Sunday 18 November 2012

Cameron’s Gay Week


  
I no longer support the Conservative Party.  My goodness, I should really keep quiet about this; my family would be outraged!  That’s not quite true.  I know my late grandfather, a life-long Tory who once met Churchill, would be sad, but mother and father have, along with me, become increasingly disenchanted.  I will always vote for decent Tories like Boris Johnson, London’s mayor; I will not vote for a faux Tory like that hopeless muddle-head David Cameron, all windmills and gay marriage. 

I may in future support a Conservative Party, and that party is the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).  I’m writing this in the wake of the parliamentary by-election in the middle England seat of Corby.  Formerly held for the Tories by the idiotic Louise Mensch – such a little mensch - , it was taken by Labour last Thursday with a comfortable swing.  You know the sort of thing – if this result was repeated across the country blah de blah de blah. 

I expected the Tories to lose, they deserved to lose, but the UKIP advance was a delight to behold, a warning, if you like, from Conservatives to the Cameroons.  Attracting over 5000 votes, some 14% of the poll, the party moved into third place behind the Tory candidate.  Even more gratifying, the pestilential Gay Liberation Front, also known as the Liberal Democrats, lost their deposit. 

It’s as well not to make too much of this sort of thing.  The boast that UKIP is now the ‘third party’ in English politics is premature in the extreme, in some ways as asinine as the ‘if this result were repeated’ mantra.  But it shows that the traditional support for the Conservative Party is in danger of haemorrhaging away to the right.  It shows just how sick and tired people are not just with the ghastly European Union but with Cameron and his feeble-minded politics.  His version of Conservatism is just another Gay Coalition Front. 

On the subject of which, I noted from a Spectator blog that Cameron is accused of misleading supporters over the possible loss of support the Conservatives would risk if the government legislated on gay marriage.  In responding to a letter by Cheryl Gillian, the former Welsh Secretary, deeply critical of the gay policy, Cameron claimed that polling data showed that it would make more people vote Conservative.  Oh, Mr Cameron, that’s a lie.  Sorry; I’m breaching parliamentary etiquette.  I should say it’s a terminological inexactitude. 

I hope you won’t mind a slight digression here but people might be interested to know that the forms of language that can be used in Parliamentary debate are governed by strict procedural rules.  It’s all rather quaint, the Speaker ruling if a particular member has crossed the boundaries or not.  Benjamin Disraeli, a former Tory leader then in opposition, was once instructed to withdraw his allegation that half the cabinet were knaves.  Half the cabinet are not knaves, came the response.

Anyway back to Cameron, who is not a knave, just a little confused.  Andrew Hawkins, director of ComRes, the company that carried out the poll, wrote to the Prime Minister correcting his terminological inexactitudes.  Amongst other things he said that “the more important point from the poll…shows both that the party loses more votes than it gains as a result of the policy, and that former Conservative voters are especially less likely to return to the fold.”

Hawkins went on to say that the policy would have a detrimental effect on the Conservative Party’s electoral fortunes if pursued – “your letter states that ‘all of the published polls have found that more voters support equal civil marriage – however described – than oppose it.’ That is simply not the case.”

It was such a gay week from Mister Cameron.  I don’t suppose he is feeling very gay at all just at the present.  

16 comments:

  1. The not too festive Mr. Cameron. Don't think in terms of 'Right' and 'Left' just 'Right' and 'Wrong'!

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  2. UKIP needs a bit more in the way of manifesto to really challenge the status quo. Of course, leaving the EU is the primary issue, but after that, what?

    UKIP could do worse than adopt a raft of specific proposals to restore the traditional rights and privileges of Britons: freedom of expression, trial by jury, right against self-incrimination, right to self-defense and the ownership of means to make that meaningful, habeas corpus and the right to speedy justice - plus the decriminalization or nullification of thousands of petty laws imposed during NuLab's tenure.

    But how can UKIP succeed, in the face of Britain's establishment propaganda machine? The party needs some libertarian billionaires, and those billionaires must set up alternative news and information services who relate news and current affairs using the libertarian viewpoint. The populace must be de-programmed before it will be able to see reality.

    So, that's the task: find some libertarian billionaires and persuade them to change the world. Piece of cake, really :)

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    1. I'll see what I can do. :-) You are right about UKIP - it is still largely perceived as a single issue party. They are bound to do well in the Euro elections but their vote in Corby is almost certain to revert to the Tories in a Parliamentary General Election.

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  3. He's destroyed that party, Cameron. We've been warning of this since 2007.

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    1. James, I fear so. I was enthusiastic to begin with because I thought the Party was on to a winner. Now I think Cameron may turn out to be an even worse leader and PM than even Ted Heath, and that really is saying something.

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  4. Just an aside....Did you notice in the police commissioner elections that not a single Lib-Dem was elected? The elections divided up roughly 1/3 Con 1/3 Lab and 1/3 Independent.

    Truly, these are sad times to be a Lib-Dem. (Take that smile off your face Ana)

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    1. I did, Bill. Sorry about the smile; I just can't help myself. Actually it's more of a laugh. :-))

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  5. Wouldn't it be fun if Cameron took us into the next election promising to secede from the union by negotiation ?
    Will he still be PM ?
    I think so.
    It would certainly add more votes, to go with the ones lost to labour if the Scots chose to go it alone (and the boundary changes).
    It would also add UKIP voters to its existing voters, and bring loads back into the fold.
    E Miliband is never going to be electable, he looks too geeky.
    Boris will never stand against Cameron, too treacherous (and it would destroy his carefully-constructed good-guy image) (even though he isn't that much of a good-guy).

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    1. John, by the present Coalition agreement he will still be PM in 2015. I do not think he will ever make such a clear promise. There will be some fudge or other. He will not do anything that will tie his hands. Will he win the election? No, I don't think he will. Yes, Miliband is a geek, but no more geeky than John Major.

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  6. The poet Michael Horovitz calls him David Ca-moron. He calls Putin Vladimir Pubertin.

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  7. As a defector to UKIP, I found your closing paras interesting ... and this fits my own gut feeling, although it's not a topic I often discuss with people. It strikes me that the vast majority are heterosexual, but also want a live-and-let-live policy to apply. They don't want this agenda constantly rammed down their throats by the BBC, and they certainly don't welcome any further attention being given to this by Cameron.

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    1. John, that's absolutely right. There is not a homophobic bone in my body but, oh my, how I loathe shallow gesture politics.

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  8. You may/will/possibly be right....however, appearing on the horizon is this:

    http://www.clickgreen.org.uk/news/national-news/123791-future-of-green-deal-hangs-in-the-balance-as-europe-gets-tough.html

    along with the so-far unknown amount that SHOULD have been collected but was not, that will have to be paid.
    All parties that consider we should be part of the EU agree we should "renegotiate" our terms, which we cannot do under existing member treaties. We can renegotiate if we first give notice of intent to leave (Lisbon treaty article 50) and then we can negotiate what our trading rights will be, etc.
    Still, a boring life is a contradiction in terms, and life [EU-wise] looks like becoming less boring (or maybe it is the Brussels two-step, renamed from the Potomac two-step)

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    1. John, I shall have more to say on the EU in a day or two, in the light of Cameron's attempt at dragon slaying. :-)

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