Congratulations on achieving the centenary of the Rationalist Press Association.Looking around one at the clash of different faiths with bloody consequences - Protestant and Catholics in Northern Ireland - Christians and Muslims in Kosova - Jew and Arab in Palestine - and to innumerable tribal 'cleansing' in Africa. It seems to me that rationalism is more necessary than ever and I would wish the Rationalist Press Association a second hundred years and the widest possible effect on a world where, to quote the late novelist Nigel Dennis, 'whenever I see the word compassion written on a wall I expect shortly afterwards to find my brains spattered across it'.