I agree with William Hague, Theresa May and George Osborne – for once. I also (much less unusually) agree with Norman Geras who asserts that there are no sound reasons for opposing gay marriage. The Telegraph seems to attract a disproportionate (and, to be fair, unearned) number of bigoted commenters on all topics, and the thread under this article is characteristically depressing
I feel sorry for the people who will inevitably be sued by the squealing fascists at Stonewall for not promoting gay marriage assiduously enough
Well past time to get out of the UK*
Homosexual Marriage is plain wrong. It is illogical and meaningless. It has nothing to do with equality, which it cannot be because of the nature of participants, but has all to do with promoting ‘gay life’. Homosexuals do not want to be allowed to get ‘married’ for any other reason than the promotion of their lifestyle and the tax and other benefits that come with it
This is perverted social engineering by a depraved government.
Parliament will be making homosexuality obligiTORY next.
Over on Liberal Conspiracy, objections are fewer and more casuistical:
Under the new law, those in opposite-sex marriages will have the right to divorce on the grounds of adultery, and the right to have their marriage annulled on the grounds of non-consummation. Those in same-sex marriages will have neither right.
Not only do I agree with Hague, May, and Osborne – I even agree with Andy Newman (once I’d worked out what his point was – he seemed a bit wistful about the religious objections). Melanie Phillips, not surprisingly, offers a different perspective:
The attempt by the Left to undermine and topple Western society had merely shifted from political revolution to social and cultural issues. And at the very centre of that systematic onslaught lay the intention to destroy the unique importance of the married family and replace it by a lifestyle free-for-all.
Scary stuff. She goes on to explain what the Conservatives are guilty of:
Accordingly, they turned themselves into collaborators with those cultural revolutionaries whose aim was to unpick the intricate tapestry of laws, customs and attitudes that had made Britain civilised. Instead of realising that the supreme task for today’s conservatives is to fight this culture war, they even incorporated the most subversive part of its agenda – the undermining of the traditional family – into their own programme. It is this betrayal of conservatism which lies at the heart of the Tories’ discontents – and for which they will never be forgiven.
A rather more interesting objection is raised by Cranmer.
It was never part of the election campaign presented by any of the major parties to the electorate. It was no part of the Coalition Agreement. If it passes into law, it will do so via an ad hoc coalition of those who similarly lacked transparency on the national scale.
However not only do more than half of Tory voters support equal marriage –52%, compared with 62% of the general public – one might assume that many who don’t would have voted Tory in 2010 rather than split the right-of-centre vote – and will of course do so in the next election as well.
*feel free