WHATEVER one might think of our new Lib-Con Government, there’s very good cause to lament the absence in the new coalition of Dr Evan Harris, who lost his Oxford West & Abingdon seat by fewer than 200 votes.
Harris had been the target of campaigns by at least two priests, one of whom was behind a leaflet distributed in his constituency that described him as “Dr Death”.
Evan Harris and Rowan Atkinson join forces over the proposed Racial and Religious Hatred Bill, June 2005: Getty Images
Writing on the New Statesman blog this week, Sholto Byrnes said:
If more MPs had been like him, it is highly unlikely that politicians would have come to have been held in such low regard. If more Liberal Democrats had been like him, I suspect they would be doing much better and might even have stood a genuine chance of replacing Labour as the main party of the left.
A consistently strong voice for the NHS and for science, he shared the title of Secularist of the Year with Lord Avebury in 2009 for their work in helping abolish the offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel. He has campaigned against faith schools and argued courageously in favour of abortion, euthanasia, immigration and gay rights.
Byrnes piece was robust response to a vitriolic attack on Harris by The Telegraph‘s religion editor, Rev George Pitcher, who wrote:
A stranger to principle, Harris has coat-tailed some of the most vulnerable and weak people available to him to further his dogged, secularist campaign to have people of faith – any faith – swept from the public sphere.
The Lib Dems served the purpose of providing him with a parliamentary seat, but his true love was the National Secular Society. For a doctor, he supported the strange idea that terminally ill people should be helped to kill themselves. He pretended to defend Roman Catholics by attacking the Act of Settlement, with the real aim of undermining the established Church of England.
A drab, secular determinism was his sole motivation; his parliamentary career consequently a one-trick pony.
Byrnes added:
Some readers – especially those who have described me as being ‘an apologist for religion’ – may be surprised to see me praising him. On the contrary, although I may disagree with some of Evan’s stances, I think he has been one of the most principled MPs in parliament, sticking to his convictions and standing up for a true-liberal view of free speech and of the idea of liberty itself.
Let’s now look on the bright side. We now have an atheist as deputy Prime Minister – Nick Clegg.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
May 13th, 2010 at 8:11 am
We have a situation in this country now where one man, and one man alone, has dictated the flavour of the next government. Is this democracy?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t.....111441.ece
May 13th, 2010 at 8:40 am
Bob Hutton, all-round xtian nutter and author of the laughable Gospel Truth blog, clearly believes that the poll in Harris’s old constituency was rigged as the outcome was, Hutton claims, a direct result of ‘the providence and goodness of God’.
I hope the Returning Officer will look into this boast as I’d put a large amount of money on the fact that nobody called God is on the electoral register in Oxford West and Abingdon.
If you can be bothered reading more of Hutton’s drivel on the subject, here’s where you’ll find it:
http://bobhutton1.blogspot.com.....-dust.html
May 13th, 2010 at 9:44 am
I’m not a violent person by any means but I’d never get tired of tuning Bob Hutton in.What a cock that guy is!
May 13th, 2010 at 9:54 am
Barrie John I remember when the Liberals jumped into bed with Labour after the first Scottish parliamentary election. All throughout the campaign they promised not to introduce student top up fees of £1000 it was their flagship policy. As soon as a few seats in cabinet and deputies badge was offered to them they abandoned the policy and formed a coalition.
Lib Dems are as unprincipled and opportunistic as every other party. They love money and the love war The upside (if you can call it that) is that at some point the Eurosceptic Tory right MPs will not be able to stomach a coalition with pro-Europe Lib Dems they will bugger off to UKIP (I give it a year)
But I digress Evan Harris may have gone but we got the brilliant Caroline Lucas to replace him. The Greens in Scotland have been a thorn in the side of Xian’s. The loony Rev Hargreaves ran a campaign to unseat atheist Green MSP Patrick Harvie which failed
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t.....637264.ece
May 13th, 2010 at 10:41 am
An atheist for PM, is that a first for Britain?
