BHA: UK is a place of tolerance

Andrew Copson, British Humanist Aassociation (BHA) chief executive, comments on the Pope’s visit:

“It is disappointing that the Pope is using a state visit to dictate how our state should organise itself.

“Unlike the Holy See, the UK is fully signed up to treaties like the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantee freedom of religion and belief, and we do not need to be lectured on this issue by the Vatican – seldom in its history an advocate of freedom of conscience.

“It is not hostility to religion that characterises the negative reaction of many Britons to the Pope’s state visit, but hostility to the Holy See’s bigoted position on so many issues and we should be proud that – unlike the Holy See – the UK is a place of liberalism and tolerance.”