David Cameron: Why He Said I Do

As the standard bearer for a new law on gay marriage, Cameron found himself alienating many traditional Tory activists and MPs. Even his own mother found it hard to defend his stance.

Mary Cameron, a magistrate, was asked at a lunch about the negative reaction among party supporters. Reportedly, she said: ‘I know, but David just won’t be told.’

In the run-up to the vote on gay marriage, many Tory MPs who didn’t personally feel strongly about the issue faced a furious backlash in their constituencies.
 
There was much resentment about a policy that was neither in the Conservative manifesto nor the coalition agreement. Threats to resign became commonplace.

‘Pretty much the universal advice of any colleague who spoke to [Cameron] on the subject was to drop it, whatever their personal view,’ says Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee.

Cameron, he believes, didn’t grasp the implications for the party — particularly MPs with marginal seats. ‘A lot of colleagues were being driven to despair by the loss of support,’ he says. ‘There were people with small majorities, who were losing all of their activists.’

Indeed, Brady believes the Prime Minister risked being toppled over the issue. There was a ‘real danger point’ ahead of the crunch vote, he says, when many MPs were coming under unbearable pressure from their local associations to take a stand.

As it was, fewer than half of Tory MPs voted in favour in February 2013, though other parties carried the day for the PM.

‘I really believe that had he known the scale of the aggro, he wouldn’t have done it,’ says former Defence Minister Nicholas Soames, who is nonetheless ‘utterly convinced’ it was the right thing to do.

Cameron’s determination to push through such progressive legislation is curious, given his reluctance to be the figurehead for other radical change. And his views on homosexuality haven’t always been especially liberal. An acquaintance who knew him in his late 20s recalls him being ‘surprisingly squeamish about homosexuality for someone of his age’.

As an MP, Cameron attacked Tony Blair for ‘moving heaven and earth to allow the promotion of homosexuality in our schools’, and twice voted for amendments that would have excluded adoption by gay couples.

So why was he so keen on gay marriage?

On a political level, the PM and his aides believed that it would reinforce the party leader’s credentials as a ‘modern, compassionate Conservative’...

The latest instalment in the Daily Mail's SENSATIONAL SERIALISATION of Lord Ashcroft's 'a lover spurned' bitchfest', Call Me Dave.

Presumably this is meant to be a negative story.

It also rather misses the point.

What actually happened was Cameron had to withdraw a chunk of his 2011 Conservative party speech at the last minute as it was leaked and thought 'hideously patronising'.

In a panic, his newly appointed speechwriter, Julian Glover (Matthew Parris's boyfriend btw) told him to say something about gay marriage, to undercut his Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone backing same-sex marriage at the Lib Dems conference.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you got gay marriage - basically.

It was completely cynical.

The dirty posh Tory pigfucker.

NB Call Me Dave is published by Biteback, fiefdom of top gay Tory Iain Dale. Hmm...

Ivan Massow: Questions To Which The Answer Is No

Pink News.

Fink it was mainly cause even your beloved Tory Party fink you're bleedin' hopeless, Ivana.

DUMPED BY TEXT!!!

PS At least he could count on the loyal support of fellow gay Tory, Iain Dale; 'Delusional... creepy... buttock-clenchingly awful' etc. Check out the least convincing Cockernee accent since Dick Van Dyke below.

Dusty: Irony

Reviewing a new book about the life of Springfield, which speculates about the singer’s sexual orientation, Roger Lewis wrote in a Spectator review published earlier this month: “Call me a crazy old physiognomist, but my theory is that you can always spot a lesbian by her big thrusting chin.

“Celebrity Eskimo Sandi Toksvig, Ellen DeGeneres, Jodie Foster, Clare Balding, Vita Sackville-West, God love them: there’s a touch of Desperate Dan in the jaw-bone area, no doubt the better to go bobbing for apples.”

‘Dusty: An Intimate Portrait’ has been written by author Karen Bartlett. It speculates about the musical icon’s much talked about relationships with women.

