Today’s Telegraph reports that students at St. Benedict’s in Colchester staged a protest after two were told off for holding hands. The headteacher, John O’Hara, said, “If we see students being overly familiar we always deal with it in an appropriate and tactful way.” Overly familiar? Can’t help wondering if this is about a fear of lesbianism? Girls have always been “familiar” with one another, with hugs and hand-holding. I remember photos of my mum as a teenager, arm in arm with her friends, or with their arms around each other’s shoulders.

The British Humanist Association reports that 2 million towards the cost of the Pope’s visit to the UK last year came from the Department for International Development (DfID), justified as a recognition of “the Catholic Church’s role as a major provider of health and education services in developing countries”. The BHA has dismissed this as “irrational and wrong”.

If you watched BBC Four’s Storyville, Meet the Climate Sceptics, last week, you may have been exasperated by the arguments put forward by leading climate change deniers Lord Christopher Monckton and Telegraph columnist James Delingpole. Monckton has been to the USA and Australia to talk to the climate change deniers on TV and at public meetings, where he’s been received with huge enthusiasm. Delingpole has also been to the USA, where he’s appeared on right-wing TV host Glenn Beck’s programme, rubbishing the science behind climate change.

Click here for an interesting report by Rachel Maddow from msnbc.com on how American right-wing evangelists have influenced the Ugandans, where leading gay rights activist David Kato was murdered. She asks if foreign aid donors will make their continued help conditional on scrapping anti-gay policies.

When will Messrs Gove and Pickles stop dismantling our state education and welfare systems, and handing them over to religious organisations? How will we ever put them back together again, when they’ve finished messing about with them? In education, under Gove’s leadership, the changes are encouraging evangelicals. The Everyday Champions Church, based in Newark, wants to take advantage of Mr Gove’s free schools idea, to open a new school. Pastor Gareth Morgan told the

Happy Darwin Day, whatever you do, wherever you are.

Sorry there’ve been no updates for a couple of weeks. Been a bit busy with funerals. However, if you’d like to submit or suggest something for the website, please get in touch.

Woo woo!