Lib Dems in the vanguard for redefining marriage
29 September 2011
The Westminster Government will begin a consultation on including homosexual partnership within the legal definition of marriage in March 2012.
This follows a similar exercise by the Scottish Government, which has begun its consultation on the topic.
It was hoped to use Scotland to prime the pump to change public opinion.
However, it appears that the growing Scottish awareness and opposition to using the Scottish Parliament as a sounding board on the issue has prompted the ConDem Alliance to bring forward their own ‘consultation’ to add to the momentum for change and not to leave the debate to Scotland, nor to the SNP to make the running.
However, there is a difference between the consultations. It appears that Westminster is not asking about the definition of marriage, but simply how same-sex marriage should be legalised.
It is possible that this website’s teasing MSPs about their education (consulting about the definition of marriage) changed the nature of the Westminster consultation. It will ask how, not if, same-sex marriage should be legalised. It is typical of David Cameron’s attitude - he knows what we need. So how does he expect it to be accomplished? David Cameron backs same-sex ‘marriage’ and has taken a strong personal interest in it. He expects the Church of England to help. He says the Church of England should accept ‘full equality’ for homosexuals. He wants the church to change the minds of middle England for him.
The Westminster consultation was announced by the Lib Dem ‘equalities’ minister Lynne Featherstone. Downing Street sources claim David Cameron’s personal intervention has pushed the issue forward, but Lib Dem Lynne Featherstone insists the announcement is a triumph for her party within the coalition Government. She vowed to push same-sex marriage into law before the next general election. This substantiates the SCP claim in its Election campaign that the next election may be too late to do anything about this.
This shows that the Lib Dems are spear-heading this issue in Westminster. Before the General Election in 2010, Nick Clegg said that he wanted gay civil partnerships to be replaced by true marriage. He challenged David Cameron to say the same, and Cameron duly obliged.
Christian Lib Dems may wish to challenge Danny Alexander on his position on this matter. The Inverness and Nairn Lib Dem candidate for the Scottish Parliament was in support of changing the definition of marriage.