Quoting extracts of Bartlett from the book, Lewis continued: “It is thus a tragedy that Dusty Springfield’s whole existence was blighted by her orientation, which explains ‘the silence and secrecy she extended over much of her life, and her self-loathing’.”

Lewis wrote: “One glance at her chin should have revealed all – but the Sixties was not a fraction as liberated and swinging as people now assume.”

At the end of his review, Lewis concluded: “But did Dusty really have an affair in Mustique with Princess Margaret? If I am sceptical it is only because Hanoverians have small chins.”

Pink News.

Roger Lewis is one of Britain's funniest humourists - but, as ever, we see wit and irony are completely wasted on the thick and stupid.

Here are some other book reviews he wrote for The Spectator - if you can't see he's taking the piss you're brain dead.

PS This is a complete non-story planted by Pink News' top gay Tory friend, Iain Dale, who published the book.

Sarah Wollaston: Blogger Off

A prominent Tory backbencher has hit out at “aggressive male bloggers” who, she claims, target female MPs.

Sarah Wollaston said that certain parts of the political blogosphere were “quite aggressive in their approach towards women”, particularly when discussing sexual violence or gender. “If you stick your head above the parapet you can expect some quarters of the aggressive blogging community to go for you,” she said.

Dr Wollaston, the Totnes MP, faced a barrage of criticism last week after Nigel Evans, the deputy speaker, was cleared of a string of sex charges. One of the alleged victims was in a Westminster bar with the former GP when an “off-the-cuff” remark about an alleged assault triggered a sequence of events that led to the court case. Dr Wollaston was contacted by a second man — a friend of the first — who alleged that he had been raped.

The MP listened to their complaints and took them to John Bercow, the Speaker, who said that he could not help. She then passed on police contact details to the alleged victims, who contacted the officers, prompting the arrest last year of Mr Evans.

The acquittal of the MP for Ribble Valley led to accusations that Dr Wollaston had put pressure on the accusers to complain. She responded with an article entitled “Why am I being blamed for Nigel Evans sex case?” in which she argued that she had an ethical duty to take their claims seriously...

She singled out The Daily Telegraph writer Dan Hodges, the libertarian blog Guido Fawkes, and the Tory publisher and writer Iain Dale, saying that she had been reading their “really quite aggressive attacks” about her handling of the allegations...

The Times.

Let's have a look at what those really quite aggressive bullying male bloggers wrote...

YEAH! AND ALL THAT!'
Poor lay-out though.
OR  N?

Iain Dale, Conservative Home “She no doubt felt she was exercising a duty of care towards the man who cried rape. She clearly believed his story, but today she must also be asking herself if she acted properly throughout this sorry saga.”

Dan Hodges, The Daily Telegraph “Partly because of her actions, a wholly innocent man had his reputation destroyed and his career ruined and now faces crippling debts to cover the cost of his legal fees”

Paul Staines, Guido Fawkes “Did she, as Evans implies, have an ulterior motive? [She said:] ‘I reject that idea entirely.’ Many of Wollaston’s colleagues disagree...”

NB Out of these three men at least two are gay and two are Tories. Just putting that out there...

Nigel Evans: Oops!

Thanks to Stewart. x

Here's Mr Evans' voting record on key bills.

PS Iain Dale is doing an half hour interview with Nigel Evans at 5pm on LBC - trust gay Tory Iain will ask gay Tory Nigel about this.

PPS You can watch Evans/Dale here. Watching an interview on the wireless - how modern!

Crispin Blunt: Prehistoric

When Crispin Blunt faced an attempt to deselect him as a Tory MP by traditionalists who were appalled by his decision to come out as gay, he knew he had two options: fight or flight. The former army officer who served as Prisons Minister at the start of the coalition chose to face down the old guard in Reigate, his Surrey constituency. The codename for his campaign team was “The Meteors” because, he says: “It was the meteors that killed the dinosaurs.”

