Thursday, February 09, 2006
Tories admit they were wrong, again
Tory Chairman: Gay policies were wrong | PinkNews
David Cameron's attempts to woo the pink vote have taken another step forward, with the admission by his party chairman, Francis Maude, that Section 28 was wrong. He said the policy was "in hindsight a mistake, I voted for it, I was a minister."
Mr Maude told PinkNews.co.uk: "The gay scene in London in the 1980s was quite aggressively promiscuous and I think if society generally and the government I served in had been more willing to recognise gay people then there would have been less of that problem... A lot of people like my brother would not have succumbed to HIV and lost their lives."
So that's that. Admit that your policies meant more people died (not to mention contributed to huge amounts of angst and discrimination) and move on. Forgive and forget.
There are, however, a couple of problems. Firstly, how much hindsight do you need before you admit you got it wrong? It's only a couple of years ago that the tories were still opposing the repeal of section 28. Not long before that they were opposing an equal age of consent. Objecting to poufs in the military. In fact, they've been on the wrong side of the argument on everything except civil partnerships (and even then, there were tory lords and ladies trying to block it). What's changed in the last 2 years to give Francis his damascene conversion? Something to do with losing a 3rd election on the run, maybe?
And then there's the question of how much we forgive. Face it, according to the man himself, he voted for a policy which lead to people dying. If that's true, do you trust his judgement in future? And do you forgive? Or should he - and any other left over tories who voted for section 28 - step down from public life for good?
And then there's the good old Tory faithful. Are they with Francis on this one, or would they still prefer that people like us shot ourselves?
The only thing that's really changed about the Tory party is that they've realised too many people view them as dangerously right wing bigots, so they're trying to soften their image. But trailing public opinion is a poor substitute for leading it - and we still remember what they were saying when it actually made a difference.
David Cameron's attempts to woo the pink vote have taken another step forward, with the admission by his party chairman, Francis Maude, that Section 28 was wrong. He said the policy was "in hindsight a mistake, I voted for it, I was a minister."
Mr Maude told PinkNews.co.uk: "The gay scene in London in the 1980s was quite aggressively promiscuous and I think if society generally and the government I served in had been more willing to recognise gay people then there would have been less of that problem... A lot of people like my brother would not have succumbed to HIV and lost their lives."
So that's that. Admit that your policies meant more people died (not to mention contributed to huge amounts of angst and discrimination) and move on. Forgive and forget.
There are, however, a couple of problems. Firstly, how much hindsight do you need before you admit you got it wrong? It's only a couple of years ago that the tories were still opposing the repeal of section 28. Not long before that they were opposing an equal age of consent. Objecting to poufs in the military. In fact, they've been on the wrong side of the argument on everything except civil partnerships (and even then, there were tory lords and ladies trying to block it). What's changed in the last 2 years to give Francis his damascene conversion? Something to do with losing a 3rd election on the run, maybe?
And then there's the question of how much we forgive. Face it, according to the man himself, he voted for a policy which lead to people dying. If that's true, do you trust his judgement in future? And do you forgive? Or should he - and any other left over tories who voted for section 28 - step down from public life for good?
And then there's the good old Tory faithful. Are they with Francis on this one, or would they still prefer that people like us shot ourselves?
The only thing that's really changed about the Tory party is that they've realised too many people view them as dangerously right wing bigots, so they're trying to soften their image. But trailing public opinion is a poor substitute for leading it - and we still remember what they were saying when it actually made a difference.
posted by MR @ 3:08 PM 
