The ties that bind

There is an emerging row of the political / religious establishment over gay marriage. You'd have thought they all had something better to do.

'I don't support gay marriage despite being a Conservative, I support gay marriage because I am a Conservative' said David Cameron in one of the most fatuous comments by a party leader in a generation.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, accuses Cameron of trying to redefine reality, and changing long-standing laws and traditions at the behest of a small minority of activists.

So there's going to be quite a row, and it's hard to know what it is all about. Homosexuality has been legal in Britain for 45 years, so gays can live together, a state which is also chosen by a large number of heterosexual couples. Then a few years ago there was introduced the new concept of registered partnership, which means that gays can openly and legally make the assurances of love and commitment which are normal for heterosexual couples. So it can't be that.

What it seems to be is just an attempt to redefine the word 'marriage' (away, incidentally from the definition in the UN Declaration on Human Rights). It means making both sides definitionally the same as well as practically.

I have many gay friends and oddly enough a lot of them regard themselves as different, and rather relish that difference.

So it seems to be a lot of fuss about nothing. This blog is neither in favour of it nor against it, but it is opposed to the Government wasting so much time.