- Yawn... Interesting wording, though:
"I am perfectly willing to say I have had both homosexual and heterosexual relationships in the past."Of course you are, Simon, you're a politician, so perfectly willing to say anything that might get you a little bit of power and/or positive attention. There's also a nice attempt to head off any Oaten/Kennedy-style tabloid revelations at the pass:
"I do not believe that anything that I have done has impinged upon my capacity to serve my constituents or fulfil any of the roles that I have sought, undertaken or am seeking for the future"But the end result is the same - he's a Lib Dem, so no one cares.
8 Comments:
So his campaign against Peter Tatchell running as the 'strait choice' was simply stirring up hate of his opponent with lies about himself.
The "straight choice" stuff is nonsense. Phil Grant has debunked it pretty comprehensively.
Rob, I'm a Lib Dem voter myself, but I fear you're clutching at straws here. It's true that the Lib Dems often use that slogan. But on Newsnight recently, Hughes apologised for the Liberal campaign against Tatchell including saying that the use of "straight choice" was "an unacceptable form of language". That's from the man himself, I'm afraid.
I agree that it's not a term that would be used now. Hughes' apology has more to do with political correctness in 2006 than it has to do with campaign slogans in 1983.
Even at worst, it's so subtle as to be undetectable to anyone who isn't looking for an anti-gay message in it. It hardly ranks up there with "If you want a nigger for a neighbour vote Labour" (a Tory slogan from 1964), does it? That really was "stirring up hatred".
Hm, Blogger lies when it says I can use some HTML tags.
The first mangled bit is supposed to say "looking" in italics, the second is "is", in italics.
This is just so typical of the rank hypocrisy rampant in politics today. We should return the the Macbeth method of ladder climbing...
If the LibDem "leadership" contest is a load of bald men fighting over a comb, then Christopher WhoHe is the only possible victor.
It would be funny if it weren't so sad. The whole LibDem thing at the moment is like watching a man spend his life savings on a really nice car, only to drop the keys down a drain.
"Straight choice" - maybe innocent. But the anonymous "Which Queen will you vote for?" leaflet and "I've been kissed by Peter Tatchell" badges? Not so much. Wasn't just the Liberals, of course, but the homophobia generally in the campaign is pretty undeniable.
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