Black Triangle

The Guardian reports on some scientists’ criticisms of the clerical attack on science in the UK:

Dr Stephen Minger, director of the stem cell biology laboratory, King’s College, London, said: “You could perceive that they’re saying this out of real lack of understanding, or you could be more cynical and say they’re doing it to ratchet up tension. I think they’re using language that is intentionally inflammatory.” He added: “It’s offensive to scientists who want to pursue this research.”

Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, head of the genetics division at the Medical Research Council’s National Institute For Medical Research, said: “Maybe there’s an awful lot in the bill that goes against the strict Roman Catholic view and it’s not just these mixtures of animal and human they object to. Perhaps they’ve decided that they’re going to focus on this one particular issue because they can use scary language like ‘creating monsters’ and make ground on this particular battle, when [other parts of the bill], like IVF treatment, are well accepted in the UK.”

And The Independent publishes two excellent letters:

Sir: What Cardinal Murphy O’Connor means by a vote on the Embryology Bill not subject to the Labour whip is not, as he calls it, a “free vote”. As least, in so far as Catholic MPs are concerned, it is simply a vote subject to a different whip, namely a Vatican one.

The sight of MPs who are members of a religious sect being urged on by their leader to blackmail the Government (by threatening resignation from the Cabinet unless … etc) is one that should raise all sorts of alarm bells with voters. They will be asking who runs Britain, Westminster or Rome? Is Ruth Kelly the MP for Bolton West, or Vatican East?

Alistair McBay
National Secular Society, Edinburgh

Sir: The clergy, like anyone else, are free to express their views about embryo research but the whipping of MPs is an internal party matter. MPs are elected on a party ticket, not a church one, so it is reasonable for party leaders to demand loyalty.

It is also disengenuous for archbishops to call for a free vote and simultaneously pressure Catholic MPs to toe the line of church dogma. Cardinals would not take kindly to Gordon Brown telling them which way to vote in a Papal enclave, so they too should respect the boundaries between the different organisations, and render unto Gordon what is Gordon’s.

Mark Harms
Clara Vale, Tyne & Wear