Gay Marriage And The Mail

From today, same-sex marriage is legal in England and Wales. Some happy couples tied the knot almost as soon as midnight had passed, and fair play to them. But this has incurred the displeasure of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre, and so the Daily Mail has come out – against gay marriage. And who are they blaming for the change? Yes, the BBC did it, all by itself!

I'm not f***ing supporting gay marriage, c***

You think I jest? Cue Amanda Bloody Platell: the Beeb was “our self-appointed Ministry for Political Correctness”. It was? Yes, “you only had to watch BBC Question Time on Thursday”. Right. So who was that Daily Mail pundit who fetched up last weekend on The Andy Marr Show (tm) doing the paper review? That would have been you, Ms Platell. What a steaming hypocrite.

And, as the man said, there’s more: “the gay marriage legislation has been forced through by our political masters. Anyone brave enough to voice unease has been branded a bigot whose views were so beneath contempt they didn’t even deserve to be heard ... the chattering-class thought-police have decreed that their liberal value system is morally superior to the traditional beliefs of millions of ordinary Britons”.

Yet she concedes that two-thirds of Brits agree with the idea of same-sex marriage, a number which will probably rise as the practice becomes accepted and, well, part of everyday life. That means it’s yet another of those things that the Mail rails against and then later claims it supported all along. That, however, is in the future: right now, Dacre has a Real Gay Man to voice his opposition.

To no surprise at all, Andrew Pierce (wearing a pink shirt so you know he’s gay) first blames the right-on politicians: “you can be certain that David Cameron will be posting gushing messages on Twitter. No doubt Nick Clegg, who came up with the idea, and Ed Miliband, who supports it, will also try to steal some of the limelight with their own self-serving tweets”. Is Pierce not on Twitter? Er, yes he is.

What had these party leaders done wrong? “They not only offended millions of people by arrogantly redefining the meaning of the relationship between a man and a woman that has been the bedrock of society for thousands of years. They also placed the Church in an invidious position by suggesting it had a moral duty to perform gay marriage ceremonies”. They did?

Er, no they didn’t. This is a rant even more tiresome than the usual Pierce drivel. Is there a point in here somewhere? “In fact, the introduction of gay marriage was, politically, a disastrous miscalculation. The effect on the recruitment and retention of Tory Party members has been calamitous. It has cost the party thousands of votes and gained none”. Yes, getting him a ready excuse if Labour win next year.

Platell and Pierce: serving up a double portion of lame P. No change there, then.