As Barack Obama said the other day, “despair is not an option”. We need to keep trying.

As Barack Obama said the other day, “despair is not an option”. We need to keep trying.
This year, lets honour the people who risked everything to prevent war breaking out in the first place: Civil Servants.
Yesterday was the hundredth anniversary of the very first ceremony of Remembrance at the Cenotaph in London.
Should the poppy continue to be the flower of remembrance, or should we allow it, once again, to be the flower of forgetfulness?
The culture war over the poppy’s meaning continues.
To the nameless millions who lie in mass graves,
From the forest of Katyn to the killing fields of Cambodia,
From Treblinka to Shatila:
We will remember you.
I was honoured to be asked to deliver a Remembrance address to the staff of the Scottish Government at St. Andrew’s House in Edinburgh yesterday.
From the flowers of the forest
To the fallen men of Flanders field,
At the going down of the sun
and in the morning,
We will remember you.
I was delighted when Cameron Buchanan MSP invited me to deliver one of the weekly TIme For Reflection talks at the Scottish Parliament earlier this year. In the sixteen years that the Parliament has existed, I am only the fifth humanist to have been asked to do this, so it was an honour. The guidelines … Continue Reading