Push Your MP For Darwin Day

2009 is the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the publication of his most significant work, On the Origin of the Species. Darwin is clearly one of the truly great and most important British thinkers - and it's good to know that a campaign is underway to make his birthday, 12 February, a national public holiday here in the UK.

An Early Day Motion ( No 377) has been submitted in the House of Commons by Ashok Kumar MP and other MPs are being invited to sign up for it. The motion reads:
"That this House notes the extraordinary achievements of Charles Darwin; notes that 2009 marks both the 200th anniversary of his birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of the Species; welcomes proposals for the creation of a Darwin Day in recognition of the ground-breaking work of the British scientist responsible for the theory of evolution by natural selection; and calls for Darwin's birthday, 12 February, to be designated a public holiday in honour of one of the fathers of modern science and one of Britain's greatest, if not the greatest, scientific minds."  

I can think of few better reasons; especially if it helps serve as a nationally sanctioned poke in the eye to all the creationist / intelligent design mentalists out there...
If you want to ask your MP to support this motion but you are not sure who s/he is, go to www.theyworkforyou.com and type in your postcode. Then send the MP a copy of this motion and encourage them to support it.

For further details of Darwin events across the country, go and check out www.darwin200.org & for details about the Darwin exhibition which is running at the Natural History Museum until 19 April, go take a look here.