I think I might have missed something. It seems that the election of a Conservative government came with an open invitation to the right wing press to stoop lower. That must be the reach thing everyone is always talking about.
The Sun today has a poll that asks the question: “Should gay people be cabinet ministers?”.
Of those polled 13% said it was a good thing that those who were gay were in the cabinet and 76% said they did not mind. Only 5% said they were against. On the plus note while The Sun ran the poll the numbers show that the paper’s readers don’t seem to care one way or another. A sign of our liberalised society? Maybe.
Tweets attacking the paper are being heavily retweeted this afternoon. One Twitter user @duckorange reminds people that this is the same paper that also ran “Ten ways to spot if your vicar is a pulpit pooftah”.
The Sun’s poll came on the same day that the Daily Mail also published yet more homophobic bile. This time not written by Jan Moir (who ignited a storm when Moir wrote her poisonous piece after the death of Stephen Gately), but by fellow right winger Richard Little John, who in a column today wrote:
“To be honest, I’ve always considered all Liberal MPs to be homosexuals unless furnished with concrete proof to the contrary.”
He goes on to list various gay MPs past and present who have been among the ranks of the Liberal. To be fair, he does say that it wasn’t his sexuality that cost him his job, but the £40,000 in expenses, but then He makes the claim that “Being gay didn’t save his [Laws] job, but it probably mitigated some of the criticism”. Really?
One day, two examples of the British press at its very worst.