This week he won a resounding victory in a ballot of all local members and is convinced this shows that the prehistoric age is over for the Conservatives. “It was a very important moment,” he says. “A lot of gay people will have written the Tory Party off as irredeemably homophobic. Well, the Reigate membership has just selected a gay Conservative candidate by five to one.”

Although one senior figure in the association said that he had been “the author of his own misfortune” and that it had been an “error of judgment” to make a public declaration, Mr Blunt says that this attitude will soon be extinct. “It’s frankly not very compassionate or understanding. The world has moved on. British society has moved on and the Conservative party has moved on. What this process has shown is that these people are now a tiny minority.” He hopes that the ringleaders will resign. “I don’t need to clean out all the people who didn’t vote for me but it’s terribly important I can work with the constituency association.”

The MP, who comes from a military family, understands the mindset of the traditionalists. A staunch Eurosceptic, he is also a fiscal conservative who would cut the top rate of tax to 40p. He came to terms with his own sexuality only three years ago, when he was 50 and after almost 20 years of marriage.

“All I knew at age 18 was that I simply wasn’t allowed to be gay so if I felt anything in that direction it had to be suppressed. These things called girls were frightfully difficult but the alternative just wasn’t allowed. I knew I had to have a girlfriend. It was just a nightmare — oh God I’ve got to find someone to go to a ball with. Then when I finally discovered sex it was fine, that all worked so I kept going.”

As a young man, he never questioned the assumptions he had been raised with. “I felt there was something wrong with me. I wasn’t growing up in metropolitan London, I grew up in an army community. There was not an overwhelmingly social liberal atmosphere at home. It didn’t really occur to me that the reason I found girls so hard was that if actually I gave myself the freedom I much preferred boys.”

Even after he was elected to Parliament in 1997, he spoke against the equalisation of the age of consent. “I didn’t start to understand myself until I was in my 40s. I made a speech to the effect that you could choose, because I had felt I had chosen. I had suppressed my gay side because I wanted to be a politician, and my first career had been in the Army, where it was illegal. You knew what happened to people who were thought to be in gay relationships in the Army. The military police would arrive and would rip your accommodation to shreds trying to find the evidence then you could be dishonourably discharged.”

By the time of that debate in 2001, though, he was starting to question his sexuality. “I knew the truth inside, by then. I knew if I was going to buy porn what I would want to look at. I had probably known the preference at a subliminal level since I was 12 but had never been in a position to act on it. I thought the slightest giveaway by me, in terms of any sense of affection towards a man, would be fatal and would destroy everything. You have a total defence mechanism so you therefore probably become more awkward as a personality, less affectionate.”

Although in public, the MP lived what he calls a “completely straight lifestyle”, privately he started experimenting. “I began to see the odd guy in the course of my 40s, usually on overseas visits, then I did begin to actively explore that part of myself.” Things came to a head in 2010, just a few months after he had been appointed a minister by David Cameron. “I went off to Barcelona on my own for a week and got chatting to an American couple who were on their honeymoon. They had no idea who I was and they said: ‘Why don’t you just tell your wife?’ I thought: ‘Yes why not?’”

When he got home, he told Victoria. “My reaction was this huge sense of relief that it was finally out there,” he says. Although he admits it was a “difficult time” for his wife to start with, the truth has, he believes, been a liberation for them both. “One of Victoria’s complaints in the marriage was that she could never reach me inside, that there was always a protected part of me, which, of course, there was,” Mr Blunt says. “Now our relationship is actually much more relaxed . . . I’m her gay best friend. We have lovely conversations. We are open with each other, united around our children.”

Although they are separated they have still not divorced. Their two children, who were 18 and 16 at the time he came out, have also been “remarkably” understanding, he says. “They were amazingly mature about it.” A cousin, who had been at Sandhurst at the same time as Mr Blunt but had quit because he had realised that he was gay, came to visit him. “I knew there was this gay cousin who nobody wanted to talk about, it was all hushed up. He had been incredibly brave and he told me about the gay scene in London in the 1980s. In some ways I feel I missed out but he said he buried two thirds of his friends to Aids.”

