For what it’s worth I am an atheist, in case you misunderstood the motive behind my comment.
Edit: sorry just realised I spelt that out in the OP - so I’m a bit miffed about the reply.
Another British state school-educated atheist checking in.
I’m from the bad old days when the only religion taught was Christianity, with a vague nod to the fact that it was possible, but not easy, to get to far-flung places in the world that might be different. I ended up as an atheist with a personal copy of a Bible with hand-colored illustrations - due to boredom in class - and enough knowledge of it to be able to quote a few passages, some of them in Latin. This is actually a quite useful skill.
The only church trip was once a year for Harvest Festival, which in the early seventies was more a pagan festival than Christian anyway. (Possibly still is?)
However, an Irishman once called me a “Protestant atheist” so I guess it all rubs off on you one way or another.
That’s what winky emoticons are for 
It’s not quite true to say that the whole UK has no separation of church and state. Scotland doesn’t have an established church.
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I like to think it’s more a matter that atheism is a type of religious belief, but is not a religion in itself. The two aren’t tied together, and if you’re talking about religions in general then it’s perfectly acceptable to include atheism in the mix.
Which is the most multicultural city?
I’d assume the answer is really London, but I guess you mean somewhere else. As a Leicester local I’d be inclined to suggest there 
My first instinct was to reply with a picture of a “Fish 'n Chip” shop but that got me thinking and I don’t think such a thing as a ‘bakery/chipper/pub/curry house/drinking-Buckfast-under-a-bridge-by-the-canal/festivals centring around haggis/whiskey refinery’ establishment actually exists in real life.
Except in the ‘distributed all over Scotland’ sense, of course.
I disagree. It’s very much towards the fluffy end of the scale, but it’s still a case of the state telling children “You believe in the state religion.” when in reality they’re too young to have made up their minds about any such thing.
There are (of course) far worse things going on in the world than this, but that doesn’t mean that “not too bad” is perfect, and it also doesn’t stop us improving the things that are “not too bad”.
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Then the school’s head teacher sent a letter to parents, in Comic Sans – the favoured font of British educational officialdom – written in High Bureaucrat and passive voice that threatened to put a permanent “Your kid is a racist” note on kids’ educational files if parents didn’t let them go on the trip.
Wait… where is all the passive voice in that letter? I counted one verb using in the passive (“note being attached”). And why do people still think it is somehow wrong to use passive voice?
I thought about bringing this up, but decided against it, because going into the fine distinctions, and reasons why the Church of Scotland is a National church but not a State church, is the sort of thing that has a tendency to slide into arguing about the minutiae of the reformation, the exact effects of the various civil wars, various splits and schisms and so on.
And frankly, the most interesting part of all that is trying to explain why the queen magically changes from being the head of one church to an ordinary member of another whenever she crosses the border.
Also, Wales doesn’t have a State church either.
Another feature of this letter that was wrong was that it said that the only excuse they would accept for non-attendance would be a GP letter.
It is NOT part of a GP’s job to write notes for pupils who cannot attend school. Even those in employment are expected to sign themselves off for the first week - if an employers wants confirmation that the employee is unwell in this period it must be done by occupational health, as it is not NHS work for a GP to do it.
There is clear guidance for schools about when a doctor’s note might be needed.
For more information, you could try http://www.ganfyd.org/index.php?title=Get_a_note_from_your_doctor
It was Leicester. I’m not sure a walking tour of so many different
religious buildings would work in London, but one exists for Leicester:
http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/archaeology/research/projects/mapping-faith/faith-trail
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A favorite de-railing tactic for excusing beliefs and actions that are generally both racist and xenophobic.
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Yeah, I was shouting into the wind on that one. I don’t disagree with your post at all. I’ve just been getting harassed by family a bit lately for my atheism, and vented on the bbs. Not the right place, not the right time.
Ah, gotcha. Vent away
And so it came to pass - however incorrect, a label is a label, and “methinks the lady dost protest too much” excuses attempted rape.
Anyway that’s racist against people who understand racism.
That is a pretty huge use of the passive voice. There is nothing wrong with the passive voice, but it is used to dodge responsibility.
If it is the headmaster who will attach the note then the parents know who to sue/whose head to call for. If it is the school then at least they have an organization to protect their child from. The point of using the passive voice here is to try to make it seem like and untouchable authority will be behind it. It is a thing that will happen, there is no person or organization you can blame or fight against. More specifically, it is an attempt by the person writing it to avoid being blamed for something they clearly know they shouldn’t be doing.
I work for a government, and we do this all the time.
And a short detour from that trail will take you to the most famous car park in the Midlands (the one Richard III was found under).
