Magistrates have missed their chance to join the 21st century

News is a cruel mistress. This morning, I was surprised and rather delighted to read a BBC report on a motion to end the practice of swearing an oath on the Bible or other holy book, and to replace it with a secular, non-specific recognition of the responsibility to tell the truth and the potential consequences for not doing so. By this evening, that move had been rejected, preserving the status quo. That’s right, raise my hopes and then dash them, why don’t you?

What annoys me about this isn’t so much the continuation of a long-standing practice, seeing that different groups are allowed to make promises appropriate to their beliefs, but the arguments given in favour of it.