Three weeks after he told the family, they put out a statement saying that the minister had separated from his wife and “decided to come to terms with his homosexuality”. “I wanted to make clear there was no blame attached to Victoria. I didn’t want to be seen in a club, or in a relationship, when no one knew — that would have been horrible.” The Prime Minister, and other Tory MPs, have been incredibly supportive, he says. “When I got back to Parliament for the first time, colleagues were coming up to me all sympathetic and saying: ‘Are you all right?’ and I found myself saying:‘Of course I’m all right, I’m ecstatic’.”

He has been on what he calls a “voyage of discovery” on the gay scene. “Yes, I’ve had boyfriends. I feel as if I’m 21, so if I came out when I was the equivalent of 18 I’m in the early stages of working out relationships. I’m having a ball. I’m finally at ease with myself and I don’t have to hide.” Some members of his local constituency association were, however, less relaxed. In September, the executive council voted not to adopt him as the Conservative candidate. He was “shocked” by the result and is convinced that he was the victim of a “homophobic” campaign against him. When, in 2002, Alan Duncan was the first Tory MP to come out , the local grandees declared that they would never support a gaycandidate in Reigate.

“There is a vindictiveness to local politics that is much worse than Westminster,” Mr Blunt says. “It is poisonous toytown and that is what I am determined to stop. When it is at its best it is fun — you go out canvassing with mates then all go for a pub lunch. But when it is going wrong it’s really hideous and personal. It’s worse because it’s voluntary — they think what they are doing is good and moral — but it’s all about positioning.

“The women’s group had also become toxic. I think there might have been a feeling among the ladies that my wife had been treated badly and revenge should be taken. Victoria went to talk to them and said we were in a good place and were still friends, but they wouldn’t really talk to me.”

The gay marriage debate exacerbated the tensions. “People were unhappy about that but it was the most ridiculous fuss. It was a pretty microscopic legal change, and suddenly all hell breaks loose.” Although he won’t describe local Tories as “swivel-eyed loons”, he does worry that associations can be dominated by reactionaries. “Most of the party has changed, but of course some of the people who are most enthusiastic to get involved are perhaps the people who have changed least . . . The officers who didn’t support me stayed silent. It was the opposition that dare not speak its name.”

He decided to challenge the executive council’s decision, appealing over their heads to the wider membership. “I love being an MP,” he says. “I didn’t want to give in.” There were 20 volunteers in his campaign team, and 300 supportive posts on his Facebook page and website. “My wife followed them touchingly closely and she rang up to say: ‘I keep waiting for you to be canonised’. They were absolutely lovely. They’re the best testimonials anyone could possibly have and they made a slam dunk case that this was not about my performance as an MP. ”

The Tory dinosaurs have, he believes, been crushed. “The Conservative Party now has more out gay MPs than all the other parties put together.

“In the space of a few years we have become a remarkably tolerant society and I think we should be proud of that. I don’t think it would be an issue to have a gay Prime Minister.”

Sunday Times.

Thought this was fascinating, because of the insight it gives to the utterly bizarre mindset of a formerly closeted top gay tory.

A gay prime minister?

Like Pitt The Younger, maybe Disraeli, Lord Rosebery, and Ted Heath?

PS Iain Dale asks in Attitude; Can You Be Gay And Be A Tory? This reads like it was written very quickly...

Gay Tory Watch: Poor Richard

Former deputy mayor of London Richard Barnes claimed his Facebook account was hacked after naked self-portraits appeared. The 65-year-old Conservative councillor for Hillingdon said he had not even seen the photos, which show the nude lower body of a naked man clutching an iPhone in front of a bedroom mirror.
The snaps appear to have been uploaded to his personal Facebook page before being swiftly deleted.
Websites including trendingcentral.com speculated the images may have been automatically uploaded using the iPhone’s iOS Facebook app.
But Mr Barnes told Metro: ‘[It was] utterly and totally a mistake. I’ve been hacked into. I’ve no idea [what happened]. I’m annoyed and shaking with anger.’
‘I’m a 65-year-old gay man on his own… It’s not the sort of thing I do. Do you really think I would be that f****** stupid after 30 years in politics?’*
He said he had a ‘lot of friends on Facebook’ and would not be quitting the website.
Mr Barnes, who served as Boris Johnson’s deputy between 2008 and 2012, said he was alerted to the images by a friend in the US and that it had all been ‘sorted out’.

