East London Humanists

Seasonal opinion piece Barking and Dagenham Post 10 December 2025

A recent remark about hope by author Salman Rushdie came to mind as I sat down to write this piece for the festive season.

Rushdie, a Patron of Humanists UK, was speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. He described writing a book as an ‘act of optimism.’ Authorship is a time-consuming labour of love. There’s no guarantee of publication, let alone creating a best-seller.

Hope seems to be hard-wired into us.  There are so many occasions where we pin our efforts and aspirations on a future as daunting and uncertain now as it has ever been. It can underlie the decision to have a baby, move to a new country, or just plant a tree.

The period around the winter solstice has traditionally been a time of hope in the Northern hemisphere. In this dark cold season humans have always looked forward to the rebirth of nature, and longer, warmer days. It is marked across continents with lights, feasting and celebration  – a thread that highlights our common humanity.  

Christmas is of course a special religious occasion for Christians. But for many it’s a secular celebration we can take part in whatever our belief.  Much of the sparkle and merriment would not have been out of place at the Saturnalia festival held by the ancient Romans to mark the solstice.

The Jewish festival of Hannukah is sometimes called the Festival of Lights. It starts 14 December. Again, it’s a time for eating special foods with family and friends. As are the winter festivals of Sadeh (Zoroastrian), and Dongzhi in China, Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan.

On the face of it there is not much to be hopeful about as we head to the New Year. This year has largely been a rotten one for peace, nature, kindness and fairness. But it’s important to reflect on the way that war, bigotry, poverty and degradation of our environment is due to human action or inaction. Hope therefore lies in the fact that as humans we all have it in our power to help make things better.

Human beings evolved to survive and thrive. Perhaps being optimistic when the odds seem to be against us is vital to this. So, this Christman let us maintain hope, and our determination to work together to forge a better world in 2026.

Paul Kaufman
Chairperson East London Humanists

East London Humanist op piece looks at the prospect of education reform in the light of two major developments. Op piece Newham, Romford and Ilford Recorder newspapers Nov 2025

Important reforms are on the cards for teaching about religion and belief in State schools. It’s about time.

November saw publication of the Government commissioned Curriculum and Assessment Review. One landmark recommendation is that RE (Religious Education) be included in the National Curriculum. This would replace the current patchy arrangements which leave quality and content down to local authorities and schools.

Then, on 19 November, a Supreme Court ruling upheld the concerns of a non-religious parent and their child in Northern Ireland about the slanted nature of their school’s RE. They objected to imposition of a curriculum which taught Christianity as an absolute truth, albeit there was a right to withdraw.

The Supreme Court decided that RE teaching which is not ‘objective, critical, or pluralistic’ amounts to ‘indoctrination.’  They added that a right to withdraw is stigmatising where other children are not withdrawn. Although the case was heard in Northern Ireland, it has profound implications for all the UK.

I must at this point applaud the fantastic RE education which does take place in some schools. As an accredited School Speaker for Humanists UK I have spoken to well over a hundred schools around East London and Essex, many in this Borough. Inviting a Humanist gives children the opportunity to hear non-religious ethical perspectives in addition to the perspectives of faith groups. I invariably highlight shared values, such as kindness, fairness, respect for each other and the environment, and the importance of tolerating difference. Inclusive RE helps promote community harmony and cohesion.

Unfortunately, as matters stand, schools get to choose how much or how little they teach about different faiths or about Humanism, and many fall short. The way many assemblies are conducted is another outdated anomaly. They are a vital part of every school day – a time for children to gather as one community and to learn and reflect together.  According to all recent surveys less than half the adult population is Christian and well over a third have no religion.  Yet it is still a requirement under the 1944 Education Act that every State School holds a daily act of collective Christian worship.

Humanists will continue to work hard through campaigning and upcoming consultations to make sure all students get the broad inclusive education they deserve – an education fit for a modern plural democracy.

Paul Kaufman
Chairperson East London Humanists

East London Humanists Op piece Docklands and East London Advertiser November 2025.

I was among several Humanist representatives to speak at Remembrance Day services around East London this November. It’s an honour. But there is still a long way to go before these civic events fairly reflect today’s cultural landscape and do full justice to this major occasion.

Its importance to our national life can be measured by the fact that ceremonies take place year after year in just about every community up and down the land. It was heartwarming to see how many, young and old, took part in the ones I attended.

However, many services are still overwhelmingly Church of England in character, dotted throughout with hymns, prayers and Bible readings. These carry little if any meaning for the vast majority who belong to other faiths or none.

Humanists aren’t asking for special treatment, simply a level and inclusive playing field for everyone. It is shocking, for example, that invitations aren’t always extended to representatives from the Muslim community. An estimated 4.5 million Muslims fought on the allied side against fascism in WWII, many in the far East. An estimated 9-12000 Palestinians fought alongside us in Egypt. The National Muslim War Memorial Trust is campaigning for a permanent memorial.

Humanists have struggled for years to secure inclusion of the non-religious. It took until 2018 before a representative from Humanists UK was finally able to officially participate in the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph. Subsequently, I have had an official role in four different local ceremonies. It has been a first for Humanists in each case.

