Roy Fisher

Tried to get the NI Assembly to afford equality to people beyond the constructed ‘two communities’ & the media to be representative of society in the present.

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

@DeeApsley As I said, they want most atheists to self-identify as members of religious communities because of sectarian perception. Don’t know why you don’t understand that.

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

NI is the only jurisdiction where atheists are expected to identify as members of religious communities for Equality Monitoring. If we refuse the Residuary Method profiles us based on things outside our control. This gap (& FCNM breach) wasn’t raised today. @PaulaJaneB @CAJNi

[Assembly Committee for the Executive Office @NIAEOCttee]

At the next meeting of the @NIAEOCttee @NIAssembly we will receive briefings from @EqualityCommNI & @EqualityCoal on the Committee's Inquiry into Gaps in Equality Legislation

📅11 September
⏰2pm
📺https://t.co/2AFn3Iv3N6

#ScrutinyInAction

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

@mgtruth The background category has been dominant again, but I was glad to hear @NualaMcAllister speak as an atheist who opposes us being backgrounded on Talkback.

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

@mgtruth @aaron_skinner @CJohnstonNI & nothing has changed, Radio Ulster so far ignoring 70% rise in no religion & 76% drop in religion not stated (which I thought might happen due to online form not making it clear you didn’t have to answer). See journalists tweeting background results without labelling as such. 🤐

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

@mgtruth @CJohnstonNI Hello to you too, and Conor.

Whatever the reporting is tomorrow, I’m going to TRY to stay out of it. Those involved already know what I think.

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

@mgtruth @CJohnstonNI If the most statistically significant demographic change since 2011 is the increase in non-religious people, maybe doubling or more, I expect NISRA will flag that at the press briefing and we’ll have better reporting than 10 years ago.🤞

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

@EarlofLeuven @DavidFordxMLA @BBCMarkSimpson @NISRA I said ‘give it up’ because you are falsely claiming that David said the ‘sole reason’ for delay was the reallocation of non-religious people and non-respondents into a religious background.

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

@EarlofLeuven @DavidFordxMLA @BBCMarkSimpson @NISRA Give it up. David’s tweet is accurate, it’s not exhaustive, but it didn’t claim to be.

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

@EarlofLeuven @DavidFordxMLA @BBCMarkSimpson @NISRA David is absolutely correct in saying it takes longer to produce the ‘religion or religion brought up in’ output than the ‘religion’ output. I haven’t seen him mention schools or H, but NISRA uses ‘nearest neighbour’ methodology to estimate/guess someone’s background.

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

@EarlofLeuven @DavidFordxMLA @BBCMarkSimpson @NISRA Yes, of course there is other processing and in 2011 ‘Date arrived to live in NI’ had a lower response rate than ‘Religion brought up in’. But the latter is obviously more politically salient and continues to be used to define 2011 society.

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

@DavidFordxMLA @mgtruth @_f_i_l_i @BBCMarkSimpson @NISRA There was a recent, rare, explanation by Dr Paul Nolan, it’s because of the outdated equality legislation. The reaction is of note too.

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

@RyanMcAleerbiz 93.5% of the population in two religious blocs, but please consider how these ‘religion or religion brought up in’ 2011 census statistics remove agency from 1st gen non-religious people, and how in processing the state allocates a background to people who don’t answer.

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

@mgtruth @MariaFlynn1234 It’s saying ‘plenty identifying’ to me.

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

@mgtruth @MariaFlynn1234 Love that typo… 😂

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

@MariaFlynn1234 @mgtruth The 2020 NI Life and Times survey found 27% no religion & 28% Catholic. But I’ve friends who identify as Catholic or Protestant but don’t believe in some of the basic teaching or lean into one sided politics.

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

BBC NI usually reports only the census output that “somewhat disguised” the third category, & here @BBCMarkSimpson’s second paragraph is incorrect, because 10% of the population said they were non-religious and 1% held a non-Christian religion on census day 2011.

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

Dr Paul Nolan on #bbcevex saying the census reallocates non-religious people & non-respondents as either Protestant or Catholic because of equality legislation that didn’t envisage a third category. @taramillstv says “only in Northern Ireland”. @bbcradioulster

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

@mrssbarnard @Geney_Mac @CJohnstonNI I asked a BBC exec about repeated “bonfires are lit in [some] Protestant areas” stories (e.g. in 2013 & 2019 below), and how this communicates ownership, as paramilitaries and some politicians want, and would be intimidating if it was said on the ground or painted in graffiti.

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

⬆️ Could the NI Assembly instead afford equality based on our adult beliefs/politics for all, including teachers? @ClareBaileyGPNI @DeirdreHargey @PaulaJaneB @MatthewOToole2 @Humanists_UK @NIhumanists

[Roy Fisher @royfis]

NI Humanists campaigning to extend policy that treats the non-religious as though we’re Christian.