The Trouble With Political Parties

There's a bit of a kerfuffle in UKIP at the moment where there appears to be one of their regular purges going on. Those being chucked out in this current round of blood letting are those who have publicly backed the idea of 'gay marriage', which UKIP opposes.

I oppose 'gay marriage', although I believe that gay couples should have the same legal rights and protection as heterosexual couples. I oppose it on the grounds that marriage is between a man and a woman. I do  not believe that to be homophobic in any way, although the usual emotionally incontinent obsessives elsewhere on t'internet have called me, and others with similar views, homophobes.

However, I do believe that political parties should allow some leeway on issues of conscience such as this, and that UKIP have over-reacted, as they usually do. Why Cameron is so obsessed with this issue, which few other people in the country feel is of vital national importance, we can only guess. So I do not understand why any political party should force members out over the issue.

What it really shows is how dehumanising political parties have become. Yes there is a need for discipline, but there should also be room for debate and dissent, within reason. On any matter of conscience individual members should be free to take up their own position, especially on issues such as this, capital punishment, abortion, euthanasia and similar. The public are sick of hearing party spokesmen just parrot the party line, they want real human beings who can think for themselves. Sadly when independent thinkers surface in a political party they are all too often hounded out.

Gay Marriage

It seems that Cameron's social democrat government is determined to alienate as many people in the country as possible. Lately we've had the fiasco of the PCC elections which 80% of the population couldn't be mithered getting involved with.

Now they are determined, despite a total lack of interest from the populace at large be they gay or straight, to redefine marriage. Yet things that do concern the public, such as the EU, are completely ignored. I suppose as this government has no mandate they have no reason to worry what the electorate want or believe.

On the question of 'gay marriage' there is a wonderful article by Brendan O'Neill in Spiked Online. A must read I would say.

Nick Clegg And The Lib Dem Bigots

The Liberal Democrats make me sick, especially little Nicky Clegg. Do we really expect the Deputy Prime Minister to behave like a tantrum throwing, attention seeking teenager?

He has now called those of us who oppose gay marriage 'bigots'. How very grown up. But of course, in true Lib Dem fashion, he withdrew the remarks when he saw the damning reaction when he circulated advance copies of his speech. Why do people like Clegg assume that those who disagree with them are 'bigots' or worse?

For what it's worth I firmly believe that marriage is an institution for a man and a woman. Further than that I do not believe it to be my business, or anybody else's, what consenting adults do together in the bedroom. That does not make me a bigot Mr Clegg. 

Kicking Christians Again-Mike Weatherley MP

Mike Weatherley, so-called Conservative MP for Hove, has written to David Cameron demanding that Christian churches be forced to marry gay people when the Coalition makes gay marriages legal. Yet another assault on religious freedom in this country.

We had Catholic adoption agencies having to close a few years ago under the last government, who refused to tolerate our views on adoption. It's interesting that if you go in one shop and they don't have what you want you just go to another one, the government doesn't force shops to all sell the same items. But now Catholic people who may want to put a child up for adoption probably won't because they don't want the child adopted by a gay couple.

How soon before churches are again forced underground as the state attacks our right to religious freedom? Was there really a change of government last year?