A test case bid to outlaw prayers before local council meetings has been won by the National Secular Society and an atheist councillor, Clive Bone.
They challenged the practice of Bideford town council, Devon, of having religious prayers on meeting agendas.
[On Friday February 11th] Mr Justice Ouseley, sitting in London, ruled: ”The saying of prayers as part of the formal meeting of a council is not lawful under section 111 of the Local Government Act 1972, and there is no statutory power permitting the practice to continue.”
What absolute legal bunk in a country that has an Established church and the Monarch, from which (in theory) all legal authority comes, is the head thereof.