Gay Marriages; Straight Civil Partnerships!

Lib Dem Equalities Minister, Lynne Featherstone announced today that the Government is to open a consultation which will consider the following:


1.  Making marriage available to couples regardless of gender or sexuality and
2.  Making civil partnership similarly available to all


Continuing their strong support of the LGBT community, the Lib Dems are the first party of Government to promote this policy which, if successfully incorporated into law, will finally allow any couple that wishes to cement their union, by marriage in church, the capacity to do so.....although some organisations, such as the Church of England, have already said that they will not allow LGBT marriages on their premises.


And what of the Lib Dems coalition partners?  Never known for being a particularly pink-friendly party, it is gratifying that Teressa May, the Home Secretary, appears on this occassion to be sympathetic to the issue.  However back-benchers such as Edward Leigh, Conservative MP for Gainsborough, have already registered their contempt for the LGBT community by declaring “Once we have departed from the universally understood framework of marriage, there is no logical reason why the new alternative institution should be limited to two people. Why not three? Or thirty-three?".  Leigh clearly confuses gay-rights with bigamy or should that be bigotry?  Leigh continues to rant that “same-sex couples already have all the rights of marriage in the form of civil partnership. Why must they also have the language of marriage?" failing to recognise that "they" also have rights and "they" also form part of the electorate that he is supposed to represent.


For those wanting to support this issue then please either get in touch or follow the link http://lgbt.libdems.org.uk/en/page/equal-marriage

Pickles in a pickle

I see that the Communities Secretary, former communist-supporting now Conservative MP Eric Pickles, is brandishing draconian rules on local authorities as his bizarre contribution to the localism ideology.  He is insisting that communication from Town Halls to the community that they serve be restricted to four newspapers a year otherwise, (big stick time by Mr Pickles), they run the risk of being reported to the auditor on the grounds of misuse of public funds.

So, let's get this right.....Central government says power to the people and Pickles adds....as long as you don't tell them about anything you do?

Pickles, whose first political flirtation was with communism, is now seen as so far to the right of the political landscape that even his own party Local Councillors are, according to 'The Guardian', hateful of him.  Moreover 91 Lib Dem councillors wrote to the Times this week complaining of the way Pickles treats them with contempt imposing savage cuts on Councils without due consideration of circumstances.

What a short term memory Pickles has.  He was after all temporary Tory leader of Bradford Council in the early nineties when I wonder if his 'northern charm' would have been equally engaging, as it is today, had the Thatcher Government chopped at local services like a mad axeman?