LINDA PENTZ GUNTER reports from London’s massive demonstration, where Iranian flags joined Palestinian banners and protesters warned of the dangers of escalation by the US, only hours before a fresh phase of the war began
Latest editorial
Bishops against pawns
Why are 26 seats in our legislature still reserved for a group from one single religion to vote with the Tories and oppose progressive reforms, asks STEVEN WALKER
UNDEMOCRATIC: Baron Sentamu is sworn in to the House of Lords to take one of the 26 seats reserved for Anglican bishops
In the second of two articles, STEVE BISHOP looks at how the 1979 revolution’s aims are obfuscated to create a picture where the monarchists are the opposition to the theocracy, not the burgeoning workers’ and women’s movement on the streets of Iran
Almost half of universities face deficits, merger mania is taking hold, and massive fee hikes that will lock out working-class students are on the horizon, write RUBEN BRETT, PAUL WHITEHOUSE and DAN GRACE
DAVID RABY reports on the progressive administration in Mexico, which continues to overcome far-left wreckers on the edges of a teaching union, the murderous violence of the cartels, the ploys of the traditional right wing, and Trump’s provocations
As the cover-ups collapse, IAN SINCLAIR looks at the shocking testimony from British forces who would ‘go in and shoot everyone sleeping there’ during night raids — illegal, systematic murder spawned by an illegal invasion
Thousands rallied for the Irish rapper charged with a terror offence, singled out by the pro-Israel Establishment for taking the cause of Palestine on stage and to a mass audience, reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER from Westminster Magistrates’ Court
KARL MARX famously said that “religion is the opium of the masses,” distracting working-class people from taking revolutionary action.
Over 150 years later there is a glaring anachronism at the heart of British politics which automatically allows unelected bishops to sit in the House of Lords.
Parliament awards 26 seats in the House of Lords to bishops of the Church of England. These bishops vote on legislation, make interventions and lead prayers at the start of each day’s business.
This is an extremely unusual and anti-democratic set-up, which highlights the absurdity of the second chamber, a refuge for failed MPs, inbred aristocrats and third-rate business owners.
The only two sovereign states in the world to award clerics of the established religion votes in their legislatures are Britain and the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is a totalitarian theocracy.
The automatic presence of the bishops in the House of Lords is not just a harmless legacy of a medieval constitution but a present example of discrimination, religious privilege and undemocratic politics. It’s another example of how out of touch Parliament is to working-class people.
The bishops who sit in the House of Lords — known as the “Lords Spiritual” — date back to the 1300s.
In medieval times society was judged to be divided into three estates: the clergy, the nobility and everyone else.
But today the bishops don’t even represent the spread of religious opinion in the country.
Whatever their stated intentions, 26 bishops belonging to the Church of England can hardly provide spiritual insight representing Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Rastafarians and others.
It also adds to the inequality of the Lords with regards to Britain, as this small group also excludes the nations of Scotland (After 1689, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland did not have traditional bishops and did not send them to the Lords) and Wales (the church in Wales was disestablished in 1920).
The presence of the Church of England in the House of Lords entrenches a privileged position for one particular branch of one religion — the Church of England — which is often referred to as “the Tory Party at prayer.”
This cannot be justified in today’s society, which is not only multifaith but increasingly non-religious (the non-religious now comprise 52 per cent of the adult population, according to the British Social Attitudes Survey 2018, while a staggering 88 per cent are non-Anglican).
It is at odds with the aspiration for a more legitimate and representative second chamber and with affirmation of a plural society.
The public overwhelmingly agrees that bishops should not automatically be granted a right to sit in the House of Lords.
A survey conducted by YouGov for the Times found that 62 percent of British adults believe that no religious leaders should have “an automatic right to seats” in Parliament.
Only 8 per cent of people said the bishops should retain their seats while 12 per cent said leaders from other faiths should be added to sit alongside bishops as Lords Spiritual. The remaining 18 per cent said they did not know.
More generally, 65 per cent think that political figures should keep their religious beliefs cordoned off from their decision-making, with just 14 per cent saying the opposite.
The Bishops’ Bench in the House of Lords continues to this day to block progressive legislation and reform, not least in the realm of equality law where the church has used its privileged position to secure exemptions and concessions as well as obstructing equality outside its own constituency, for example, in its opposition to civil partnerships and same-sex marriage.
It even attempted to exempt itself from the Human Rights Act. In the last 11 years bishops have voted with the Tory government 75 per cent of the time.
ICM research in 2010 revealed that three-quarters of the public and 70 per cent of Christians believe it is wrong for bishops to have reserved places in the House of Lords and when Panelbase asked an online sample of 2,016 adult Britons in 2018 whether clerics, priests and clergy should make laws, the overwhelming majority of respondents (78 per cent) disagreed.
More from this author
The Woodcraft Folk was founded as a different form of youth organisation, with its founding principles rooted in co-operative, pacifist socialist ideas, writes STEVEN WALKER
When it comes to care homes it’s the same cynical Tory tactic of cutting public funding for the state-run service so that privateers can swoop in to provide a degraded service, writes STEVEN WALKER
Profiteering while being an elected MP is a practice as old as the hills, particularly for the Tories, writes STEVEN WALKER
People are facing a triple whammy of rising energy costs, a national insurance hike and a cut to universal credit — but with Starmer’s failure to step up, it’s now up to the unions to fight back, writes STEVEN WALKER
