Nick Clegg Doesn't Believe in God

[Truth2Tell]

From The Scotsman, December 2007:

http://news.scotsman.com/politics/I-don39t-believe-in-God.3607087.jp

By GERRI PEEV

NICK Clegg, the newly elected Liberal Democrat leader, does not believe in God, he revealed yesterday.

The 40-year-old declared his lack of faith in a radio interview. He also declined to say whether he had ever taken drugs, citing the Tory leader David Cameron's argument that politicians had the right to privacy over what they did before they entered public life.

Mr Clegg said he was not an "active believer" but, like former prime minister Tony Blair, he is married to a Catholic and has committed himself to bringing up his children as Roman Catholics.

Asked directly in the interview on BBC Radio 5 Live, "Do you believe in God?", Mr Clegg replied simply: "No."

http://news.scotsman.com/politics/I-don39t-believe-in-God.3607087.jp">More...

Interesting. He would be disqualified from the higher reaches of US politics, but not in the UK evidently.

[sfwriter]

1. He would be disqualified from the lower reaches in some states...

[paulsby]

2. who knows if he would be disqualified in the UK?

he is making these admissions AFTER being elected

[Truth2Tell]

3. This was after being elected head of his Party in 2007.

Today he is on the verge of an historic upset victory and potentially the next British PM (though unlikely).

[paulsby]

7. lol my bad nt

[Turborama]

4. Britain is a secular country

My guess is most people will see it as a plus.

[paulsby]

8. i strongly doubt "most people" will see it as a plus

but i agree that most people probably don't care much either way

[Turborama]

12. That's what I meant

Maybe I chose my word wrongly but what I meant was that most people won't see it as a minus.

[paulsby]

9. i strongly doubt "most people" will see it as a plus

but i agree that most people probably don't care much either way

[spoony]

10. No, they will see it as "Who gives a shite."

Much like I do.

[LeftishBrit]

13. This was several years ago, when he was elected Party leader

He's unlikely to be elected Prime Minister, but that's because he's LibDem (third party), not because he's an atheist. Polls suggest that his party will do better in the upcoming election than it (and its ancestor parties) have done since before WW2.

[scheming daemons]

5. That makes him twice as appealing to me as before

...

[Turborama]

6. Likewise! n/t

[Truth2Tell]

11. me too

and I was already cautiously optimistic about him, which is high praise from me

[LeftishBrit]

14. Shock, horror, scandal - well no, not in the UK

We are an evil secular nation. It's difficult to say exactly how many are atheists, as many people identify culturally with Christianity, or less commonly another religion, without actually believing in God. But it may be a majority, especially among younger people. Different recent surveys suggest that 71% of Brits claim to be Christians, 38% claim to believe in a God, and 12% go to church... yes, Brits are very inconsistent!


We've had some atheist MPs since the days of Good Queen Victoria (Charles Bradlaugh was the first in 1880). Several prominent politicians, including the Foreign Secretary, are known to be atheist; and the religion of many others is unknown.

My MP Evan Harris is a honorary official in the National Secular Society. Liddy Dole would have a fit!


Blair is not typical here!

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. Did you see the attack on Evan Harris by Cristina Odone?

In a Telegraph blog (I don't think it was printed in the paper, but I'm not sure):

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/cristinaodone/100035241/the-lib-dems-are-a-jekyll-and-hyde-party-forget-nice-mr-clegg-what-about-dr-death/

The commenters don't let her get away with it - and Harris turns up to defend himself and point out that Odone has been pleasant to him face-to-face, but seems to have decided to go for complete character assassination now that the Lib Dems are doing well.

[LeftishBrit]

16. self-delete (dupe)

[LeftishBrit]

17. Odone is a bit of a nutter...

and it is true that attacks on LibDems in general have skyrocketed since the perception of them has changed from Nice Harmless Eccentrics who are Born to Lose, to A Real Threat to the Established Politicians.

[TheMightyFavog]

18. That's what I loved about living in the UK.

The kind of fundiebots that would be winning elections at the federal, state, and local level here in the US are the ones either ranting and raving in Speaker's Corner (Where everyone can keep an eye on them.) or getting outvoted by candidates from the Official Monster Raving Loony Party. (actual minor British Political party.)

http://www.omrlp.com/

[GCP]

19. I find it difficult to understand why he's have his children brought up in the catholic faith

Even without all the scandals going on. I'm an atheist and so are my kids, I never pushed religion on them, just told them what all the different religions believed and let them make their own choice.