Congratulations! 🎉👏🏽

NC3Rs staff members typing at their laptops during a ‘I’m a scientist’ school chat session.

To celebrate British Science Week, NC3Rs staff took part in eight @imascientist.org.uk online chats last week, meeting around 150 school students. It is always great to see how curious young people are about the ways that scientists are replacing, reducing and refining the use of animals!

Get Bishops out of the Lords Bishops’ automatic seats in the House of Lords are undemocratic and a threat to a tolerant and diverse UK – get them out now! The UK is alone among democratic sovereign states in having clerics vote o...

Removing hereditary peers is a welcome step for our democracy. But truly modernising the House of Lords should also mean ending the automatic voting rights of the 26 Church of England bishops – a privilege dating back to the 14th century. humanists.uk/action/get-b...

Lords vote to uphold decriminalisation of abortion and secure historic pardons for women Last night, the House of Lords voted to back abortion reform passed by MPs last year which will take abortion out of the English and Welsh criminal law for women in relation to their own pregnancies, ...

Brilliant news. The Lords backed amendments to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales, end police investigations, to pardon women who had previously been prosecuted, and fought off anti-abortion amendments designed to limit choice and access. 🧵

humanists.uk/2026/03/19/l...

What is secularism? Made for schools and families, the animation introduces secularism in clear terms as a practical way of organising society that people with different worldviews can share.

We’ve launched a brand new animation explaining what #secularism is and why it matters in an increasingly diverse society. Our short film, What is secularism?, is now available to watch on the @humanismedu.bsky.social website. 🧵

understandinghumanism.org.uk/secularism/

Money, lies, and God | Katherine Stewart | Humanists UK Convention 2025 YouTube video by Humanists UK

For more on Christian Nationalism and how wealthy US backers are funding efforts to roll back hard-won rights here in the UK, watch Katherine Stewart’s talk from our Convention: 'Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy Western Democracy.' www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-UH...

New US policy designates NHS abortions as human rights breaches The US State Department has classified state-funded abortion services, including those provided by the NHS, as human rights violations that it will report on in its annual Country Reports on Human Rig...

The US State Department classified state-funded abortion services, including NHS services, as 'human rights violations'. Make no mistake, this will embolden the UK's anti-choice Christian Nationalist movement, hell-bent on reversing women's rights. humanists.uk/2025/11/27/n...

Money, lies, and God | Katherine Stewart | Humanists UK Convention 2025 YouTube video by Humanists UK

The amazing and erudite @katherinestewart.bsky.social on the very timely issue of Christian Nationalism and the far right. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-UH...

It Was Just a Blog Fix… Until It Was WordPress – Iterative Wonders Ah, the early 2000s internet – a glorious land of dial-up tones, flashing banner ads, and the wild dream of having your own personal blog. Content management ba

“No pitch deck. No roadmap. Just one polite blog post from a frustrated blogger and one thoughtful comment from a stranger an ocean away.”

So began the software that now powers 43% of the web.

Great post by @iterativewonders.bsky.social.

iterativewonders.com/2025/11/21/i...

Calls for Christian-only RE highlight rising tide of Christian nationalism Humanists UK has condemned remarks by Reform UK councillor David Fitzgerald, who told Northumberland County Council that children should only be taught Christianity in Religious Education (RE) because...

Cllr Fitzgerald’s comments are a reminder of why our work is so essential. Attempts to narrow children’s horizons must be resisted. Education should never be a tool of indoctrination – it must be about preparing young people to think freely and understand others. humanists.uk/2025/09/17/r...

Good Morning folks!

This Friday we'll be returning to The Foundation Coffee House on Whitworth Street in Manchester for our regular co-working sessions.

Numbers are a wee bit low (expected with the evening meetup last week), but it'd be great to see some faces there 👍

lnkd.in/e9hH5Ctj

British Social Attitudes Survey Find 53% of Britons have no religious. Breakdown 53% No religion. 12% Anglican. 7% Catholic. 18% Other Christian. 9% All other. Source: British Social Attitudes Survey 37. National centre for social research 1983-2021

Did you know that the majority of British adults are non-religious? Here's how it breaks down (British Social Attitudes Survey).

Dutch parliament votes to criminalise gay conversion therapy The Netherland's parliament has voted to criminalise so-called 'conversion therapy' in a victory for the Dutch LGBTQ+ community.

Well done, Netherlands! www.thepinknews.com/2025/09/10/n...

Evening Meetup Kick off! - September 2025, Tue, Sep 9, 2025, 6:00 PM | Meetup We’re excited to announce that after the success of the monthly co-working session, the evening meet-ups are back! 🎉🎉🎉 The first one being the 9th September. The MWUG m

Just under a week to go until the next Manchester WordPress User Group to take place.

We're about half way through "selling out" (it's free). Let's get to two thirds. If you're in #Manchester #Stockport and use #WordPress in any capacity, we'd love to see you! 🐝

www.meetup.com/manchesterwo...

