According to the National Secular Society, a private members bill proposing the disestablishment of the Church of England - essentially totally separating Church from State - will be heard in Parliament.

Sadly, it won’t pass. It’s hamstrung first and foremost by the fact its being brought as a private members bill. These types of bills are brought by MP’s and Lords who are not Government ministers, meaning there’s no political mileage or advantage to be gained by supporting it. Private members bills also have substantially less time allocated to them and most of them die long before they reach a stage that could be considered significant. Lastly, it’s coming across from the Lords and nobody in the Commons really cares what happens about bills introduced from there.

However, it’s interesting to note that this bill was chosen by ballot in the Lords, meaning a significant amount of Lords feel this is an issue that will matter at some point in the near future. Private members bills often serve as a weather-vane for both sounding out opinion on a subject and also to try and bring media attention to a subject.

At the very least, it’ll be interesting to see who comes out in support and who against. It’s ridiculous that the UK isn’t already disestablished from the CofE and this could be a chance to see what the public think and if there’s momentum for it to be introduced as a public bill by an MP. Highly unlikely with the current Tory Government but there’s a General Election next year which is very likely to see a change in party leading the country. Couple that with the fact that the UK is no longer a christian majority country and maybe, just maybe…