It's not a uniquely British phenomenon to identify with the 'national' faith without actively participating in any religious activities. Notable excamples include the Scandivanian Lutheran churches.

I'm sure that's true, but of course it's worse in some countries than others. I'm sure I read that, in a recent census/survey, over half of people in the Netherlands declared themselves as "non-religious".

AFAIK the aggregated data from the census will be avalanche around June/July 2012.
Unfortunately, as I've mentioned elsewhere on this forum the ONS didn't follow their own best, published, practice on the religion question, which shod be to ask a question about religious identity followed by one about religious observance. The census only had the question on identity so there will be no measure of how many in the population are actually active Christians, vs how many simply identify themselves as been Christian.

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"..The Daily Mail - not so much a newspaper as an idiot's guidebook issued in bite-size daily installments" Charlie Brooker

Some of the comments on this story are awful...
Archbishop warns against hostility to young people
Mostly "drown all young people at birth" with the odd "sterilise non-whites" thrown in. I hope the tabloids are proud of what they've done to this country

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"Stop making up quotes and attributing them to me" - Voltaire

Of course. They have remade it in their own image.

This article seems to've brought a particularly odious specimen out of the woodwork:

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"If the past really is a foreign country, I'm surprised that 'The Daily Mail' would want to live there.” - Roger Quimbly

Just who are men's rights activists?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17907534
Lots of "what about teh menz?" comments straight out of the Mail at the bottom...

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"Stop making up quotes and attributing them to me" - Voltaire

Because of course men who want to campaign on issues which affect them are worthy only of ridicule.

The irony being if the gender roles in your post were reversed you'd be hounded for sexism, and rightly so.

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"Even when you're a super-computer with an IQ of 2000 it's brown trousers time."

Reclaiming "methinks" for the nation

Latest blog post - 2011 - a review (updated 07/10)

I don't see that at all. Have you read the comments hel is referring to? Many are straight out of the Mail, viz:


Off topic, reeking of privilege and complacency, unsupported by evidence, and passive-aggressive. Pure Mailite.


Again, I don't get that from hel's post. There are plenty of men campaigning against gender and sexuality stereotyping, for better access to support services, and on male-specific issues such as testicular cancer and tackling gangs. Nobody is ridiculing them. MRAs are different: they have an explicitly anti-women agenda; they blame feminism for all the (perceived) ills that affect them. They can be spotted by their reliance on conspiracy theory or biological essentialism ("men and women are different, they should be complementary not equal," etc). They believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that not only are the odds in our society stacked against men, but that this fact is hushed up by a cabal of misandrist feminists and wet judges and pinko BBC journalists. Thus their mission is to reveal The Unspoken Truth by derailing any discussion of gender-based inequality into "what about teh menz". It's petulant and tiresome. And, frankly, ridiculous.

And of course that kind of stuff never happens the other way round. No sir...

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"Even when you're a super-computer with an IQ of 2000 it's brown trousers time."

Reclaiming "methinks" for the nation

Latest blog post - 2011 - a review (updated 07/10)

A good ten years on, it seems large parts of the mainstream internet will always be dominated by these one track bigots. Do they never get bored of the same old "boot 'em out/hang 'em/kick 'em off benefits" routine? Zzz
Why can't these people find more in their lives, and break out of the tabloid mind-f*ck they've fallen victim to? ;_;

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"...now, with a most inhuman cruelty, they who have put out the people’s eyes, reproach them of their blindness..."

The Bell Curve.

I'm certainly not saying that, I'm just saying I have an issue with the comments that blame women and feminism for all the world's problems (if someone blamed men for everything I'd take issue with that too).

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"Stop making up quotes and attributing them to me" - Voltaire

Viewpoint: Is it time to get rid of traffic lights?

I thought this was going to be some sort of Clarkson-type diatribe against traffic lights, but it actually seems a fairly well thought out and studied idea. Whilst I'm not convinced that implementing his idea across the board wouldn't result in chaos and death, it's probably at least worth investigating if some road layouts might benefit from looking at them in this way.

Anyway, the nutters are camped out on the woodwork as usual for HYS...





#433 needs to think about that one a bit more, but I particularly like #426... if anything surely traffic lights are more "elf and safety" than the removal of them??

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I disagreed with the burglar’s policy, of tying me to a chair. But I did admire his convictions.

Yes, so the removal of them would indeed be elf 'n' safety 'gone mad'. In that it would be in exact opposition to the broad principles of health and safety legislation.

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Ten seconds... the pain begins.

Fifteen seconds... you can't breathe.

Twenty seconds... you give up and turn off the Jeremy Vine show.