Humanist and Secularist Liberal Democrats

HSLD has just responded to the party's second "Agenda 2020" consultation.

The consultation covers a very wide range of policy areas, and we've focussed our response around two: "Should we be concerned about the effect of increasing faith school numbers on community cohesion? If so, what should we do about it?"

HSLD has called for the party's Constitution to be updated to refer explicitly to non-religious as well as religious belief.

Our response to the "Party Governance" consultation notes that there have been significant changes in how Liberal Democrats, society and the state recognise diverse faiths and non-religious beliefs since the party Constitution was first written, 27 years ago.

HSLD has called for the party to

• update its policy on disestablishment of the Church of England;
• develop coherent and comprehensive policies for tackling institutionalised discrimination by the state against the non-religious;
• set up a review of religion-based discrimination in school admissions, perhaps as part of a broader review.

Spring Conference in York will be another historic event: the first Conference at which ANY member of the Liberal Democrats can vote in every debates.

The Bournemouth Conference had an all-time record turnout, and Bournemouth just about managed to cope with our Conference representatives - but that was under the old rules, with only Conference representatives able to vote, and Bournemouth is a major seaside resort with hundreds of guest houses and hotels.

At a packed AGM on September 20th, your new committee was elected, with a healthy injection of members joining the committee for the first time.

Since then, we've brought on board another two members and promoted one, so the line-up is now:

* CHAIR: Toby Keynes

* VICE-CHAIR: Vera Head

* SECRETARY: Kay Kirkham

The HSLD Essential Events guide to the Bournemouth Conference is now published, with four more reasons to come to Conference in Bournemouth.

Download it here for much more about the following events:

HSLD: The Challenges Facing Secularism in Britain Today, + AGM; Sunday evening, 6.15-7.15pm

CentreForum: Fundamentalism, Radicalisation and the Use of Terror; Monday morning, 9.30-10.30am

Our 2015 AGM is at 6.15pm on Sunday 20th September, at the Marriot Highcliff Hotel in Bournemouth.

All members and supporters are welcome, and conferencegoers can also attend.

This is an important meeting where members will receive a report of our work and our accounts for last year. You can quiz the outgoing committee, elect the new one and even stand for election yourself.

This autumn's Conference in Bournemouth will be a major marker in our party's history: the first UK conference since the General Election, Tim Farron's first conference as party leader, and the starting point for the review of fundamental principles that will shape party policies over the coming years.

The British Humanist Association has published a General Election scorecard on facebook showing how the major UK parties perform on issues that are particularly relevant to humanists:

You can judge for yourself how well the Liberal Democrats and Greens perform.

It's a very welcome surprise to see the Conservatives committing that they will stand up internationally "for the freedom of people of all religions - and non-religious people - to practice their beliefs in peace and safety..." (Conservative Manifesto, page 76). If only all their other policies were as inclusive towards non-religious people.

During the launch of the party's General Election Manifesto, Nick Clegg has expanded on the manifesto commitment to "outlaw caste discrimination", saying: