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As Director of Public Affairs and Policy,
I'm in charge of the team

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that does all our campaigns work, our
legal work, our media work, and we work

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across a whole range of issues from:
equality and human rights; to secularism,

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that is, the relationship between the
state and various religious and

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non-religious groups; issues to do
with education; and other ethical issues

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as well, such as assisted dying and
abortion. And we do all those things both

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at a domestic level and to some
extent at an international level as well.

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I feel like the work we do here at
Humanists UK is very much focused on

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trying to maximize the freedom for
everybody so long as that freedom does

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no harm to others. So freedom of religion
or belief across the piste is really

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important and you can see that, for
example, in our international campaigns

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where we often work for freedom for
Christians as well as for the

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non-religious, or freedom for those of
other religions more generally. And

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at the moment we, the UK, are a state
that has a lot of privilege for religion

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in certain circumstances. For example, in
our formal establishment, and in bishops

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in the House of Lords, and with
Christian collective worship in our

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state schools, and so in our work we very
much try and focus on when, where

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there's a difference of treatment on the
basis of religion or belief, or where we

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might have something unique to say as
the one national group working

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on behalf of the non-religious, and 
that may come across to some as being

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anti-religious, and attacking the
religious but really it's just trying to

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maximize freedom for all, and making sure
that the humanist view is heard across public life.

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I think working in public affairs and
policy is a really interesting place to

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work in terms of that when you,
when you're not getting anywhere

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because you think a certain campaign goal
might be even obvious or perhaps it

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should be easy but you just not
achieving it. Sometimes you might

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feel like you're really hitting your
head against a brick wall just

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frustratedly going around in circles but
at other times you can achieve success

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and it could be really visible, fantastic,
high profile success like, for example,

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around the teaching of evolution and
creationism in schools was something I

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remember in my first year here, we made a
lot of progress on through to just in

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the last few weeks before this was
filmed, humanist participation in the

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annual remembrance ceremony. Those
successes can be great and you can have

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a real sense of progress looking back
over them and feel that you've achieved

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a lot. I also think that it's not
always entirely predictable as to which

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campaigns are going to advance and where
those successes will be next, and I think

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that's part of the enjoyment of working
on them in that although perhaps it

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would be nice if everything went your
way, knowing that you're, you've got, you

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know, you're trying lots of different
things and that some of them will

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succeed and you want to see how it all
pans out, I think that's the excitement

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of being a campaigner. Over my
time here, I've certainly seen

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people become more interested in our
issues and more aware of the need for

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things to change, and you really feel
like, working here, that we are reshaping

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UK society for the better