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Nick Spencer was on Sky News discussing David Cameron's Christmas message. Below is the transcript:

The prime minister has released his annual Christmas message - focusing on Britain's Christian values. David Cameron said the country's "important religious roots" meant it was a place of security at a time when millions of people were forced to flee fighting in Syria. Nick Spencer joins us from Westminster, at the think tank Theos.

Is the prime minister right to highlight, as he has before, the UK's Christian heritage values?

NS: I think he is right to do so. As you rightly say, it is a bit of an annual occurrence, or maybe twice a year with the Easter message, you kind of expect this from the prime minister. It is something which deserves some public recognition.

So are you saying he has got the balance about right? It is interesting the way, I suppose, he says that Christian values can apply to people who are not necessarily Christians, or indeed are atheist.

NS: I think he has got the balance about right, it is not an easy balance to get right. If you are too overtly Christian people will accuse you of preaching or worse of using Christian values or the Gospel message at Christmas time for your political purposes. If on the other hand you completely ignore it, you don't mention Christianity at all at Christmas, people are going to spot the gap. I think what the tactic tends to be is to mention it, highlight it, particularly to highlight the significance of Christianity to British values, historically and in our culture and so on, but then to move on as it were, not to dwell on it as in a sermon.

The point is that all the surveys tell us that the UK is one of the most secular societies on the planet. It is. Western Europe as a whole has been called by some as the exceptional case, the area on the planet where you are least likely to find strict religious observers. And the UK and England indeed is one of the more secular parts of Western Europe. The picture is obviously a bit more complicated. While attendance has certainly fallen in the last generation or so, belief has remained reasonably resilient. The Brits are occasional churchgoers, we do like the carol service or the Advent service, we are more likely to go to a Harvest service or an Easter service but we are certainly a long way from being religious observant.

Doesn't it alienate the growing section of British society that follows other faiths and beliefs? We have a growing Muslim population, and many people who profess other religions as well.

NS: I think there is a very clear answer to that, which is no. You remember the storm in a teacup three weeks ago when the Church of England put forward a Just Pray commercial to be shown in cinemas just before Star Wars, and the powers that be said, we can't have that because it might offend people. Those who were often the loudest in their protests against that were the people from minority faiths saying it is quite frankly ridiculous. It is ridiculous to say that they would be offended by the Lord's Prayer in the commercial. It is often people of religious minority faiths, such as Jonathan Sacks, the previous Chief Rabbi, making the point that Britain's gentle Christian culture makes their practice of faith a lot easier. The vast majority of atheists feel the same way as well. You get some very cross ones who get very angry about Christian culture and heritage, but for the most part I think even atheists are quite happy to acknowledge the way in which Christianity has been really influential in our national life.

People say whatever religion it is, it is the root of an awful lot of conflict in the world. Well, I think religious people are sometimes a bit too quick to say, no, it is not about religion, it is about nationalism or class or ethnicity, and there is a lot of truth in that. But religion does motivate people, these commitments are very, very important to many people, historically, and as we have seen around the world today, sometimes that leads to the most appalling crimes. To be honest with you, the solution is not no religion, it is good religion.

Thank you, Nick Spencer from Theos.

Nick Spencer is Research Director at Theos

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