October 2, 2009

Why the silence, Iain?

Posted in Other blogs, Politics at 7:09 pm by Paul Sagar

OK, it’s been a good few months since I’ve pissed off the Conservative Party’s internet minions. Time to invite some trouble.

Over at Iain Dale’s Diary, the man himself has drawn attention to the fact that the Daily Mail not only made homophobic smears against him, but (after confusion due to a hoax letter) is also apparently refusing to apologise.

Originally, the Mail wrote:

Overtly gay Tory blogger Iain Dale has reached the final stage of parliamentary selection for Bracknell, telling PinkNews: ‘I hope any PinkNews readers who live in Bracknell will come to the open primary on October 17 to select their new candidate.

Isn’t it charming how homosexuals rally like-minded chaps to their cause?

Iain Dale was rightly up in arms about this (the word “overtly” in particular), complaining to the Daily Mail and urging his readers to do the same. He boldly – and in my opinion, with complete justification – stated:

If by standing up to the Daily Mail, and drawing attention to this issue, it hijacks me in Bracknell, then that will be a bitter blow to have to take, but if I sat back and just accepted this sort of thing, what sort of person would that make me? And worst of all, if I did say nothing, it would just encourage them to do it again to someone else in the future. I simply cannot do that.

Iain is continuing his principled stand: the Mail has refused to apologise, and so Iain is taking it to the Press Complaints commission. I hope he succeeds (though the PCC is of course a notoriously tooth-less watchdog).

But why stop there, Iain? After all, if homophobia is wrong in the pages of the Daily Mail, then surely it is wrong everywhere?

Surely, for example, it is wrong for the Conservative Party to be associating – as they are in the European Parliament – with unashamed homophobes. You know, unashamed homophobes such as Polish MEP Michal Kaminski – chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists group of which the Tories are now a member – who unapologetically described gay people as “faggots”. (Incidentally, a member of Kaminski’s Law and Justice party apparently condemned the Polish government for constructing the largest elephant house in Europe and then housing a gay elephant there, because apparently gay elephants are not OK).

Or Valdemar Tomaševski, MEP from Lithuania, and member of the Tories’ Euro coalition, who is on record as having branded homosexuality a “perversion”, and who was recently revealed as having personally voted for a Lithuanian law that has been described as a harsher, more wide-reaching version of Britain’s Section 28. (h/t to Soho Politico via Liberal Conspiracy)

Or Jarosław Kaczyński of the Law and Justice Party (again), who has said that “homosexuals should not be isolated, however they should not be school teachers for example. Active homosexuals surely not, in any case”, but that homosexuals “should not be discriminated otherwise”. He has also stated, “The affirmation of homosexuality will lead to the downfall of civilization. We can’t agree to it”.

Why the silence, on this lot, Iain? If you can’t just sit back and let the Daily Mail spread homophobic smears as a matter of principle, how can you consistently sit back and not say a word about your own party’s alliance with unashamed homophobes in Europe?

Or is it one rule for politically convenient attacks on the Daily Mail (conveniently forgetting how often that paper’s bile has helped your party), and another for politically convenient alliances in Europe designed to undercut the UKIP vote in the home counties?

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