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Nick Clegg: ‘I don’t believe in God’

by Leon on 20th December, 2007 at 10:34 am    

When I read the news yesterday that new LibDem leader Nick Clegg openly admitted he doesn’t believe in god I had one reaction: “Brave man”.

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrats’ new leader, has defied political convention with a frank admission that he is an atheist.

During a round of media broadcasts on the morning after his election to the post, he was asked by one interviewer: “Do you believe in God?”

“No,” Mr Clegg answered simply, during an appearance on BBC Radio 5 Live. [Via The Times Online]

Any one wishing to congratulate Nick on his brave comment.

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I was very excited about this until I realized/realised it was in the UK.

edit: mad props regardless

Nice. He's looking more and more like the person i should vote for.

The best of a bad bunch, at least.

My relations and I are going to give him our vote.

We admire him for saying it, its rare from an MP.

fyi, jobee has been banned for promoting killing Christians.

Excellent! Nick Clegg openly being atheist received barely any news coverage but I still got excited about it this morning.

Meanwhile in real UK election news the Conservative leader Cam...someone, got hit by an egg and is being followed by a reporter disguised as a giant chicken (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8634952.stm).

After Nick Clegg's strong performance in the leader debate, the pound took a hit on foreign exchange markets. The threat of a hung market has the speculators spooked. Of course, the only reason Nick can say things like that, are because he is never going to be in power, and therefore will never be held to account for the things he promises.

SSY I have to ask this out of curiousity: If it were somehow possible that the Lib Dems could win the election, what particular things has Nick Clegg promised that you could see him backpedaling on?

Their plans about sacking corrupt MPs, not going to happen when they have more to lose. Their tax plans are nothing but feel good flim flam, they claim they can give millions and millions of people more money, by closing tax loopholes, when they lack any experience in government at all, they don't have a clue, they are just capitalising on the current trend for envy politics. Their claims about the economy are also pure fantasy in my opinion, taxes are going to go up, this will stifle the economy, their proposed banking levy will either be watered down to through the magic of lobbying, or if it goes through, will simply gut the financial sector, completely ruining the economy (our economy being over reliant on the financial sector due to Gordon's laissez faire attitude as long as they were paying plenty of money in tax for him to piss up the wall). Their mad plans about immigration are also never going to come to fruition, region targeted migration simply does not make sense, nor is it practicable.


The Lib Dems are playing a very specific game, they are trying to win influence in a two party system, with the hope of a hung parliament and them being installed as king makers. It is obvious when they attack the Tories leaving Labour relatively unscathed (despite the massive fuck up that is Gordon Brown), desperate to prevent the Tories getting an overall majority. The policies they are espousing are designed to this end, sound popular, have a veneer of credibility, but actual implementation need not be considered. Also telling is their steadfast refusal to be drawn on anything, whatsoever, about a coalition, they refuse to commit to anything so they can whore themselves out most effectively come what may.

Just to get my bias out there, I don't like the Lib Dems, despise labour, am slightly disappointed with the Tories at the moment and will most likely be voting UKIP when early May roles around.

Quote from: "Whitney"fyi, jobee has been banned for promoting killing Christians.

Wut?  

Quote from: "Squid"

Quote from: "Whitney"fyi, jobee has been banned for promoting killing Christians.

Wut?  

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4762&start=60#p64042 (http://www.happyatheistforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4762&start=60#p64042)

SSY I have no doubt that the Lib Dems will become something different under the full weight of bureaucracy & corruption that comes with greater central power, though I'm not quite so cynical about them as you are. Its also a given that they will use their gain in popularity to interfere with the two party system status quo as best serves their interests. Regarding their plan for the economy, its a mess. Labour and the Conservatives are even more unrealistic. The economy is already ruined - things are much worse than people realise or want to admit.

My own bias is that at heart I'm an anarchist. If I were forced to vote for the lesser of many evils I would most likely vote Greens, which would have me diametrically opposed to UKIP on the political compass!

