In an extraordinary rant, the former chairman of the Conservative party, Lord Norman Tebbit has said that apart from a “big society gay wedding in Westminster Abbey”, he has no idea where prime minister David Cameron wants to take Britain.
Lord Tebbit, an outspoken critic of gay rights used a blog on the Daily Telegraph website to rail against the Arab world because they “do not ‘do’ democracy”, criticises the government for backing down on plans to sell off forests and describes Ken Clarke as a “Euro-collaborator.”
Lord Tebbit wrote: “Of course the Prime Minister’s ambition to restore our national finances, to improve the NHS, deal with the cancer of welfare dependency and restore education to our schools are plainly right and deserve support.
“But every Prime Minister has set out to do that. I still do not know where, apart from to a Big Society gay wedding in Westminster Abbey, the Prime Minister really wants to go…”
Last week, the government announced that civil partnerships would be allowed to be held in religious buildings, including Westminster Abbey. It was also announced that a consultation will begin on the introduction of same-sex marriages and opening civil partnerships up to heterosexual couples, measures that PinkNews.co.uk understands both Mr Cameron and the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg are in favour of.
LeftFootForward, a left of centre blog points out that it is not the first time that Lord Tebbit had criticised David Cameron’s approach to gay rights. In a previous blog he wrote: “David Cameron has the brains to turn the tables and come back to win. But he has to inspire the electors to believe he would make a difference not over the trivialities of dress sense or political asylum for African homosexuals…”
In 2008, Lord Tebbit railed against gay couples adopting children. He said: “Too often we look at these things from the point of view of the adult rather than the child. I think that adoption by homosexual couples is unsatisfactory for the child.
“What homosexual people choose to do under their duvets is up to them, but the example they set to children is of interest to society as a whole.”
Lord Tebbit told the New Statesman that no gay minister should be Home Secretary because “the Home Office is responsible for laws affecting society – the adoption of children and the strengthening of the family. It is better not in the care of someone who doesn’t feel for those issues.”
He also told the magazine that there are too many gays in the government: “If you accept that the male homosexual population is 2 per cent, it does seem to be a bit over quota.”
Lord Tebbit also told the New Statesman that he knew one or two ministers who are “very good” but that he suspects are gay and that “[a] daft thing about politics is that you can’t be celibate without people saying you’re homosexual. For example, there’s Ted Heath. He was celibate. But Ted wasn’t a raving queer.”
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