Thread by @Humanists_UK

An hour to go until the first session of our #Humanists2021 Convention!🕑Our Chief Exec, @AndrewCopson will be kick-starting the session to be followed by @Sathnam (Sanghera) & @SamiraAhmedUK in conversation. They'll be discussing Sathnam's Sunday Times bestseller #Empireland!

Just ten minutes to go until session one of #Humanists2021 Convention. We hope you’re ready!

And we’re off 🎉

@Andrewcopson begins by welcoming Convention attendees joining us from across the globe, including from North America & Australia. 🌍

It’s our biggest Convention yet – over 1000 people are in attendance! #Humanists2021

He introduces our speakers for the day: @SamiraAhmedUK @Sathnam (Sanghera), @Liv_Boeree, @jimalkhalili @theAliceRoberts @SteveSmartt @nashhistory @GUhumanisthub @maddyogoodall @drcharlielynch

.@AndrewCopson reminds us that this is a special year: our 125th anniversary!🎉And we have a new website to celebrate the stories of the well-known & unsung heroes of our past whose ideas have percolated across our history. #Humanists2021 #HumanistHeritage heritage.humanists.uk

The pandemic has affected many things but we’ve evolved and adapted to the challenge says @AndrewCopson.

Some of our achievements this year:
🟡 50 million people reached online through social media
🔵 #LittleBookofHumanism became a Sunday Times bestseller
🟢A new podcast #WhatIBelieve, now in the top 1.5% of podcasts globally

🟣 Started a coalition to defend human rights & judicial review with >200 members
🔴 57,000 online resources downloaded by teachers & parents to help their children learn about humanism at home
🟠Major progress with our assisted dying, humanist marriage & blasphemy campaigns!

'Even 125 years ago, in the 1890s, we were a forward-thinking movement at the vanguard of social change' says @AndrewCopson.

Our members’ ongoing support makes that as true now as it has ever been!

And now to our first guest speakers: @Sathnam (Sanghera) & @SamiraAhmedUK. They’ll be discussing Sathnam’s Sunday Times bestseller, Empireland, looking at the history of the UK and how we inherit it today. #Humanists2021 📖

Multi-award winning journalist & broadcaster @SamiraAhmedUK opens and introduces @Sathnam who also writes for @thetimes & presented doc #TheMassacrethatShooktheEmpire on @Channel4.

She asks him what inspired him to write #EmpireLand. @Sathnam says his documentary for @Channel4 on Jallianwala Bagh massacre for its 100 year anniversary in 2019. He realised he knew little about Empire, which is not 'untypical' in Britain.

.@SamiraAhmedUK asks about a key moment in the book – the Tibet exhibition in 1903.

@Sathnam says this was a motivating factor in writing the book. The British murdered 3000 Tibetans and 'looted the place'.

.@Sathnam tells a story of one day watching TV programme Flog It, & identifying a looted Tibetan item, and realising the disconnect in the British psyche.

He discusses language still used today, 'plantation owner' in encyclopedias, rather than 'slave owner'.

.@SamiraAhmedUK asks about the development of the country house and how it became a way of laundering loot. English Georgian houses are built on this wealth, says @Sathnam. The National Trust is currently looking into its buildings' colonial heritage.

.@Sathnam talks about reinventing 'Empire Day', originally set up as a school holiday in WWI but celebrated by the whole country. It was a celebration of Empire.

He believes in a re-modelled form, it could teach us about our past and how Empire has shaped us.

There is now a discussion about Commonwealth. It 'struggles to have a meaning beyond the Commonwealth Games', says @Sathnam

.@SamiraAhmedUK now asks about about fairplay and the British breaking treaties. She asks if it's a mindset thing.

There's an assumption we matter, as if other countries' problems are our own, says @Sathnam. 'That goes back to Empire'.

@SamiraAhmedUK asks about the 'cult of amateurism' in the UK.

@Sathnam talks about the practice of the Foreign Office preferring men with third class degrees from Oxford. Otherwise, you'd be regarded as a 'dangerous intellectual'.

'Is it time to stop the Order of the British Empire?' – the first question from the audience #Humanists2021

'I don't mind it. Empire explains who we are'. 'Trying to take it out is liked trying to take out egg from a baked cake'. It's why we have multiculturism & racism in the UK, says @Sathnam. 'It's more honest'. #Humanists2021

@Sathnam A question about the absence of colonial history in schools.

Teaching is 'widely inconsistent' says @sathnam. 'The problem is Empire is in the middle of a culture war.' #Humanists2021

@SamiraAhmedUK asks if @Sathnam has thought about post-colonial leaders who had an elite British education.

He says that princes were 'conquered in the classroom' & talks about his own 'colonialisation'. #Humanists2021

@SamiraAhmedUK @Sathnam There's now a discussion about pride in British history and how we see Empire. 'It's too complicated to reduce 500 years of history' and come to an easy answer, says @Sathnam #Humanists2021

@SamiraAhmedUK @Sathnam @Sathnam discusses identity politics and the use of certain nationalist rhetoric for political gain. 'It works in focus groups.' He says it creates divisions, and is happening everywhere, including India, the US, Poland, & Hungary. 'It's an international issue.' #Humanists2021

@SamiraAhmedUK @Sathnam Question from the audience on how all former empires are taught at school.

'There's something natural about wanting to believe the best about your own empire', says @Sathnam
#Humanists2021

@SamiraAhmedUK @Sathnam We're now looking to younger generation, who really care about the history of imperialism, says @Sathnam. 'Things will change for the better.'

@SamiraAhmedUK finishes by saying it's important to be honest about our past. #Humanists2021

@SamiraAhmedUK @Sathnam And that's a wrap! What an amazing talk and way to kick start #Humanists2021. Session two on humanist history starts in 5 minutes!