Reply #33: In the UK, no [View All]

[LeftishBrit]

We are a very secular country, despite the lack of official separation of church and state, and less than half of people are formally affiliated with any religion/church. It might be difficult for a declared atheist to be Prime Minister (though we have plenty of openly atheist MPs); but it would be even more difficult for a Huckabee type to get to be PM. Blair was very religious, but had to be publicly reticent about it, because in the words of Alastair Campbell, "We don't do God".

The main exception to this is Northern Ireland, where the Catholic/ Protestant divide is still salient, and until recently responsible for a great deal of conflict and terrorism. Fundie Protestant Ian Paisley is still very powerful there; and the votes of fundie Protestants and hardline Catholics have led to greater social conservativism - e.g. much stricter laws on abortion - than elsewhere in the UK.

Apart from the relative secularism of Brtiish politics, we also don't have the whole televangelist thing that seems to be so important in parts of the USA.