ON MONDAY I went to the Old Marylebone Town Hall for my first ‘gay wedding’. The colonnaded building was a grand venue with none of the dustiness and wear and tear I associate with municipal offices. The official declarations were simply worded but moving. My friends were old enough to remember when their love was a crime, and were delighted that they had lived long enough to make a public commitment.
The registrar said he had seen many more like them. Nearly every ceremony he conducted was for couples who had been together for decades. The oldest had been partners for 50 years, and only now were able to acquire the status and security of their heterosexual friends.
As I watched, I tried to think of a single measure this government had introduced which had brought so much happiness at so little cost to the Exchequer. Then I wondered why New Labour gets no credit for the good it has done.
In the case of the cause of homosexual equality, there are still huge problems in the day-to-day behaviour of the bureaucracy. What to do about religious GPs who refuse to treat homosexuals or schools that ignore the bullying of gay children are hard questions that haven’t been resolved. But 20 years ago Margaret Thatcher was introducing anti-gay laws, while today gays have near equality before the law. It is an astonishing turnaround in less than a generation.
Ben Summerskill of the homosexual rights group Stonewall shared my impression that his supporters didn’t thank Tony Blair. He suggested it was New Labour’s fault for not boasting about its successes.
Maybe he is right, but even if the Government did boast I’m not so sure it would help. Gratitude is a wasting asset in politics. It melts faster than breath on a windowpane. No one votes for Conservative because Margaret Thatcher took on the unions. Few will vote Labour because of its stand on civil rights. Once politicians settle an issue, the electorate takes it for granted and forgets.
The speed of politics explains the rush of Gordon Brown and David Cameron to embrace Baroness Kennedy’s thoughts on constitutional reform. It seems like yesterday that Alastair Campbell was saying only “Hampstead idiots” cared about the constitution – actually, he used a stronger word than “idiots” as I remember. Now everyone wants to talk about the “new localism,” electing the Lords, reviving the Commons and PR.
I am an anorak who loves this obscure stuff, but readers who are left cold should go to a gay wedding and ask the bride and bride or groom and groom if they thank New Labour for making them happy. If the answer is “not really,” you will understand the first lesson of politics: if you don’t keep moving, you die.
The Coming Anarchy
WHAT VITAL work will be left undone when flies buzz round Ken Livingstone’s empty office? I can’t be certain, but our dear Mayor’s recent pronouncements provide a clue to what we will be missing if his appeal fails and he is forced to take leave.
In the past week, he has given his two-penny worth on avian flu, which is a matter for the NHS, not him. He has declared his “strong support” for a threatened gay pride march in Moscow, which has nothing to do with London, obviously. And he has demanded “urgent action” over low voter registration, which, alas, is the responsibility of the boroughs rather than the Mayor. As far as I can see from his press releases, his one practical measure was to order 70 hydrogen-powered vehicles for delivery in 2010. They will be jolly nice to have but won’t, I fear, noticeably slow the melting of the ice caps.
It’ll be hard, but we will just have to manage without his Twitterings while he’s gone.
Missing weapons of mass destruction
What percentage of Saddam Hussein’s weapons came from Britain and America? I ask because on the rare occasions the BBC mentions Saddam’s genocidal crimes it always says he was ‘armed by the West.’
I bet you can’t guess the answer. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a mere 0.46 per cent of conventional weapons bought between 1973 and 2002 came from America and 0.17 per cent came from Britain. The overwhelming majority came from France and the Soviet Union, while West Germany gave Saddam the plant to make the poisons he used to gas the Kurds.
I bring this up because of the reports that German spies tipped off the Pentagon about Saddam’s war plans. They may well have known, as the Germans were in up to their necks in Iraq.
Nick Cohen
