If the Iron be Blunt

Crispin Blunt is, in my opinion, one of the most concerning MPs in Parliament. Although a Conservative, I find it hard to establish what it is he wishes to conserve. Twice he has attempted to ban prayers from being said before Commons sittings, being a committed atheist. He wishes to liberalise our drug laws, having proclaimed his own useage of currently legal, but morally questionable, 'poppers'. He got all upset when Liz Truss, Minister for Women and Equalities, recently decided to retain the medical requirement before people transition from one sex to another, calling for her to be stripped of that role. Furthermore, he has just been publicly rebuked as Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global LGBT+ Rights. The Commissioner for Standards, Kathryn Stone, described his decision to keep secret a paper advocating, among other things, the prescription of sex-swap drugs for children, as “a breach of the...rules on maintaining transparency”. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global LGBT+ Rights was also ordered to desist from using a rainbow-coloured portcullis symbol on its letterheads, and to retain the standard, black and white version approved by Parliament.

Mr Blunt has always been something of an unusual character, having sought to undermine two Conservative Party leaders and falling out with his own Association’s executive council. Some say it was due to homophobia on their part, with Blunt having ‘come out’ as gay within the last decade. More likely, it was their distaste for his publicly ‘announcing’ his sexual mores, rather than separating his public and private lives. Who cares if yet another old man declares his preference for males?

I looked at his All-Party Parliamentary Group’s website. It is currently conducting an ‘inquiry’ to identity:

-the main threats and challenges which LGBT+ communities face globally from religious actors opposing LGBT+ equality;

-the most effective ways in which legislators and policy makers can approach these challenges.

There we have it. Crispin and his friends wish ‘legislators and policy makers’ to ‘approach’ the challenge posed by ‘religious actors’ who do not subscribe to their views on sexuality. The greatest threats to religious freedom and the right to dissent from state-sanctioned morality come not from silly liberals like Layla Moran and old lefties like Jeremy Corbyn. They come from the likes of the Right Honourable Crispin Blunt.

Image by David Mark from Pixabay