On Easter Sunday there was a furore because Chris Grayling (MP for another 24 hours or so), said that Bed & Breakfast owners should be able to turn away gay customers.
It certainly gave the Lib Dems, Labour and Peter Tatchell something to talk about whilst considering which Easter egg they’d open first.
Today, the Guardian reports that The Tories are eager to explain how Grayling was recounting an old view, he no longer holds.
Following the mantra that you can’t believe everything you read in the papers, I went to investigate.
First, Chris Grayling has a website, he must have defended himself? Nope.
The Conservative website? Nothing there. Only go there if you’re interested in the Tory view on Labour. What about the “Blue Blog” … are you kidding me?
Even the Tory Twitter feed was silent on the matter.
So, was it an old view, he no longer holds? Why did he recount it if it was? I mean, I know people who used to think it was okay to hit women. They don’t hold that view any more, but I don’t hear them telling me that 50 years ago it was okay to give a woman a slap if she stepped out of line. I know someone who was homophobic until he got to know some gay people. He doesn’t go around saying it was okay for him to be homophobic in the past. Get my drift?
Whatever your views in the past, that’s fine. The only reason you’d refer to them is if you still believe in them.
And if you are going to retract some remarks which have been made public, at least have the decency to make your retraction public where we can find it.
Politics is so one-sided. The only aim of the main parties seems to be to slag off the other one (and the Lib Dems). When a Labour guy tweeted about the Tories being “scum sucking pigs” (with, or without lipstick), the Tories went haywire, they were quick off the mark to put David Wright in his place. David Wright tweeted a feeble apology – at least it was an attempt. Come on Tories, show some of this compassion you’re ranting on about having found.
Last comments