I wouldn't worry about me voting UKIP, where I live my vote makes no difference at all, we have had an unbroken Tory Reign since the constituency was created, which shows no sign of changing. Labour normally come third round here, by voting UKIP, they could conceivably get demoted to fourth.

Now this I missed.

I know what I am not voting - SNP (Scottish National Party), they embarrass me - they embarrass Scotland.  

I am still undecided at the moment, my fellow Brits. I have one or two ideas, but they are not solid at this time.

DEVOLUTION!! DEVOLUTION!!

As you may be able to tell, there is not much I like about UK politics.

Quote from: "SSY"DEVOLUTION!! DEVOLUTION!!

As you may be able to tell, there is not much I like about UK politics.

I feel your pain.

UPDATE

I don't know how many of you watched the leader debate on Sky (or the repeat on bbc and iplayer), but this issue came up again. The issue was the Pope's upcoming visit to Britain (Boooo! Hissss!), when it came rounds to Clegg's turn, his exact words were "I am not a man of faith, but my wife is. Mirian is a catholic; my children are being brought up in her faith". He went on to say all the right things about the pope and the scandal etc, but I thought it interesting, if he is indeed an atheist, that he lets his kids be raised catholic.

If I were married to a catholic (unlikely but still), I would not be happy that my kids be raised catholic. It does make me question his conviction and backbone to be honest. I see 2 possibilities, he is either not an atheist ( a bizarre move saying you are when you're not), or, he is simply a limp wristed pansy, I simply cannot see anyway of justifying religion for your kids, when you are an atheist yourself.

I'd be more impressed if a socially moderate, fiscally conservative American politician took the same stance.  I'm sure that he or she is out there but will never come out of the closet, since it would basically be political suicide in the US.

Quote from: "SSY"UPDATE

I don't know how many of you watched the leader debate on Sky (or the repeat on bbc and iplayer), but this issue came up again. The issue was the Pope's upcoming visit to Britain (Boooo! Hissss!), when it came rounds to Clegg's turn, his exact words were "I am not a man of faith, but my wife is. Mirian is a catholic; my children are being brought up in her faith". He went on to say all the right things about the pope and the scandal etc, but I thought it interesting, if he is indeed an atheist, that he lets his kids be raised catholic.

If I were married to a catholic (unlikely but still), I would not be happy that my kids be raised catholic. It does make me question his conviction and backbone to be honest. I see 2 possibilities, he is either not an atheist ( a bizarre move saying you are when you're not), or, he is simply a limp wristed pansy, I simply cannot see anyway of justifying religion for your kids, when you are an atheist yourself.

Maybe he has let his kids believe what they want and they happen to have sided with god for now. My niece has liked the idea of god for some time although she speaks about it less and less the older she gets. She's now eight. As an atheist, my sister doesn't mind. She reckons if she was to push the atheist agenda too hard, it might have the opposite effect and push Eloise further towards religion. My brother in law isn't religious though. I guess that might be the difference here.

Really, I think some kids need to go through that phase before being able to think like a rational human.

I really don't know what to think of Clegg. Maybe calling him a limp-wristed pansy is a little strong    but you could be right. I don't know, I really wish I knew more about politics. I'm far too ambivalent.

Good for Clegg.  It would have been so easy for him to give a typical politician's answer to that question.

I got my postal vote through the post yesterday - I'm currently thinking of various creative ways to spoil it on election day.

Quote from: "karadan"snip

Oh, I certainly agree that if his kids have chosen God over another view, then that is the way it should be, and parents should not force their kids to accept the "right" answer. However, from the quote, it seems as though the kids (who I think are very young, therefore not yet capable of making these decisions IMHO) were not left to their own investigations, but actively had Catholicism thrust upon them.

In the case of your niece, where do you think she heard about god? Do you think whoever told her about it gave a fair and even sided discussion of the evidence for and against god? Certainly not to criticise anyone else's parenting skills, but that is not the way I would do it.

If you want to spoil your ballot, vote for a crazy fringe party, every step we take towards proportional representation is a good step, increasing the votes that fringe parties get will improve the case for PR.