Blogging from the Highlands of Scotland
'From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step' - Diderot

Friday 14 March 2003

Michael Portillo - "they [the Conservative Party] still don't get it"

Michael Portillo, speaking during his regular appearances on Andrew Neil's 'This Week' programme on BBC1 yesterday evening, was asked by Andrew Neil his opinion on the Conservative amendments defeated in the House of Commons earlier in the week, which would have had the effect either of stopping the repeal of Clause 28, or of replacing it with an equally pernicious right for parents to vet materials used in education. 'Clause 28' was introduced in the late-1980s by Thatcher and forbids the so-called 'promotion' of homosexuality and describes homosexual relationships as 'pretend family relationships'.

Michael Portillo was asked why he had not voted on these two amendments - he pleaded absence from the HoC that evening, which made me a little 'suspicious', but he continued with a very forthright declaration that he would certainly have voted against both amendments had be been present - as did others such as Alan Duncan, John Bercow and Christopher Soames. He went on to say that that too many in the Conservative Party still didn't 'get it', saying that many people who would normally vote Conservative were so offended by the Party's desire to see Clause 28 retained that they would never vote Conservative again, even though they agreed with almost everything else Conservatives believe in.

I have never heard any mainstream politician talk about this quite so clearly and candidly before - it exactly reflects the reason why I left the Party when Mr Iain Duncan Smith became the Leader and why I shall not vote for that Party again until Duncan Smith is replaced by someone less bigoted (i.e. David Davis is definitely not such a person!) amd this ridiculous and damaging policy is abandoned. Duncan Smith of course voted for the amendment earlier this week to retain Clause 28.

I had worried that Tony Blair's weakness at present might strengthen the Conservative Party, but as 'The Economist' points out in one of its pieces this week, if Blair were to be replaced by Brown (God forbid!) it might mean there was more likelihood of some more reasonable candidates putting themselves up to be Leader of the Conservatives if their electoral fortunes were seen to be reviving and that IDS would be dumped pretty quickly - one can only hope.

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