"and of none"

My wife (being a royalist) was insistent that we watch the speech from the Queen last night, to be honest I wasn't that fussed one way or another so we watched it. I thought that HRH did really well considering she's 93 years old, a fluent, rational and coherent speech, of course I realise it was probably written by someone else and read from an teleprompter. But in those regards, it was unlike many speeches made by some modern politicians (and presidents) I could name. One thing that she said that I thought particularly important was when she talked about people of faith, she also added "and of none". This was the first time I've ever heard our head of state say those words. It's surprising that I haven't, since most population studies reckon at least half of the people in this country tick "none" in the religion box on the census form. The other pleasant surprise was that there was very little (possibly even none at all) talk of "God", which bearing in mind the situation, was on the money in my view. Our response to this crisis (as a society) needs to be a medical/scientific/rational one, how people react to it from a "faith" perspective is entirely their own affair as long as they stay away from church services with other people! It's good for public figures to acknowledge this fact for a change.

The contrast between attitudes here in the UK and (some religious people) over the water in the USA couldn't be more stark, take a look at this video from Ohio, the arrogance and lack of empathy/humanity is shocking, what Hitch used to say is totally illustrated by this woman, "religion poisons everything".