The non-religious have been marginalised even though countless servicemen and other victims of war have been without faith. Today, over 40% of the regular armed services have no religion (UK armed forces biannual diversity statistics: April 2025).

It was only in June this year that the UK armed forces swore in its first-ever non-religious pastoral carer, Dr Chris Weddell, who has served in several conflict zones. Humanists UK is the endorsing authority appointed by the Ministry of Defence for the new roles.

Remembrance Day should be about communities coming together to remember all victims of war and to remember its lessons. Words about conciliation, and living in harmony, are rather empty when whole sections of our communities are sidelined or omitted all together.

Paul Kaufman
Chairperson East London Humanists

Humanists UK were invited for the first time to take part in the national Remembrance Day Service in 2018. This followed years of campaigning.

Thanks to Humanists UK the non-religious are now represented at ceremonies throughout the country, including several around East London.

Below is a write up of this year’s ceremony for the London Borough of Redbridge. The rep for East London Humanists, quoted in the piece, stood and spoke alongside the Borough’s two MPs, reps from the council and other civic and faith leaders.

East London Humanists Op piece Docklands and East London Advertiser and Barking and Dagenham Post October 2025

Nigel Farage has an unusual surname. Records show his ancestors were almost certainly Huguenots who came here from France in droves from the 1600’s to flee religious persecution. It led to the coining of the term ‘refugee.’

It is estimated that Huguenots eventually comprised 5% of London’s population. The density was greater in areas like Spitalfields.  Street names such as ‘Fournier’ and ‘Weaver’ bear witness to their impact. The far-sighted at that time welcomed their potential to enrich our culture and economy.

What is now Brick Lane Mosque, on the corner of Fournier Street, symbolises the unfolding story of migration to East London. Established as a church by the Huguenots in 1743, it became a synagogue in 1891, serving the influx of Jews fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe. It became a mosque in the 1970’s.

My grandparents settled in that area around 1900 to escape pogroms. They could barely speak or write English, and kept culturally apart throughout their lives. I like to think that I and their other descendants have done a reasonable job of integrating and contributing to this country.

‘Ironic’ is a polite way of describing Farage and other descendants of immigrants who turn their back today on the vulnerable and persecuted. Recent Tory pledges to deport 750,000 migrants appear a bid to outdo Reform in a race to the bottom. Unanswered questions include how much force they intend using, where the holding centres will be, and where these poor souls will be deported to. One shocking detail is their explicit exclusion of religious persecution as a ground for seeking asylum.

Migration is intrinsic to being human. People have moved around the globe since homo sapiens emerged in Africa 300,000 years ago. The causes are many, from flood and famine to war or just seeking a better life. It is a truism that every person in this country is the descendant of an immigrant. Migration can present problems where there are limited resources. But the humane way to address these is through reason, fairness, compassion and cooperation, not through fear, hate, division and othering.

Those most hostile to migrants are often also hostile to acting on human induced climate change, another issue demanding reason, fairness and cooperation. They should check out the Thames Flood Risk map. One day Londoners could be refugees too.

PAUL KAUFMAN, Chairperson East London Humanists

Members of East London and Central London Humanists joined the mass demonstration protesting Trump and Trumpism in Central London on 17 September 2025, organised by the Anti-Trump coalition.

Trumpism represents the antithesis of Humanist values. It is characterised by lack of compassion, othering, rejection of science and reason and disrespect for the natural world.

Our double-sided banner paraded along the march condemned the appeasement of this dangerous phenomenon.

The East London Humanists stall once again proved a great attraction at the annual Wanstead Festival.

Despite the rain, there were many visitors and lots of fascinating conversations. As in previous years, a highlight has been the ‘Are you a Humanist?’ quiz, with many people discovering that they are Humanists without realising it.

Pictured below is Calvin Bailey, MP for Leyton and Wanstead, who dropped by and bought ‘How to Argue with a Racist.’ Author Adam Rutherford, a genetic scientist, broadcaster and writer, is the current president of Humanists UK.

Opinion piece. Docklands and East London Advertiser; Barking and Dagenham Post. 11 Sept 2025

I never thought I would see the day in this country when ‘Human Rights Lawyer’ became a term of abuse. The sentiment finds expression in growing demands to pull out of the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights), a move slammed by Humanists UK as ‘dangerous and divisive.’

Reform leads the charge. They argue it is essential to withdraw from this and other international agreements on torture and human trafficking so that asylum seekers can be rounded up and deported on a mass scale. In their wake, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch anticipates they too will advocate pulling out following a review. Meanwhile, former Labour Home Secretaries David Blunkett and Jack Straw have advocated ‘suspending’ or ‘decoupling’ from it. It’s worth remembering their complicity in the catastrophic interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, from where so many refugees have fled.

Turning our back on the Convention would take us into the territory of despotic regimes such as Russia and Belarus. Some say this is nonsense – that we can still uphold human rights without being part of a convention which ‘ties our hands’ on immigration. Such arguments are blind to history and the character of those who want to turn back the clock.