London's Metro.

Another day, another scandal - is there no end to gay Tory misery?
The Daily Mail is tying up itself in knots over what can be said here; are the photos of Barnes, did he upload them by mistake, was his account hacked?
The Daily Star has some - sadly pixilated - "dick pics".
Amusingly, Fagburn understands Richard is known in City Hall as "Dick".

Comment: Even if it is Dicky, it's not illegal, and wanting sex isn't wrong. Basically, who cares?

* Fucking, probably. Hard to be sure.

• Interview with Tony Grew for Pink News in 2008, when Barnes was appointed Deputy Mayor of London.

PS Don't forget to book your tickets for the fun-packed Conservative Party Pride Conference Dinner (Supper, surely?) at Harvey Nicks in Manchester next week!

"Cost: £35 each Evening includes 3 course dinner with wine also enjoy shopping time with 10% discount!

"Guest Speaker: LBC Radio Host, Blogfather and West Ham fanatic, Iain Dale."  

Let's just hope Mrs Dale behaves herself and doesn't start beating up any pensioners again, eh?
Then it's on to G-A-Y - but don't worry, LGBTory have their own private entrance and dancefloor, so you don't have to mingle with the riff-raff.
Or risk getting beaten up by one of them.

Iain Dale: Another Kind Of Gay Bashing

Leading gay Tory blogger, broadcaster and publisher, Iain Dale, attacks a man for exercising his democratic right to protest outside the Labour party conference on Brighton seafront this morning.
Nice.
ITV1 were filming an interview with Gordon Brown's former spin doctor Damian McBride, whose Labour-bashing book, Power Trip, the ever-so Conservative Mrs Dale is publishing.
Only adds further evidence to Fagburn's theory that gay Tories tend to be violent nutters.
Iain has given his version of his events on his blog. 
He thinks it's all rather amusing that he attacked an elderly peace protester. 
The poor frightened doggy was unavailable for comment.

Update: And in other news...

Police are seeking to interview a man in connection with an assault on Brighton seafront earlier today
— Sussex Police (@sussex_police) September 24, 2013

Oops!
Regular viewers may recall Fagburn was arrested in April for shouting "Fuck off, you fat Nazi!" at someone on an EDL march on Brighton seafront.
Let's see what action the police take against Mr Dale.
As Iain's quite big on getting tough on law and order how about temporarily bringing back public flogging?

Update: Another video with commentary; Multi-millionaire Iain Dale Beats Up Impoverished Old Man.

On Thursday Sussex Police said they were letting this right-wing hooligan off with a caution.
If you've ever been arrested for peacefully protesting, why not let them and the media know what you think about this

Owen Jones Watch: Hard Labour

Just a quick reminder that if you want to catch Owen Jones - gayby-faced icon of the new left - during the four-day Labour Party Conference in Brighton, he's only speaking at eight events this year.
Will there be a checked shirt quick costume change for each appearance?
Catch her while you can, boys!

PS As Owen-bashing has become a bit of a sport on the left, it's probably worth pointing out I like Mr Jones. 
But please, dear, don't let being a star columnist go to your head, like it did with too many others.

Update: Owen Jones reviews Downton Abbey; A fascinating insight into the quiet violence of the class system ****
This is not a satire!


Update2: Our Owen is declared the seventh most influential left-winger in Britain by the Daily Torygraph...

