Welcome to The Centre Spot

I am a Briton, born and raised north of Liverpool, but I have lived in a small city in the south of England for half of my life. I am married with children. I am educated to a Master's degree in science, and I work in the biomedical industry for a University at an NHS hospital. My wife is degree educated and has a part-time NHS job. We are mortgaged homeowners. I am a school governor and I live near the school that I am a governor of. Politically, I am centrist economically, and in most aspects socially liberal. In five years I have done the political compass test thrice and scored very close to the cross-hairs each time. I have used my vote in eight General Elections thus: Lib-Dem Alliance (1987), Conservative (92), Labour (97 & 2001), abstain (05) and Lib-Dem (10, 15 & 17). I was borderline in the UK-EU Referendum of 2016 due to my dislike of bureaucratic overspend, federalism and issues with democracy; however, I voted Remain as I see coming out of the EU as diminishing the UK as a nation both economically and influentially. Better to be there and fix the EU from within. Equality and freedom are very important to me and I am thankful that I live in a society that generally strives to achieve these things. Economically, I believe in a fair redistribution of wealth, but on the basis of equality of opportunity rather than equality of outcome as I think the latter is unfair and does not factor in human nature. I have lived a number of years each in Leicester, Manchester, Oxford and Slough. I was baptised Roman Catholic, but I began to doubt in my early teens and I became an atheist in my 20s. I am very confident about my atheism. I see no supernatural force creating the Universe or our solar system, or the flora and fauna on the Earth, or us. I see no guiding hand in events that occur on Earth or any evidence that praying to a deity has any effect on the outcome of our actions. I do not believe I have a soul that will outlive my body. Some may see that as quite sad, but as far as I am concerned it does not mean that I have no purpose. I wish to enjoy my life, be productive and be loved: I do not need religion to achieve these things. Nor do I need an 'eye in the sky' to make me do good for fear of painful and fiery consequences when I die. I am not perfect but I follow the law of the land that I live in and the laws of foreign places that I visit. I reserve a democratic right to protest any law that I do not agree with but I would do so respectfully. When I die, I hope to be remembered well and fondly – I hope to be missed, but not too missed – and I expect my decaying body to feed and nourish the Earth. View all posts by stemfr1967