Gay marriage: A pointless distraction

The Government is supposed to be sifting through the many responses it received to the consultation on gay marriage, which ended in June. Yet judging from David Cameron’s comments this week, the whole exercise was a sham. We have observed before that this process was not intended to ask people whether homosexuals should marry, but how the reform could be implemented. This was confirmed by the Prime Minister at a Downing Street reception this week, when he promised a new law before the general election.

Many people are perplexed by this. Mr Cameron appears to brook no discussion whatsoever about the principle of redefining marriage as it is commonly understood, which is as a legal contract – and a sacrament, for the religiously minded – between a man and woman. Yet most of the public controversy around this issue is precisely focused on this very principle, a principle that the Prime Minister appears already to have resolved in his own mind.

If Mr Cameron is proposing to plough ahead, without addressing the fundamental point that everyone else is debating, he will alienate even more of his own bedrock supporters, who are reportedly leaving the Tory party in droves. He will also find himself in an almighty battle with the churches, even if the religious marriage service is not intended to be affected. And all this in the midst of the deepest economic crisis for more than 50 years. There does not even seem to be an especially powerful lobby for change from gay couples, many of whom already avail themselves of the civil partnerships introduced by Labour. Mr Cameron believes he has popular support for this reform and perhaps he has. But the country will still consider it a pointless distraction when the Government is assailed by so many other difficulties.