May 13th, 2010 at 11:22 am
The REAL meaning of the Con/Lib/Dem coalition? – Dim en bloc.
May 13th, 2010 at 11:27 am
Somebody said that we are now a Con Dem Nation!
May 13th, 2010 at 11:41 am
@ chrsbol Yes, Hutton really is a mind-numbingly pompous little twat, isn’t he. And like you I doubt that I could ever get bored of slapping his repugnant pious chops. (Trouble is, he’d probably enjoy it!)
May 13th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Any faint thoughts, close to zero at any time, I may have that perhaps I go over the top in my condemnation of religious bigots disappears at the treatment of Dr Evan Harris. They are never content to go their own way. They have to stuff their claptrap down everyone elses throats. With an elected House of Lords on the cards I hope that we will soon see the back of these clownish bishops. And I also hope that the pressure on the grisly Ratzinger continues and if he shows his face here in the UK then he gets the reception he deserves.
What we have seen in the treatment of Evan Harris is persecution, lies and a determination to get their way by fair means – not possible – so it has to be foul. Dirty tactics and the stench of their attack sickens any but the religious. A principled man loses his seat in parliament while another, with the principles of a shithouse rat is on the way to a State funded, tax funded, heavily protected charade. Amongst the heavy budget cuts I think Ratzi’s £20 million tax fueled bonanza must be the first to hit the buffers.
May 13th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
I have the greatest respect and admiration for Evan Harris, and the government will now be missing one of its most ethical voices. He was terrific at his dogged pursuit of that fraud Andrew Wakefield.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm.....PMC381348/
A very sad loss, not only for the people of the UK, but as we can see, his actions have had a benefit for the world.
May 13th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
The Church works in many ways, mostly to keep power at whatever costto anyone.
If it had been possible I would have voted for Evan Harris.
Yes Nick Clegg is an atheist but his wife is not and he sends his children to catholic school.I am hoping that David Camerons views of more faith schools will not win through because of the alliance..
May 13th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
@ Marcus & Chrsbol: I deliberately avoided including a link to Hutton’s failed blog, because each time he manages to squeeze out one of his fatuous articles, I get an email from the twat. His tiresome messages generally say: “Hey Barry I have posted a new article on my blog. You’ll like this one.” He’s like a kid who’s dropped his first jobbie in the big boy’s bog, and wants everyone to gather round and peer admiringly at it. The man’s mentality has never passed the age of five. Furthermore, he appears constipated. Since launching The Gospel Truth last year he has has only managed to produce 2.7 of his blog jobbies a month. Sad, sad, sad little man – a living example of the destruction religion can wreak on the human intellect.
May 13th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
It is very sad to lose a strong secular voice in Parliament such as Evan Harris, he was the victim of a dirty tricks campaign by religious bigots fired up by the Daily Mail and the Daily catholicograph who have had the knives out for him for a long time.
May 13th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
Regarding the Andrew Wakefield fiasco, can I just point out again that a great many fundamentalists of different religious views object in any case to vaccination and inoculation on the grounds of principle (why are they not prosecuted for child abuse, again?). Therefore, as with the “scientific” arguments that we have recently looked at in support of Creationism and Noah’s Flood, this piece of research, though not swaying them one way or the other, was right up their street (“See – they’re killing the children again”), and this, no doubt, explains why it was championed by the likes of The Daily Mail!
May 13th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
Ah! My brief hopes, that an atheist PM would put his foot in the door of Cameron’ desire to increase faith schools, are dashed!
May 13th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
No matter how bad you think things are it could be worse. You could have this twat as your M.P.
http://www.michaelgove.com/
May 13th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
I agree Chrsbol: Michael Gove is the Andrew Adonis (“I’ve fucked up education, so now I’ll have a bash at transport”!) of the Conservative Party. He is the one who is wedded to this idea that schools run by private groups is the way forward, and we all know which public-spirited members of society are going to be first in the queue to take on that responsibility, don’t we?