That comment comes from a distasteful blog by Gerald Warner on Telegraph.co.uk.
Reflecting on the recent news that Nick Herbert has entered into a civil partnership with his partner Jason Eades - following on from Alan Duncan's own same-sex partnership - Mr Warner suggests that the Tories are out of touch and that the news will be greeted by "distaste or derision" in the "Dog and Duck". My guess is that it will be greeted with a shrug of the shoulders. Voters have bigger things to worry about at the moment. If Nick Herbert appears good at his job - and he is - that's what matters to them.
Civil partnerships are "a very New Labour thing to do" Mr Warner concludes.
I disagree but David Brooks put it much better than I could in 2003 (my emphasis):
"Anybody who has several sexual partners in a year is committing spiritual suicide. He or she is ripping the veil from all that is private and delicate in oneself, and pulverizing it in an assembly line of selfish sensations. But marriage is the opposite. Marriage joins two people in a sacred bond. It demands that they make an exclusive commitment to each other and thereby takes two discrete individuals and turns them into kin... The conservative course is not to banish gay people from making such commitments. It is to expect that they make such commitments. We shouldn't just allow gay marriage. We should insist on gay marriage. We should regard it as scandalous that two people could claim to love each other and not want to sanctify their love with marriage and fidelity."
I don't think churches should be compelled to marry people of the same sex. I think British law is about right; we have Civil Partnerships but "marriage" retains a distinct meaning. A belief in freedom of association and of religion also leads me to oppose the requirement on Catholic adoption agencies to place children with gay couples.
Gay Britons have won an important right. It is now important that conservatives defend religious communities' freedom to organise themselves in ways consistent with their beliefs.
