Lib Dems: the Tories who dare not speak their name

If anyone ever wondered whether Lib Dems are really Tories in quaint tangerine disguise, the defection of Richard Porter, a former Lib Dem councillor and parliamentary candidate in Southwark, seems to confirm it.

An LGBT campaigner, he wrote the Lib Dem manifesto on LGBT issues for the last general election.

He said in April 2005: "We must never forget that it was the Conservative government who denied our community basic human rights for so many years."

Yes, quite.

He also said, conveniently ignoring (as Lib Dems tend to do) the long campaign for equality that has gone on in the Labour movement for decades: “in a sense, legislative changes are easy.”

Yes, Mr Porter, how easy legislative changes were in the 1980s and 1990s when the party you’ve just joined held sway. How childishly simple it was for them to introduce Section 28, and what a doddle it was for them to resist equalising the age of consent before May 1997. Looking back, civil partnerships would have been the work of a moment for your party. Gay adoption rights – easy-peasy. Joining the Armed Forces? Gay? No problem, we’ll just pass a little Bill to help you out. Pardon the pun, dear.

Curious then that this same Richard Porter should now be saying: "Ming Campbell is a 'has-been' and since he has been in control of the party, they have been stuck firmly in reverse gear.

He continues thusly: "After the election [which he lost – Camberwell and Peckham, proprietor: H. Harman, Labour] I took time out to reflect on my own personal beliefs and values [losing by 13,483 votes can do that to a Lib Dem]. Previously I thought that these values were best represented by the Liberal Democrats but I now believe that the principles of freedom from state interference, personal freedom, the environment and civil liberties are all areas where the Conservative Party leads the way."

So there we have it. His thinking is all cock-eyed (apart from the bit about Ming Campbell’s leadership), but at least Mr Porter has stepped out of the tangerine closet and declared himself, as every honest Lib Dem should, as a true blue Conservative. Maybe he was just going through a phase.

Curiously, the Conservative gay group, Torche, seems to have tight-lipped on their new arrival. But then their website, which appears not to have been updated since Stanley Baldwin was in Downing Street, is not exactly overflowing with news about any Tory fight for equality.



2 Comments »

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Mel said,
Streatham

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 - 11:06 AM

I suppose one difference between Mark and Lambeth's Lib Dems is about £3m. That's the amount of fraud that was going on at the town hall before Mark helped to kick them out of office last year.


Ben Russell said,
sleaford - Lincolnshire/north kesteven

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 - 10:50 AM

i'll be honest, i didnt read the bulk of this blog but the point stands that at the little intro piece clearly condemns the lib-dems! you are labour! traditional lefties, steadily becoming more right wing then the conservatives, at what point do you lose all sense of self and criticise the actions of another party who may or may not (as i suspect is really the case) be doing something similar to yourself!