Tories

Tory MP is homophobic. Film at eleven

GLBT rights, Tories
Published on

Socialist Worker has the shocking report:

“When it came to the question and answer session, I asked Dr Lewis why he voted against the rights of gays to adopt children, and why he voted against the lowering of the age of consent for homosexuals from 18 to 16.

“I found his answer bizarre. He said that for gay people to be allowed to adopt it would have to be proven that civil partnerships work.

“He then said that he voted against the lowering of the age of consent for the same reason that he is opposed to children as young as 16 or 17 being allowed to join the army. He said that just like joining the army puts your life at risk, gay sex can put your life at risk.

(Nothing against Socialist Worker but I do wish they wouldn’t write all their articles in that supposedly professional, blandised press release style.)

Tories still homophobic?

GLBT rights, Tories, UK elections, UK politics
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Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling says bed and breakfasts should be able to refuse gay couples:

The Tories were embroiled in a furious row over lesbian and gay rightson Saturday after the shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, was secretly taped suggesting that people who ran bed and breakfasts in their homes should “have the right” to turn away homosexual couples.

[..]

“I think we need to allow people to have their own consciences,” he said. “I personally always took the view that, if you look at the case of should a Christian hotel owner have the right to exclude a gay couple from a hotel, I took the view that if it’s a question of somebody who’s doing a B&B in their own home, that individual should have the right to decide who does and who doesn’t come into their own home.”

Remember what the Tories did last time they were in power. Cuddly Dave may want to have his party metrosexual and gay friendly, but too many in the party are still bigoted.

Tories succesfully bully BBC – again

BBC Bias, Tories, UK politics
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The BBC have dropped a Panorma investigation into Lord Ashcroft’s tax dodging ways, according to
The Guardian:

Intense pressure from Conservative officials helped to force the BBC to quietly drop a lengthy investigation into Lord Ashcroft, the party’s billionaire backer and deputy chairman. Panorama, the corporation’s current affairs programme, was expected to focus on Ashcroft’s business empire and his use of offshore entities.

Letters and personal interventions by senior Conservatives have increased pressure on programme makers, according to insiders. There is now little prospect of the investigation being broadcast before the general election.

The disclosure follows previous claims that the programme was shelved for legal reasons. The delay will please David Cameron but will cause concern that the BBC has been silenced in the runup to the general election. The Tories are anxious to suppress more publicity about Ashcroft’s affairs after the outcry over the billionaire’s belated revelation that he was not domiciled in the UK for tax purposes, and so paid no tax on overseas assets.

The spin on this is that it would be unfair of the BBC to pay attention to these charges on the eve of an election, but the truth can never be unfair. As anybody who isn’t a Tory hack can see, it’s actually much more unfair to the voter to cover up the truth of these allegations and make the Tories seem more principled and less grasping than they actually are. The BBC however is instituationally incapable of doing anything but cower in the face of sustained pressure and is here actively hindered by its chapter and culture of strict impartiality, which is sensitive to charges of being unfair.

QotD: Splinty on Sam and Dave

Cameron, Tories, UK elections
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Responding to the “news” that David Cameron has pressed his wife into service for the upcoming elections, Splinty says:

God help me, I was never a fan of Iris Robinson, but you couldn’t ever accuse her of not being her own woman. For substantial modern women to transform themselves into props for their husbands, because that’s what the sexist assumptions of the political-media game require… that’s actually even more depressing than desperate husbands pressing the wives into service.

Did the Tories just threaten the BBC over Ashcroft?

Election Skullduggery, Sleaze, Tories, UK elections
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It certainly seems so, if this is to be believed:

Gove did a decent job fielding Jon Snow’s questions and then beetled over to the BBC to face Newsnight’s Kirsty Wark. Gove’s tactic was to keep repeating that the other main parties were bankrolled by men with equally poor senses of civic duty and ignore Wark’s point that Ashcroft’s role as deputy chairman made his case different. Then, at the end, Gove went on to the attack.

“We’ll be watching, Kirsty,” he said darkly (although it’s not as if he ever sounds like Bagpuss) and then, in a significant tone: “The broader question will be, ‘Is the BBC failing in its duty to hold other parties to account?'”, leaving Wark to wrap up the interview in a fluster ill-concealed by a pretence of being hurried. Maybe she had the director general screaming in her earpiece: “Tell him we’ll get rid of CBeebies if he’ll just leave us alone!”

In completely unrelated news, new polls show that Labour is now level with the Tories in marginal seats, despite the Tories’ strategy of targetting these must-win seats for the next election. The mastermind behind this strategy? Ashcroft…

On an even more unrelated note, did it really take ten years for anybody to notice Ashcroft was still a non-dom, after having promised to start paying taex if only he could be a lord? Realy? And do we think that’s due to incompetence or malice?