Some of you may not of heard of David Jones MP. Apparently he is the Secretary of State for Wales. He first crossed my radar on the Stephen Nolan show on 5 Live last night. He is the fellow who quite casually, live on air, uttered the rather chilling words that gay couples are unable to provide “warmth and affection” should they chose to parent children. Surely, not even the most knuckle dragging of our government would utter such offensive nonsense? But Nolan played the tape and that is what the guy said. To be fair he did qualify it by saying that he did not object to gay marriage, which I thought was a little odd as he voted against it.
Imagine if he had said that black couples were unable to provide children with warmth and affection? The world and his wife would be screaming for his resignation. I don’t think that Jones should resign; just get out a bit more.
What saddens me is that intelligent people can have genuinely held beliefs which are so obviously wrong. The gay men and women of Wales who have adopted children and offer them love, affection and a stable home must feel rather hurt. Why does a cabinet minister feel that they are incapable of bringing up a child?
Does Jones think that Elton John and David Furnish don’t love their kids? And if so why? It may well be that Jones is a creationist and genuinely believes that the World is four thousand years old and that we are not descended from apes. It is the delightfully tolerant British way of dealing with things to comment that “we respect those views”. I’m afraid that I don’t. Jones will have caused great hurt to many decent people who have not chosen a lifestyle but just happen to be born the way they are. They have love to give and shouldn’t be denied the opportunity of giving it.
Children desperately need to feel loved and secure. End of story. Why this isn’t so blindingly obvious is a total mystery to me.
Sometimes I look round parliament in total disbelief at the wide range of quirky views and sometimes I think that I inhabit another planet from some of these people. God knows what the electorate think.
Sometimes it is very hard to be a Conservative. But like David Cameron I struggle on.
