of David Campanale — I share some but under no circumstances all of them — however the precedent is a worrying one.”
He continued: “It is just not enough to preserve one’s private conscientious judgement, it seems; total agreement in private and in public is demanded.”
