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BBC: Humanism

My Lords, I have always been struck by the incongruity of "Thought for the Day", which offers the religious an unopposed platform, being inserted into the middle of a flagship current affairs programme—an invitation that the BBC would never extend to the non-religious. The result is that some in today’s society get the opportunity to express their views while others are denied the opportunity. A letter dated 21 June 2009 from BBC complaints states that there are about 30 contributors to the 360 thoughts each year. Presumably each contributor gets many opportunities to express their views, but not a single one of these regular contributors appears to be a humanist. We are not even given a ration of one single thought. According to the same letter, these short talks plant a seed of thought and a spark of spiritual insight that stay with listeners during the day. Having heard Bishop Tom Butler’s polemic earlier this year on the assisted dying amendment of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, and having read the thought of the Chief Rabbi on 12 October 2005 expressing his opposition to assisted dying just before debates in this House on the matter, the seeds of doubt planted in my mind were not exactly spiritual. I wondered how the BBC could allow "Thought for the Day" to become a political platform for a self-proclaimed campaign by the churches to oppose any legislation on assisted dying, without allowing at least one slot on "Thought for the Day" for proponents of such legislation. If there is to be a "Thought for the Day", it would be better sited in one of the BBC’s religious programmes, of which there are an abundance, where it would doubtless be of great interest to what is probably a relatively small and declining percentage of listeners, particularly compared to the audience of the excellent "Today". I do not for a moment accuse the BBC of being deliberately partial. The issues to which I have referred are probably the result of 40 years of "Thought for the Day". The BBC may have lost sight of the world having changed. In conclusion, I say to the noble Lord, Lord Griffiths, that I am a great admirer of most of the work of the church and would respectfully suggest a more open-minded and less rigid approach to some of the controversial issues of the day, such as homosexuality, women’s rights and assisted dying.