Thought for the Day

Today I have renewed my complaint to the BBC regarding Thought for the Day. Following is the letter. I will post their response, but don't hold your breath!

Dear Sir

I registered a formal complaint to the BBC on 1/12/06 regarding “Thought for the Day” and it has still not been addressed satisfactorily, for this reason I am now addressing this complaint to the BBC Trust.

The “Thought for the Day” feature broadcast during the Radio 4, Today programme offers a few minutes of contemplation and reflection on current events set in a moral and ethical context.

A summary of the complaint is this:

“Thought for the Day” explicitly excludes contributions from those who profess no faith; this is extremely insulting to agnostics and atheists who probably account for the majority of the UK population. For all the issues that are examined on “Thought for the Day” there is a distinctive non-religious moral perspective.

One concludes that the BBC endorses the assertion that morality is inevitably linked to religious belief and that faith confers additional authority to the speaker. In a secular society such as ours, this is an unacceptable policy. I therefore ask the BBC Trust to ensure that in future “Thought for the Day” will allow contributions from outside religious groups.


In my various correspondences with the BBC it has been stated that the “Thought for the Day” feature is produced by the Religious Affairs Dept, therein lies the problem; again there is an assumption that a moral perspective is the exclusive domain of the religious.

Enc email correspondence

Yours sincerely


Graham Davis