What's the point of him, I mean, what's he for?

I refer of course to that chimera, that man of a thousand faces, that smooth reflecting man who, when you look at him, returns the image you wish for - I mean, of course, The Right 'Honourable' David Cameron.  I insert the inverted commas around 'honourable' because not only did the man stand as a Tory but he is actually the leader of the Tory party.  Thus, it is not unreasonable to suppose that he, himself, is a Tory.  Well, if you believe that you will believe anything! 

Apart from driving high speed train-lines through Tory heartlands destroying the property values of local residents, giving our money to windfarm contractors to allow them to ruin our countryside with their hideously ugly and mostly utterly useless contraptions and relaxing all planning rules so that any old get-rich-quick 'Bob the Builder' can knock up half a dozen brick boxes where-ever he can nick a bit of land, what has Dave done for you if you are a Tory?  At least Brown & Balls, the Brokers Men, bent every rule in the book, borrowed money and committed the nation's finances in support of the north of England by massive recruitment campaigns for local authorities and quangos thus ensuring that there was a huge pool of potential voters hanging on their government's teat.  But 'Dim Dave' actually attacks his own natural supporters.

His latest example of metropolitan, progressive, Left-wing policy-making is to force churches to allow same-sex marriages.  Of course, he hurriedly tells us, no-one is forcing the churches, let alone the mosques or the synagogues, to undertake this task because they will have to volunteer by opting-in to the scheme.  You do not need to be 'Mystic Meg' to see the forthcoming appeals to the European Court of (in)Justice aimed at any church or synagogue which declines to opt-in to this cosy arrangement.  Of course, no-one in their right mind would try that on the Muslims because retribution would be swift and deadly!  Only the soppy and soppingly wet, dear old Church of England will be targeted.  I hold no brief for the CofE but I defend the right of anyone to practice their religion provided they do not take actions to inflict damage on other people.  They are, in a sense, a private organisation and they should have the right to conduct their affairs according to their own lights without interference from the State.  If, in order to avoid this monstrous intrusion into its own affairs and practices, it means giving up the right to be the 'official' national church, then so be it.  And 'Dave' can go down in history as the man who helped destroy one of the last pillars of our society. 

And he calls himself a 'conservative'!

(To avoid any misconceptions, let me make it clear that I am in favour of same-sex marriage but as the State already provides that service I fail to see why churches should be forced to do so.)

 

Comments

[Whyaxye]

Excellent post, DD. Disestablishment would be a high price, but one worth paying to avoid being an executive branch of the Equality and Diversity state. I share your total perplexity as to why "Dave" is behaving in the way he does. Perhaps he is attempting to remove from the Tories everyone who is not a venal self-interested shit.

Trashing the countryside, buggering the economy, disestablishing the C of E, and losing Scotland. That will be a brilliant Tory legacy!

[backofanenvelope]

I watched him yesterday on the TV - pink faced and bursting with enthusiasm for Gay Marriage. Why is he so keen - he probably reckons that as only the Church cares, this is a fight he can win. Unlike his struggle with the deficit and so on.

If I was in charge of the CoE etc, I would have a quite simple policy. We would have two classes of marriage. Gay Marriage would be called Marriage, and Heterosexual marriage would be call Real Marriage.

Who could possibly object to that?

[Jimmy Glesga]

If a couple of Gay punters marry in a church it will have been forgotten about soon. Most people have to get on with their lives and earn a living. Being anti Gay seems to be the last bastion of prejudice for humans although they will probably come up with something else once the Gay issue has passed. Hopefully it is not people under 5 foot six with grey hair that forget to shave on occasion.

[rogerh]

Cameron may not show any convincing conviction - but probably a good thing - we had enough with loony Blair. We have played the Holy Green Belt game for long enough and Cameron is the first politician decent enough to recognise the fact.

What bugs me about HS2 is the compo scheme - pay megabucks to lawyers and inquiries and pay peanuts as compensation. I would reverse this process.

As for the Churches, I think you will find their dogmas are oh-so-adaptable. In the face of losing business or losing money they will rummage in the old scrolls and put a new 'interpretation' on old scribbles. If business stays buoyant and the lawyers stay at home then the current 'interpretations' will be deemed true scripture. None of this is Cameron's problem.

Cameron and Osbo are ridiculed daily - but personally I cannot see how they can do much that is different. They are stuck with some nasty b£$tards in their own party, those limp Liberals and very wisely Labour is keeping a low profile. The levers of power have gone slack and hang loosely in their hands.

[David Duff]

Gentlemen, I refer you to my next post above which takes the discussion a step further.

[H]

I think Cameron & co. are fairly safe with the mosques (as they must have known), since imams are not trusted (sofar) to carry out the registrar's duties in the way Christian and Jewish priests are, so their marriages (in the UK) don't really count anyway. The Hindus don't have to worry either.

The real problem is for the C of E, which is obliged to marry just about anyone. I think we know that they will have tied themselves up in knots within 30 seconds of any new rules coming.