Catholic Herlad editor attacks humanist MP

At New Humanist, we know from personal experience that when something winds up Catholic Herald editor Damian Thompson, he writes a snide post on his Daily Telegraph blog. When he took exception to the Muslim card in our popular God Trumps game, he called us "chickens" and, hilariously, "politically correct atheist cowards".

Now he's trained his sights on the Liberal Democrat MP and prominent humanist Dr Evan Harris, whose office contacted Thompson with the intention of updating him on the private members' bill he's just introduced to change the Act of Settlement, a move which, if successful, would remove the bar on Catholics taking the throne.

You might think this was a measure Thompson, as a prominent British Catholic, would like to support. But you'd be wrong. You see, even though he agrees with what Harris is trying to do, he couldn't possibly back him because he disagrees with the MP on another issue – abortion. Except it's not a case of agreeing and disagreeing – as far as Thompson's concerned, Harris's strong pro-choice stance makes him, well, evil:

You know something? Catholics don't want to be liberated from this constitutional discrimination by a politician who advocates an end to the requirement that any abortion requires the consent of two doctors, arguing that the "procedure" can carried out by a nurse or even in the home.

I know I speak for many Catholics when I say that this man disgusts me. He is wrong about nearly everything, and wrong in a particularly nauseating fashion, too: self-righteous, humourless, self-important.

I had a phone call from his office yesterday, with the news that "Dr Evan Harris MP" wanted to brief me on his initiative, as if it was supposed to be some sort of honour. I said I couldn't imagine anything worse than talking to such an appalling character.

Oh, and did I mention that the post was entitled "Evan Harris, let me tell you where you can shove your attempt to reform the Act of Settlement"?