Role models

I liked the Virtual Stoa's idea:

"Under the Tories’ new plans, can lesbians just write “David Cameron”, “George Osbourne” or perhaps even “Andrew Lansley” in the bit of the form where they have to mention a “male role model”, or is it a bit more complicated than that?"

But now we know, any responsible parent looking out for a male role model for their child need look no further than Sir Patrick Cormack:

"No one has a right to a child; a child is God-given. Assisted, yes, but assisted by a man and a woman, sometimes by a doctor, sometimes by a test tube, but a child who is deliberately brought into the world with no desire for a man and a woman is at a disadvantage,"

The sad thing is, that probably wasn't even close to being the least coherent contribution to the debate.

Labour minister Tom Harris joined Sir Pat, Iain Duncan Smith and others in their bid to send a message to society about the importance of fatherhood. He might have had an inkling that he wasn't exactly lining up on the side of tolerance and equality under the law from the following bit of good old boy banter:

Huw Irranca Davis indicated he was going to vote the same way. “Stay close,” I whispered out of the side of my mouth. Inside the ‘Aye’ lobby there were hordes of Tory MPs and a few other Labour MPs. I told Davy Hamilton, the Midlothian MP, that Huw was there to hold my hand. “Well, you’re in the wrong lobby then,” he observed.