The ECHR emerged from World War II and the slaughter of millions because of their ethnicity, religion, disability, sexuality or political beliefs. Those who witnessed these horrors vowed ‘never again.’ As then Conservative leader Winston Churchill said in 1948 “In the centre of our movement stands the idea of a Charter of Human Rights, guarded by freedom and sustained by law.”  International cooperation, fairness and humanity remain the keys to tackling the issue of mass migration.

Some will say these are different times and the ECHR is no longer fit for purpose. Actually, persecution and bigotry have not gone away. Does anyone honestly believe the fate of the vulnerable and minorities will be safer under the oversight of those who now rubbish the Convention and its values?

Withdrawing would put us all at risk. Without it the Hillsborough victims would never have got justice. It’s been used to fight for victims of domestic violence let down by police and disabled veterans facing Government discrimination. For Humanists, it paved the way for teaching non-religious views in schools and non-religious patients accessing pastoral care.

As the song says, ‘You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.’

Paul Kaufman
Chairperson, East London Humanists

Opinion piece. Romford Recorder August 2025

If, like me, you’re lucky enough to have a garden then the impact of climate change is probably all too obvious.  Plants that once thrived now struggle to survive. Why aren’t more of us scared by the mounting evidence of a climate and nature catastrophe?

Perhaps we are inured to spiralling floods, fires and storms; to food price hikes caused by crop failures; to rocketing insurance as risks caused by extreme conditions multiply. Man made climate change is no longer just a prediction – the chickens have come home to roost.

Of course, some scoff. There’s always been climate change, they say. True, but evidence shows overwhelmingly that human activity, in particular burning fossil fuels, has become a key driver.

Then there is the ‘China’ argument.  Why should Britain cut back on oil, coal and gas when China isn’t? This is wrong on so many levels. Pushing for net zero is in the national interest, and of all our futures.

A piece in the financial pages of the Telegraph shows this is not a simple left/right issue (‘Trump has dropped a big, beautiful bomb on America’s economy’ 3 July).  It excoriates Trump for rolling back the green agenda. It describes how China has fully embraced the non-carbon future and is now the world leader in electrification. I had solar panels fitted last year. They’ve been brilliant, and they were of course made in China.

There is only so much we can do individually. It’s unfair to lampoon people who talk green but fall short on leading a perfect green life. You might as well chastise fish for swimming in water.  We are all immersed in a world hooked on carbon for food production, transport, heating and so on. Extricating ourselves is a huge challenge. One thing we can do is campaign for structural change. Humanist Climate Action is one of many groups who joined the mass lobby of Parliament in July.

Inurement is one explanation for lack of panic. Another is humankind’s evolved ability to avoid uncomfortable truths. We can be optimistic against all odds. It helps when deciding to bring children into this world. Our brains are also good at compartmentalising, for example stowing thoughts about our burning world while booking a long-haul flight. Let’s hope our capacity to reason and cooperate prevails to tackle this global emergency.

Paul Kaufman
Chairperson, East London Humanists

Op piece Romford Recorder and Barking and Dagenham Post July 2025

I joined the throng gathered outside Parliament last month to support the Assisted Dying Bill as it was debated. Others were there to oppose it. It was a microcosm of the debate within the Chamber.

Among the ‘antis’ were devout people of faith, fervently and loudly praying for the Bill to be defeated. They made it clear that medical intervention to end a life is contrary to ‘God’s will.’ For them it will always be sinful. It doesn’t matter how close to death, how excruciating and unavoidable the pain, or how well-informed the patient’s decision.  

There was also a cohort of disability campaigners opposed to the Bill. They do not represent everyone with a disability.   They were chanting ‘Not dead yet.’ The slogan references a powerful documentary entitled ‘Better off Dead?’ authored by actor Liz Carr. Their opposition is grounded in their belief that the Bill puts disabled people at risk in a society where some say the disabled would be better off dead. This ground is unfounded.

There is much for the disabled to be angry and upset about. They are too often treated with callousness.  There are still multiple barriers to leading fuller lives and enjoying greater equality of opportunity with the able-bodied. Poor access to public transport is just one example. The disabled are also still among the poorest and most vulnerable. The Government’s attempt to target disability benefits for savings was met with understandable resentment and fear. Vociferous opposition ultimately led to a U turn. Some disability activists may believe any Assisted Dying legislation represents yet another threat to their right to lead full and dignified lives.  In fact, this Bill focusses only on the terminally ill, not on people with disabilities, and includes rigorous safeguards.

MPs backing for the Bill heralds long overdue reform. Supporters are driven by compassion and recognition that the existing state of affairs for the terminally ill is unsatisfactory and inhumane. Many outside Parliament held posters depicting loved ones who they watched live out their last days in unbearable, incurable agony. Others told of terminally ill loved ones who had taken their own lives, suffering alone for fear of criminal consequences, or who made botched attempts leaving them even worse off. None of those I heard opposing the Bill either inside or outside Parliament provided a satisfactory answer to any of this.

Paul Kaufman
Chairperson, East London Humanists