The latest newsletter is here now for you to download. Features on climate change, the Girl Guides and God, the possibility of a Steiner free school in Suffolk, plus book reviews and a book quiz, not forgetting our programme for the next three months. Why not print a couple of copies for your friends? [Click here to download now](http://www.suffolkhands.org.uk/files/1/SH&S News Aug 2011.pdf “SH&S News Aug 2011 (PDF)"). For help with PDF files, click here.

Francis Gilbert of the Local Schools Network reports that those who want to open Steiner schools at public expense through Gove’s free school system are keen to “repudiate” their racist roots. They present themselves today as trendy, progressive schools who welcome parents with alternative views. However, what they keep well hidden is their loony mystical beliefs. Steiner founded a philosophy called Anthroposophy, a sort of mystical mish-mash of ideas which includes the concept that the human race are evolving through the different races, with black people being of childhood, Asians degenerate and white people, of course, being the apogee of the evolutionary tree.

“Deviating a little from our third Tuesday of the month, and having an event on the penultimate Tuesday of the month, in a vain attempt to avoid some summer holidays. I’ll also reveal what the event photo is.” John Benton.

At last night’s meeting, somehow the conversation got around to maths (“math”, to our American friends) and a report that too many kids are incapable of working out fractions or percentages when they leave school, and that maths teaching should be changed. One of us remembered this Tom Lehrer song, which makes maths sound like fun.

The British Humanist Association is sponsoring a petition on the Government’s new website, calling for the teaching of evolution to be mandatory in all publicy-funded schools, and to stop the teaching of creationism and “Intelligent Design” being taught as scientific theories. To sign the petition, click here. If the petition gets 100,000 signatures, it could be debated in the House of Commons.

Gay Ugandan Robert faces being forced to leave the UK tomorrow (Thursday 18 August). Please sign this petition to try to prevent this. LGBT Asylum News reports: Robert was imprisoned and tortured for homosexuality. On escaping prison in June 2010 he fled to the UK and applied for asylum a fortnight later. The UK Border Agency (UKBA) does not accept he is gay and a judge rejected his appeal claiming that there is no risk to gay people in Uganda.

Gay Ugandan Robert Segwani has been spared deportation at the last minute and returned to detention. Thank you if you signed the petition we told you about the other day, but Robert isn’t out of danger yet. Joe Mirabella reports: Robert was spared from deportation at the very last minute according to his friend and fellow gay Urandan refugee John Bosco, “[Robert] is back in the detention centre waiting to hear what’s next.

Ugandan gays aren’t the only ones facing persecution (see last posts). There’s a climate of fear for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people across Africa. The Pink Triangle Trust released this news briefing in January: THE SITUATION FOR LGBT PEOPLE IN AFRICA GOING FROM BAD TO WORSE SAY GAY HUMANISTS Following the latest example of virulent homophobia in Ghana, the UK gay Humanist charity the Pink Triangle Trust (PTT) says that the situation for LGBT people in Africa is going from bad to worse.

The Times Education Supplement has an article about the applications for free school status by Steiner schools. It says: The Steiner approach emphasises the importance of practical crafts such as woodwork, book-binding and knitting, while students spend less time learning ICT skills. Such free-school proposals appear to undermine the Governments stance that schools should be teaching a more traditional knowledge-based curriculum. Steiner schools are based on the teachings of Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, who founded anthroposophy, which promotes the belief that all humans possess an innate spirit or soul, through which a person can connect to a spirit world via inner development.

In our last newsletter, we reported on a meeting where our guest speaker, Prof. John Midwinter, had spoken about climate change. The report mentioned the arch-sceptic, Christopher Monckton, who travels around the world, rubbishing the science behind climate change. Thanks to American science blogger, P Z Myers, we’ve found a lecture online by Prof. John Abraham that exposes all the fallacies in Monckton’s arguments. Please refer anyone who doubts that climate change is our responsibility to it.