London Diary: The India-UK faith divide

To the many contentious political issues that divide India and Britain’s Labour government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer, add one more: the secular-religious divide. In sharp contrast to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s messianic religious fervour, Starmer is an atheist. There is much speculation on how the two would get along when they meet.

Previous Labour PM Tony Blair’s chief spin doctor Alastair Campbell famously took to warning religious-minded foreign leaders, “We don’t do God.”

It’s not just Starmer who becomes the first atheist prime minister for decades, the entire composition of Britain’s new parliament is the most irreligious in history. Forty per cent of MPs chose to make a secular affirmation rather than a religious oath on being sworn-in: up from 24 per cent at the start of the last parliament in 2019.

Half the cabinet, including Starmer, took the non-religious option as Britain elected "the first parliament as godless as the nation at large", as the Times put it. Those who chose the religious option included former PM Rishi Sunak, who was one of three MPs to swear on the Bhagavad Gita.

Back in India, an overwhelming majority of newly-elected members chose to take oath in the name of God or swear on religious texts.

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Irreligious Britain, thank God!

Britain arguably remains one of the least religious countries in a world where religion is being increasingly weaponised to divide people. As many as 53 per cent of Brits say they don’t belong to any religion, and 42 per cent do not believe in any god.

Andrew Copson, chief executive of Humanists UK, said: “For the first time ever, the number of those affirming versus swearing an oath has come close to reflecting the beliefs of the population as a whole. We’ve known for a while that the UK is one of the least religious countries in the world. We now have one of the least religious national parliaments in the world, too.”

Thank God for that!

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A bitter race row

A leading British TV channel has got embroiled in a bitter race row after its star presenter Tom Bradby lamented that “there aren’t many white male anchors left” on TV because of a frantic push for racial diversity.

Journalists from ITV News have written to its top honchos raising concerns about the “adverse impact” Bradby’s remarks have had on its non-white staff. They have called for Bradby — a personal friend of princes William and Harry — to be censured for his “insensitive” remarks, which suggest that the diversity drive posed a threat to white ‘natives’.

“There aren’t many white male anchors left... You just put your head down, do a good job and try to be as nice as you can to everyone around you,” Bradby said in a radio interview when asked how it felt to lead the channel’s election coverage.

Media reports claimed that his comments had caused “fury inside ITV”. A group of journalists sent an internal message to members of its ethnic minority network, Empower, assuring them that they had taken up the issue with the bosses.

“Many of you have been in touch with us over the recent Tom Bradby coverage. Given the strength of feeling, we have sent a note out today to Andrew Dagnell and Rachel Corp to highlight some of those concerns,” they said.

“We explained that whilst there is enormous respect for Tom, his comments have had an adverse impact on members, given what they implied about diversity at ITV and within the industry, and given how they have been jumped on by some with a divisive culture war agenda,” they added.

ITV sought to defend Bradby, saying he was asked a “tricky question about his own position in the industry”.

“He wasn’t suggesting it (racial diversity) is a worrying trend and he’s always been incredibly supportive in the newsroom. ITV has really pushed diversity and inclusion over the last few years — it’s something all senior staff take seriously.”

Well, well.

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A cautionary tale for parents

In a classic case of parents being caught between their love for their children and civic obligations, a mother who failed to inform the police that her teenage son knew about an "imminent" terrorist plot — to launch a suicide bomb attack in central London — has been jailed for two years.

Nabeela Anjum, a biomedical scientist, tried to persuade her teenaged son, Sameer, to report his friend who allegedly planned a terror attack. When he refused, her parental instincts got the better of her and she, too, failed to report the threat to authorities.

Instead, she told her son to delete any incriminating contacts from his phone. The judge who jailed Anjum told her that as “a university graduate of impeccable character” she ought to have behaved more responsibly, “but your loyalty to your son overrode that”.

Parents, be warned.

And, finally...

Even as Indian media has gone to town about US vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance’s wife Usha Chilukuri’s Indian origins, British media is busy highlighting her British background on the basis that she studied at Cambridge University and was ‘moulded’ by its liberal ethos. Success does indeed have many fathers.