Claire Rayner - an HSLD tribute

Representatives of the Humanist & Secularist Lib Dems have been joining the tributes made to Claire Rayner.

Claire Rayner has a very special place in the hearts of the Liberal Democrat Humanist & Secularists. A few years ago a group of Liberal Democrat activists saw the need to bring together Humanist and Secularist voices to ensure that their views were heard in an environment where religious privilege was increasingly seeking to exert itself. They decided to hold a meeting on the fringe at party conference to test the water, and the birth of LDHS can be traced back to that event, where Claire Rayner drew a healthy crowd of representatives eager to hear her impassioned advocacy in support of a rational and secular society.

As a trained nurse the protection of the National Health Service was one of the issues very dear to Claire. It was this, in particular the funding of personal care for the elderly that led her, after many years as a Labour Party member, to join the Liberal Democrats. She remained active on behalf of many of her causes until her final illness, attending a BHA event earlier this year (see photo), and commenting in trenchant terms on the Pope's recent visit. She was an honoury associate of the National Secular Society and a former president of the British Humanist Association.

You can read fullsome tributes to Claire on both the BHA and NSS websites at:

http://www.humanism.org.uk/news/view/672

http://www.secularism.org.uk/claire-rayner-a-personal-tribute.html