Same sex please, we’re British

Same sex please, we’re British. Britannia Rules! Let’s fly the same sex Union Jack in solidarity!

Britain’s Conservative Government passes a Bill in favour of same sex marriage through the House of Commons — in a landslide. Tess Lawrence asks why Australia still lags.

A few sleeps ago, in a major political breakthrough for international human rights, the majority of the House of Commons, gawd luv ‘em, voted 400 to 175 in favour of same sex marriage in England and Wales.

Prime Minister David Cameron is to be congratulated for his extraordinary political courage and leadership in this penultimate step for Justice.

Given that more than half of the Bill’s voting opponents were members of his own Conservative political tribe, Cameron displayed a daring leadership, moral fortitude and muscle, sadly lacking in our own Prime Minister.

Julia Gillard, has stated categorically that she is against same sex marriage, spurning the considerable LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) electoral bloc who are part of our human family and entitled to equality both in law and in societal equity.

After the Bill goes to a Public Bill Committee for a nip and tuck, it will go before the House of Lords — some of whom are already a-leaping in hypocritical horror. And here, I’m not just talking about hereditary peers.

Given that the majority of the British public (as in Australia) support gay marriage – and given that the house of the people, the Commons, has spoken on their behalf – if the Lords did not pass the Bill, they would distance their privileged selves even further from The Great Unwashed.

The Commons agreed to a free vote on the Bill; that is, parliamentary representatives were not obliged to vote along party lines. Our ‘conscience’ vote (excuse the guffaw) is the nearest equivalent to a free vote.

Herein, the Leader of the Coalition Opposition in Australia, Tony Abbott, meanly refused members the right to a conscience vote on same sex marriage.

And collectively, known dissenters lacked the moral strength and will to politically shirtfront him on this.

Read the rest, Independent Australia, here:

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/britain-forges-ahead-of-australia-in-marriage-equality/