If Owen Jones were a singer, he’d be Martine McCutcheon warbling ‘This is my Moment’. He is ubiquitous and the go-to Left-wing commentator for any radio producer suffering a hangover who can’t be more original. He is a leading light in the People's Assembly movement. But what is his long-term goal? Where does he see himself in ten years' time? Frankly, we haven’t a clue, but he gets more media than the whole Labour front bench put together, so he must be doing something right.

This campy piece was written by Iain Dale, who, of ourse bitches them all - but this gay Tory has nothing but praise for Peter Tatchell (55)...

The only other player for #teamgay is Chris Bryant, who slips to 71.

Is politic's gay mafia now sleeping with the fishes?

Mail On Sunday: Some Day My Prince Will Come

Apologies. This happened when I was taking a mini-break in the Slough of Despond, and it wasn't until I read Street Of Shame in the new Private Eye that I realised the Mail On Sunday had put it on their front page.
Its prominence, the Eye suggests, may have a lot to do with the divine feud between homophobic shitbag Daily Mail editor, Paul Dacre, and "his upstart rival at the Mail On Sunday, Geordie Grieg".

"Knowing Dacre's squeamishness about homosexuality, Geordie led with with the news that Prince Harry had 'bravely rescued' a gay soldier from homophobic colleagues. An accompanying editorial praised Harry for 'affirming a new more enlightened code' - unlike 'certain traditional conservative institutions' that had too often failed 'to guard vulnerable minorities from cruelty insults and bullying'. Traditional institutions such as the Daily Mail? Of course." 

This got much coverage in the media worldwide - it's the kind of gay story even right-wing papers can get behind; 'Gay men serving in the military', alongside 'gay men who want to get married', are the twin pillars of acceptable heteronormative "good gays".* 
But this is more about our wonderful British royals, and "our brave boys" in Afghanistan etc etc.
Prince Harry is the real hero here - the gay man appears as a damsel in distress.
I don't want to comment on it any further - though it's odd that you can't comment after the Mail On Sunday article; "Sorry we are unable to accept comments for legal reasons".
Oh.
But if you're interested in reading more, it's taken from Out In The Army: My Life As A Gay Soldier by James Wharton, published by Biteback, the right-wing publishing house run by leading gay Tory blogger Iain Dale.
Something of a dream title for them, I guess.

* James Wharton, pictured in uniform and with his boyfriend, was also the cover star of Attitude's gay marriage issue last year. A double whammy.

Margaret Thatcher: 1925-2013

My mum always said; "If you've got nothing nice to say, say nothing."
So I might be gone for some time...

Update: 'Divisive figure for LGBT people in the UK' - Gay Star News.
'A controversial figure in gay rights' - Pink News.*
Jesus fucking wept!
Fagburn is reminded of the Not The 9 O'Clock News song on the press reaction to the death of the British fascist leader, Oswald Mosley.

* This is by Joseph Patrick McCormick, who also claims she was a "gay icon", and says there was "some controversy around Section 28".
Some??!!!
McCormick is now - officially - the worst gay journalist of all time. 
Can you not palm him off to Gay Star News, Benjamin, where he surely belongs? 
[Edit: PN seem to be rewriting their copy as a damage limitation exercise. The "gay icon" remark is now seemingly warranted as silly pranksters Gilbert & George once said it. Can you show me the quote, please? Sadly, they can't change that stupid headline as its been quoted so much in the comments section].

Update2: Leading gay Tory blogger, Iain Dale...

Update3: One from the archives; Mark Simpson, professional upper class twit, record-beating snob and right-wing hegemonic goon, who turned his contempt for working-class gay men into a book called Anti-Gay - well, they're all so common and vulgar, aren't they, Mark? -  also thinks Thatcher was a "gay icon".

Update4: Another gay Tory, Matthew Parris in The Times; Worshipped and admired by many... 

Update5: Andrew Sullivan puts it simply as; 'Thatcher, Liberator'. Like Mark Simpson, Sullivan is a convincing argument for closing down the brainwashing factories that are British private schools. You can take the gay man out of the Republican Party/Reigate, but...

