While I'm sure the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles is a man of many talents, one skill that has always stood out from our vantage point here at New Humanist is his ability to irritate atheists and secularists. (It's a talent shared by his Cabinet colleague Baroness Warsi, who frequently accuses "secular fundamentalists" and "militant secularists" of seeking to force religion out of public life.)
This weekend Pickles, who has previously stated that the Government is proud to "do God", picked up on his favourite theme in a speech at the Conservative Party's Spring Forum. Referring back to his decision in 2012 to overrule a High Court ruling against prayers at council meetings, Pickles told the conference that he is determined to stand up to atheist "intolerance":
"I've stopped an attempt by militant atheists to ban councils having prayers at the start of meetings if they wish. Heaven forbid. We're a Christian nation. We have an established church. Get over it. And don't impose your politically correct intolerance on others."
Considering that Pickles is the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, a portfolio that implies an awareness of issues like community cohesion and diversity, this is a fairly bizarre and, you might argue, divisive position to take.
For one thing, it's hardly supported by statistical evidence. Since 2011, the highly respected British Social Attitudes survey has shown that 50 per cent of people in Britain identify themselves as having "No religion", with the figure rising to 64 per cent of 18-24 year-olds. And even if you take the latest Census, which is the subject of enduring controversy over the wording of the religion question, you see that the percentage of people identifying as Christian in England and Wales has fallen significantly in recent years, from 71.8 per cent in 2001 to 59.3 per cent in 2011 (in the same period, the percentage saying that they had "No religion" rose from 15 to 25 per cent).
So statistically Pickles' claim is a dubious one, but in some ways that is beside the point. Even if we accept the Census results and acknowledge that 59 per cent of Britons are Christian (whether loosely or strongly affiliated), do we really want to see Government ministers, particularly the Secretary of State for Communities, telling people to just "get over it" and accept that Britain is a Christian country? At best, it's inconsistent position – for someone accusing others of intolerance, Pickles seems pretty keen on shutting down debate.
In the end, it's hard not to think that Pickles hasn't really thought through his comments on Britain's status as a Christian country. He's entitled to his view that some secularists take their arguments too far, but it would be fascinating to hear his views on secularism as a whole. Does he think that the state should be neutral on matters of religion and belief, or does he think that it's more appropriate to think of Britain as a broadly Christian state that does its best to accomodate the views and lifestyles of non-Christians within its legal framework?
If pushed, you would suspect (and hope) that he would choose the former, but his "get over it" comments from this weekend could suggest that he leans towards the latter. And if that really is the case, you could legitimately ask whether he is an appropriate politician to run the Communities ministry in a country in which, by any statistical measure, the numbers of non-Christians are increasing on a yearly basis.
