Those of you who are not really paying attention to politics need to start paying attention, whether you are American or not. From across the pond, Cristina Odone points out a troubling fact, that David Cameron is ignoring the will of the people on the issue of “gay marriage.”
David Cameron is in denial about what ordinary Britons think. The PM really really wants voters to be liberal metrosexuals like him and his North Kensington cronies. And because the litmus test of metropolitan liberals these days is support for gay marriage, Cameron believes the great British public must support gay marriage. When research shows they don’t, he refuses to accept the evidence. In fact, it would seem, he’s prepared to play strange games with the evidence.
According to Andrew Hawkins, the CEO of the polling company ComRes, the PM wilfully misinterpreted a poll on Tory support for gay marriage.
I’m really a bit weary of polling because it is so fickle. If, for example, this story about Cameron ignoring the ComRes poll were to gain any traction, he could probably commission a poll that would show whatever results he wanted to show. If you poll long enough, eventually you’ll come up with an anomaly that fits your agenda. An electorate that is not paying close attention to politics, but rather is settling for reading the headlines (if that), is easily fooled. That includes headlines about polls.
I would agree that it’s important that we understand what people think about issues. At the same time, the better way is to elect people with principles who will stick to them, no matter how the political winds may blow. We should also, on serious matters, hold our elected officials to their party’s platform. Having said that, there is not much principle in the Tory platform on “gay marriage”….unless your “principle” is that “anything goes” in the name of “equality.” On the other hand, I cannot even find a platform at the Labour Party website.
It may be time for our friends across the pond to join with us in America to have a socially conservative Tea Party.
