Two stories that have been in the news have attracted lots of attention; the French burqa ban and the Big Society.

Eric Pickles and Sayeeda Warsi seem to imagine that religious organisations are the best ones to provide public services in the Big Society. In yesterday’s Guardian, Rahila Gupta wrote,

“Faith” has increasingly become the new way of constructing racial minorities, a trend that started under Tony Blair and continues under the Tory-led government. Secularism is seen as so intrinsically western that it is unimaginable for policymakers to conceive that it might be welcome within minority communities, especially the powerless among them.

The burqa ban continues to attract a lot of debate. Many think that we should have a similar ban here. I blogged against the idea and was answered by blogger Kausik Datta in the US, who disagreed with me.

What do you think?