Friday 1 June 2012

Ed Balls: My Funny Uncle


Ed Balls has made an Out4Marriage video - saying he wishes his late gay uncle had been allowed to marry his partner.
Credit where credit's due these videos are getting a lot of positive coverage in the straight press - even in the gay marriage-bashing Daily Telegraph.
The politicos, that is, let's not go overboard, here.
Elsewhere Nick Herbert, out Tory minister for paperclips police reform, has told the Standard he believes marriage equality is still a priority for the government.
“It has been suggested that this issue is not a priority. Of course, dealing with the economy and the deficit and restoring growth is the overriding mission and priority of this government. But since when was equality not a priority?
“Ensuring that people are treated equally without fear of discrimination should always be a priority. That’s why I think this proposal matters.
“I think the Conservative Party has changed dramatically over the course of the last few years. We now have more ‘out’ gay Members of Parliament [12] than the rest of the parties put together...
"I will forever be grateful to the MPs who had the courage to introduce civil partnerships.
“But I am getting rather fed up with people metaphorically jabbing a finger into my chest and saying I should put up with a civil partnership.
“How would they like it if I jabbed a finger into their chests and said they should put up with a civil partnership instead of their marriage? In my view it’s not acceptable to say to a group in society, ‘You should put up with something that is a second order institution to something that everybody else is entitled to, because we say so’. I think this is about nothing more or less than a fundamental issue of equality.”
And remember, MPs never-ever break their promises, or say one thing then do another.

PS And here's The Economist - a right-wing magazine that supports gay marriage - on David Cameron's problems bringing it in

'The issue of gay marriage has not only crystallised concerns about Mr Cameron’s firmness as a leader. It has also revived criticism of his broad strategy. Critics wonder whether he ever really understood why the Tories were so unpopular. Ordinary voters in swing seats such as Bolton West and Birmingham Edgbaston did not object to the party’s cultural views—or its indifference to greenery, its authoritarianism, or many of the other things Mr Cameron sought to change. Rather, they doubted the Tories were on the side of working people when it came to bread-and-butter issues such as living standards and public services. In Tory focus groups, members of the public are asked to draw an image they associate with the party. The most common picture is of a rich family posing in front of a big house. Gay marriage will be one of Mr Cameron’s nobler reforms. It will not solve his party’s image problem.'

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