After Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg, Johann Hari interviews the Tory leader for his pre-election series in Attitude magazine.One of the least convincing u-turn that took place in British politics in the last five years is the Conservatives' stance on LGBT rights. In the early Noughties, the rampantly homophobic party of the 1980s and 1990s was still voting compact to save Section 28, against an equal age of consent or even against civil partnerships.
Which is why Hari's interview with the Tory leader is of particular interest.
While Cameron seems to pull no punches when it comes to apologising over Section 28 and its effects, there are at least a couple of passages that leave the reader very unconvinced.
1) On voting against gay adoptions in 2002 he denied it. "No, I abstained on it", he replies. Embarrasingly, Hari points at the written Hansard record and Cameron insists that "my memory" is a different one.
2) On tackling the view that homophobia is a "sin" as it currently is in faith schools, he said: "That's so wrong. My daughter goes to a church school and it's not like that" -the old "because it doesn't happen to me, it doesn't happen", straight from The Book Of The Insensitive Big Man.
3) On his super homophobic allies in Europe (including Mr Kaminski, Polish MEP and leader of the Brussels group which includes the Tories in the European Parliament), David Cameron simply cannot own up to the simple truth that they are profoundly homophobic. He just "throws into the air a confetti of different distractions", Hari writes.
You can read the interview in full on the Independent website or if you buy Attitude.
2 comments:
A leopard cannot change its spots.
But it can put a coat on.
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