That's humanism Humanists make sense of the world through logic, reason, and evidence, and always seek to treat those around us with warmth, understanding, and respect.

The perfect introduction to humanism. #Thatshumanism from Humanists UK features Stephen Fry narrating four animations and brand new classroom posters on values, ethics, and meaning. Explore here: humanists.uk/thatshumanism/

The MWUG M

The 3D Printed logo made it's illuminating debut at today's meetup. Missed it? We have the following events in September. Hope to see you there!

Evening Meetup: www.meetup.com/manchesterwo...

September Co-working: www.meetup.com/manchesterwo...

#wordpress

Letter of the day (in the Times)

A huge thank you to all the teachers out there for all your hard work this year supporting and inspiring young people. Have a wonderful summer break! We'll still be here in September for all your resource needs for teaching about the non-religious. understandinghumanism.org.uk

The image shows a graph showing how the percentage of schools visited by university scientists is lower the longer the drive is from the nearest university. Starting at 69% when it's up to a 15 minute drive, which goes down to 43% for a 15-30 minute drive, and coming down to 15% when it's over 60 minutes. Under the graph it says: "Nearly 70% of schools within 15 minutes of a university had visits from university scientists." And "Schools more than 30 minutes away were visited less than half as often". At the bottom of the picture it says "Initial date suggests likelihood of a visit decreases by around 1% per minute's drive".

A school 30 minutes away from a major research HEI is 2 TIMES LESS likely to receive a scientist visit than a school 15 minutes away 🏫🚗

That’s where I’m a… projects come in! They’re online, no travel involved, so students in any part of the country have the opportunity to connect with scientists.

How humanist are you? Take our quiz and find out. Many people are humanists without even knowing it. If you are non-religious and look to science, reason, empathy, and compassion in order to live an ethical and meaningful ...

Humanists are non-religious people who shape their own lives in the here and now because we believe it's the only life we have. A lot of people share humanist values without even knowing the term. Maybe you're a humanist! Find out by taking our quiz!

humanists.uk/humanism/how...

Human Rights Hijacked: The Politicisation of the EHRC Labour’s push for contested ECHR Chair reveals how UK institutions are being bent to serve politics, profit, and ideologies, not people.

🚨 New blog: Human Rights Hijacked – The Politicisation of the EHRC

Labour is pushing through the appointment of a contested EHRC Chair — ignoring Parliament, civil society, and international standards. Here’s why it matters.

🧵
medium.com/@mimmymum/hu...

Evening Meetup Kick off! - September 2025, Tue, Sep 9, 2025, 6:00 PM | Meetup We’re excited to announce that after the success of the monthly co-working session, the evening meet-ups are back! 🎉🎉🎉 The first one being the 9th September. The MWUG m

We’re excited to announce that after the success of the monthly co-working session, the evening meet-ups are back! 🎉🎉🎉

The first one being the 9th September.

Sign up below!

www.meetup.com/manchesterwo...

If you would like to keep abreast of what other events are going to happen under the MWUG umbrella, please do give us a follow.

#WordPress #Manchester #MWUG

Naming ceremonies are deeply meaningful occasions that offer a heartfelt opportunity for family and friends to come together in celebration and support, welcoming a new child into your family and into the wider community.

BREAKING: MPs vote to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales. The #AssistedDyingBill will now proceed to the House of Lords. A landmark victory for compassion, dignity, and choice.

Petition: Do not stop transgender people from receiving care in mainstream hospital wards The previous government proposed changes to the NHS constitution which would mean transgender hospital patients in England may not be treated in female- and male-only wards. We believe that this segre...

Petition: Do not stop transgender people from receiving care in mainstream hospital wards petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70...
The weasel wording of this "guidance" allows hospitals to effectively refuse to treat transgender patients. Please sign this petition. The deadline is 9 July 2025

Linux Foundation Announces the FAIR Package Manager Project for Open Source Content Management System Stability Linux Foundation announces FAIR Package Manager project, creating simplicity, security and consistency for the WordPress ecosystem

We're delighted to launch the FAIR Package Manager with the Linux Foundation - read our announcement and come collaborate with us! #FAIRPM

www.linuxfoundation.org/press/linux-...

FAIR Package Manager Project FAIR Package Manager Project has 8 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub.

I installed the Fair Package Manager (@fairpm) on my personal site last night. I'm excited to say it worked flawlessly. A couple of plugins were updated from Fastly's servers, & a paid plugin updated from its servers as normal. I'm excited to see what else comes from this interesting development.

We Should Free All WordPress Plugins and Themes - Half-Elf on Tech What if we democratized everything in WordPress, and not just publishing? What if we freed all themes and plugins? How far could we fly?

Thoughts on #WordPress Plugins, #FAIRPM, and risk.

halfelf.org/2025/we-shou...

Thanks for the answers everyone. I was curious as I don't check here that often and was knocked out at the number of new followers!
Peace. ❤️