Reignite

It's time we reclaimed St George's Day. It should be a bank holiday in England, and a day to celebrate the English traditions of dissent, and fighting for democracy and religious freedom. St George was definitely not English, and definitely not white. He was born in what is now Turkey, and so is an immigrant to this country. St George was a soldier in the Roman army. He went to the Roman emperor, without an army, without a sword, and challenged him personally to stop persecuting Christians. The emperor imprisoned him and beheaded him. So the story of Saint George is one of dissent and challenge to power; it is one of fighting for the rights of minorities; and fighting for religious freedom. It is these things that have a noble and proud history in England. St George’s Day should be about all those who defied the powers that be for democracy and freedom: Levellers, Chartists, suffragettes; those who fought for democracy, those who campaigned against slavery, and for human rights...

Here's the questions that I care about this election. Here's the questions I will ask my parliamentary candidates: 1. Will you support the Robin Hood Tax on the banking system to raise billions for international development and fight against climate change? 2. Will you talk about immigration responsibly , support this country's responsibility to give sanctuary to those fleeing persecution, and end the detention of children and families for immigration reasons? 3. Will you support legislation allowing same sex civil partnerships to be performed in religious buildings , or will you support full marriage status for same sex partnerships? 4. Will you support reform of the state-funded faith school system so that schools are not allowed to discriminate in admissions and employment? 5. Will you support reform of the House of Lords - and agree not to appoint anyone to the House of Lords until those reforms are in place? 6. Will you support a reform of our voting system to allow ...

So I used to say that Reignite was the only live news source for the British Unitarian Annual Meetings. I'm afraid I can no longer make that claim. Not only was I not able to blog "live" I have been over-taken by Twitter. The Twitter hashtag was #GAUK. This is what you should have been following if you wanted the most up-to-date coverage and comment. (Before you ask, no, I'm not on Twitter, I've not seen the point of it yet). Neither am I the only blogger. Brian Keily of the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists has already blogged about the meetings here. But I still want to blog about my experiences at GA. Overall it was a pretty middle of the road GA. Not spectacularly exciting, or terribly difficult. I thought it might have a weird atmosphere, as there had already been conflict over the planning of the meetings. If you don't know the Annual Meetings Panel proposed some radical changes, this upset some people, and the Executive Committee rej...