Update6: LGBTory - the Conservative's gay group - on Twitter.

Update7: Thanks to Paul B for reminding me of this 1987 election billboard poster - used to pass one twice a day. Really made a gay kid feel good. Still, sad to hear the "controversial" "gay icon" has now passed away.
Tell me where she's being buried, I'll go piss on it. 

Update8: Matthew Parris in The Times pays tribute - again - to The Warrior Who Turned Up Just In Time. Barf!

I could write about the Margaret Thatcher who, in our last real one-to-one conversation, took my hand as I took my leave of politics and told her that our party needed to try harder to make gay Tory voters and MPs like me feel that Conservatism was for them, too: “There, there, dear . . .” (she patted my arm) “that must have been very difficult to say.”

Update9: Ivan Massow in the Standard. 

“She can’t have adorned many other male teenage bedroom walls but I was proud of my Margaret Thatcher poster, I still am. She was pilloried by the gay community for letting Section 28 go through on her watch but her attitude towards homosexuality is often misunderstood. Thatcher’s own views on gay rights were surprisingly enlightened. So she was a poster girl for gay rights — in every sense.”

Where do you start?

Update10: Thankfully, Britain's leading wet liberal gay journalist, Patrick Smugtwit, has saved me the bother of satirising him this time.

i: Despair

At last, some gay cake toppers make the front page!
Maybe when they legalise it the Independent can use a photo of some actual homos. 

Here's the blogpost by Iain Dale referred to...

"I’ve been looking at the Coalition for Equal Marriage’s website, and their list of MPs who intend to vote against allowing gay people to marry on Tuesday. I note with interest the names of several MPs who most people in the Westminster Village know to be closet case gays. And I note also the names of two supposedly straight MPs who I know to be conducting gay affairs at the moment. I don’t believe in ‘outing’ anyone, but because of the rank hypocrisy there will be others who will take a different view.
Adam Lake wrote tonight…

If you can’t be honest about who you are that is your problem. If you try to hypocritically defy my equality that is another issue entirely.

How is it possible to be married yourself, and yet at the same time vote to deny that privilege to someone whose pants you have just pulled down?

PS Anyone remember the Independent Voices 'Equal Partners' "campaign"?
They don't, and gave up after a few weeks. 
Still, Peaches Geldof signed up.
Woop!

Iain Dale's Diary: The Last Post

Gay Conservative Iain Dale announced today he has stopping blogging;
"There's no single reason, but let me try to explain as best I can why I can no longer blog in the way I have been doing over the last five years. First of all, let me say what it's NOT about. It's got nothing to do with the Conservatives being in power. There's this myth that blogging in government is less interesting than in opposition. I've never bought that argument. I think I have been quite open in making clear when I think the coalition have got things wrong, but I accept that is not the perception, and probably never will be.
"The truth is, I no longer enjoy blogging and I think that this has been evident for a few months now to my readers. I hate the backbiting that goes along with it. I hate the character assassination that is permanently present. I no longer enjoy the pressure of feeling I have to churn out four or five pieces every day. I used to enjoy sitting in front of the TV at home in the evenings and writing blogposts at the same time. I can't do that any longer as I am on the radio every weekday evening. And when I am in the office during the day I have two companies to run. Something has to give..."
Blogging - there's no future in it...

David Laws: Behind You

Several sympathetic articles on David Laws appeared today; Chris Bryant and Julian Glover in The Guardian, Iain Dale in The Daily Mail, and a rather moving piece by Matthew Parris in The Times (there was also a rather sniffy piece by The Independent's snooty house-fag, Philip Hensher).
All argue that it was his closetry that got him into this pickle.
I'm increasingly sympathetic to this point of view, and am willing to believe that this could just have been one of those fuck-ups that we all occasionally make that then spirals completely out of control.
Poor sod.

PS It's also worth noting how these days even The Daily Mail and The Times can call on regular contributors to write about a subject like this who are out gay men...