Labour’s Chris Bryant has responded in the Guardian to Tory Nick Herbert’s claims that the Conservatives are cuddly and love gays and lesbians. Like me he is somewhat sceptical and goes more by the evidence of not what they say, but what they have done, and what they continue to do.
And then of course there’s the equality bill. Herbert and Alan Duncan didn’t turn up to the vote for its second reading; however, hundreds of Conservative MPs remembered to turn up to oppose equality. That includes almost the entire Conservative frontbench, including Michael Gove, Phillip Hammond, Dominic Grieve and Chris Grayling.
And in Europe, Conservative MEPs failed to support an anti-discrimination directive in April this year. Cameron has pulled Tory MEPs from the centre of European debate into the outer margins of the right. How is this change?
You can tell there is an election coming soon, can’t you.
