YP. BRILLIANT!!!

From: Robert Bottamley, Thorn Road, Hedon, East Yorkshire. YOU reported concerns (Yorkshire Post, March 21) by the British Humanist Association regarding the 2011 Census; specifically, that the section relating to religious beliefs might produce “misleading results”. Readers will recall how the BHA sought to influence the content of the relevant section of the survey: having failed, the organisation’s chief executive, Andrew Copson, urged “people who do not want to give continuing or even greater importance to unshared religions in our public life to tick ‘No Religion’ in the census”. What honest error leads the chief executive of the BHA to conclude that no one who believes in God should have their wishes considered by society – even though, like him, they pay their taxes? But never mind. To avoid precisely the kind of confusion Andrew Copson warns against, I recommend that the following two options be added to any future census: (i) British Humanist Association or (ii) No British Humanist Association. The response could then be used in just the same way Mr Copson considers appropriate for religious organisations to indicate whether or not people wish to give the BHA “a continuing or even greater importance in our public life” – though I suspect that if the results didn’t favour the organisation he represents, he would dismiss them as misleading.