Two Wrongs or Two Rights? Tatchell’s Non-Equitable Equalities

Being from Bermondsey and having lived through the Labour Party’s implosion following the Bermondsey by-election debacle in 1983, Peter Tatchell continues to perplex and confuse me. What Tatchell was then and indeed is today seems to be something of a bitter contradiction: a man who tried to go ‘back in the closet’ during the Bermondsey by-election but who then went on to believe that his was his ‘right’ to publicly ‘out’ those in positions of power or authority.

This week, Tatchell writes on Comment is Free about how is he supporting the right of a ’straight’ – read heterosexual – couple to have a civil partnership rather than a marriage. Why…?

Tatchell writes how Tom Freeman and Katherine Doyle have had their request for a civil partnership turned down by Islington registry office having been handed a letter of refusal that informed them how Part One of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 states that they apply to same-sex couples only. Adding that this is the first ever challenge to the ban on heterosexual couples having a civil partnership, Freeman and Doyle will first have to go through the British courts and, if this fails, appeal to the court in Strasbourg.

For Tatchell, it is arguable that the ‘ban on straight couples’ breaches the European Convention on Human Rights under articles 8, 12 and 14 respectively, protecting the right to privacy, marriage and non-discrimination. From a man that completely disregarded the right to privacy of those he forcibly ‘outed’, such a claim is pretty rich.

“I detest the niqab and the BNP: what does that make me?”

For anyone who has read the post by Gary Younge on Comment is Free entitled, ‘When you watch the BNP on TV, just remember: Jack Straw started all this’, many I’m sure will conclude that he makes some good points. Not least when he notes that:

…there is little doubt that once the BNP is on Question Time, Jack Straw – or indeed anyone in the New Labour hierarchy – is in no position to take the fight to it. The same is true for most of the rest of the British political establishment that will be represented on the panel – they have either actively colluded or passively acquiesced in the political trajectory of the past decade.

But it is no accident that this happened on New Labour’s watch and no small irony that Jack Straw should set himself up as Griffin’s opponent.

In fact I couldn’t agree more. Why put up against the BNP’s Nick Griffin the very man that started the whole niqab furore a few years ago?

“Told You So…”: BNP gain 2 MEPs in North-West & North-East

“The British National Party have played on people’s fears …and we’ll have to work to tackle the fear that lead to people to vote BNP”
Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Harriet Harman,

“All politicians should be asking themselves ‘how did we allow this to happen?’”
Shadow Defence Secretary of the Conservative Party, Liam Fox

Too little, too late as ever.

And isn’t this why people – ordinary people – have voted for the BNP?

Isn’t it because the mainstream parties have disconnected from the very people that were put in power to serve?

A tragedy and a farce.

You cannot blame the BNP and you cannot blame the people that voted for them. Blame instead the politicians that repeatedly dismissed the BNP with nonchalent arrogance and ignored the people that needed help and support and who ultimately felt that had no other choice.

It would be crass to say don’t vote BNP (but I hope you don’t)

As the Labour Party goes into meltdown and the end of Gordon Brown’s tenure at number 10 seems to be coming to its timely climax, the country go to the polls today to vote in European and local elections. When the results of the European elections are announced, much of the focus will be on Labour’s share of the vote and the impact this has on Brown’s demise. But what about the number of votes picked up by the BNP?

According to the Institute of Community Cohesion (iCoCo), support for far right parties such as the British National Party (BNP) is smaller in the UK than in other parts of Europe. But following its success in winning a seat on the Greater London Assembly (GLA) last year, the party now has strong hopes of winning seats in Europe.

Britain’s got Gordon but he’s got no Talent…

My politics has always been rooted in the belief that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things, given the right support and encouragement…Most of all I want to help the Labour Party to reconnect with the British people, to remind them that our values are their values, that their hopes and dreams are ours too.

These are some of the words from Hazel Blears’ resignation statement from the Cabinet. Just yesterday, the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced that she too would be stepping down from her role and would be leaving politics at the next election. In the past few weeks, allegations about the expenses of a whole raft of MPs including Geoff Hoon, Alistair Darling, Shahid Malik and numerous others have rocked the Labour Party to its core.