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Gays, Tories and the Polish PiS: An Inconvenient Truth That Won’t Go Away as Election Day Approaches
 
Rumblings in deepest Devon

UK Gay News Commentary

To paraphrase a saying on statistics: there are lies, damned lies, and political spin, especially at election time.

So just how serious is the Conservative party when leader David Cameron insists that the party is now gay-friendly?

On the face of it, with a couple of candidates seeking election, or re-election, as Conservative MPs, Mr. Cameron’s message has not reached the ears of some seeking election, as one in Scotland found out to his cost this week.

He was “fired” by the Tories – Mr. Cameron even said it only took a minute of two to decide .  Yet a shadow cabinet member, who made a faux pas over the rights of a gay couple to get bed and breakfast according to the law of the country, appeared to escape the public wrath of the party leader.

And even Tory candidates appear to be reluctant to answer gay-related questions from prospective constituents – those who on Thursday will be putting an “X” in a box.

Down in south Devon is the constituency of Totnes, the Conservative candidate is Dr. (as in GP) Sarah Wollaston who is best known nationally as the first-ever candidate to be selected though a postal “primary” election, with all voters in the constituency invited to vote.

“This,” she writes on her Web site, “has given me a special mandate to represent all views and not just those of the Conservative Party”.

While she extols openness, and the top spokespeople and spin doctors at Tory HQ in London talk the ‘Big Society’ message, with Mr. Cameron telling us to hold politicians (and one presumes this means candidates at the election) to account, some of those registered to vote in the Totnes constituency are finding this not exactly to be the case.

Totnes resident Peter Harrison and a number of others are not too pleased that Dr. Woolaston is refusing the answer questions on her party’s alignment with far-right groups in Europe, especially the Polish Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice) party.

“Her campaign is systematically censoring legitimate questions to her website and editing comments to their advantage. It is vital that the public learn of her tactics,” he alleged in an email to UK Gay News.

“Dr. Wollaston’s actions reveal a shocking difference between her well-funded publicity machine and her private efforts to avoid, censor and ignore.

On Dr. Wollaston’s Web site, it states: “Contributions of all shades of opinion are most welcome.  However, to prevent abuse, all user submissions and comments are subject to moderation.  Submissions considered to be offensive (including links to other offensive content), will not be posted.  Also, in the interests of maintaining a sensible balance, the Moderator may decide to close down a subject at any time.”

And those 58 words, Mr. Harrison suggests, means simply “censorship – and “hypocrisy” – and some in the Devon constituency are even questioning who is “the moderator” who has removed some posts on the site for being “offensive”.

Is asking a candidate why the Tories joined a political grouping in the European Parliament with a “nasty” party from Poland – a party that hates gays along with some other minority groups, and still does, despite Mr. Cameron’s insistence that Prawo i Sprawiedliwość has changed its views – another instance of a message from HQ that has not yet reached politicians and the ‘rank and file’, actually offensive?

Of course not.  But Tories might see the question to be offensive as it is an awkward truth that has been on the political radar for at least five years.

Earlier in April, The Observer revealed that there had been a secret report drawn up by Conservative party officials which concluded that it would be unwise for the Tories to form an alliance with Prawo i Sprawiedliwość as it was a far-right party with homophobic and nationalistic tendencies.

 The Observer reported: A former Polish MEP, Jozef Pinior, said he had been shown a summary version of the report in 2007 by “Conservative friends” in the parliament.  It contained advice “not to break away from the European Peoples party (the mainstream centre-right group) ... it made clear it was too politically dangerous”, he said.

Could it be that the matter of the new Tory “friends” in Poland is a very sensitive issue for the Conservatives?  After all, Mr. Cameron, who is “in the frame” as a possible Prime Minister, appears to have ignored the advice given in the report by his officials back in 2007, almost two years before the last European elections and the subsequent forming of the new political grouping in the European Parliament, and the sacking of Edward McMillan Scott MEP from the Tory Party shortly after last year’s Euro Elections – he went against party policy over the alliance and spoke out against it.

But back to Totnes and Peter Harrison.  “My Tory candidate is refusing to answer questions on an important national issue of widespread concern,” he said.

“A typical comment that has been censored is: “Dr. Wollaston thinks it’s ‘offensive’ to ask inconvenient questions.  We demand that she immediately re-instates all deleted comments [ on her Web site], publicly apologises for suppressing legitimate debate and answer three questions:

1. Why was the internal investigation into the Conservative party’s alignment with Law and Justice launched? 

2. Why was the investigation covered up?

3. Why was Edward McMillan Scott MEP expelled from the party without notice or reason?

“It is time for Dr. Wollaston to stop the spin and answer the questions,” he insisted.

There is no suggestion that the Tories, or Dr. Wollaston, are homophobic.  But even after Mr. Cameron announced last week that openly gay Conservative ‘front bencher’ Nick Herbert was to attend EuroPride in Warsaw in July – and while there talk to the PiS party and press them to moderate their views –  there are still gay men and women who simply don’t trust the Conservatives on “gay issues”.

But like any political party, Tories have a small minority that refuses to ‘toe the party line’ on gay and other issues.  Dr. Wollaston is probably toeing the party line when she declines to answer questions on the party’s European ‘bedfellows’.

The Totnes seat in the last Parliament was held by Tory Anthony Steen, who is not seeking re-election.  Mr. Steen had a 1,947 majority over Liberal Democrat in 2005.

■ The Totnes Conservative Association has been invited to comment, but nothing so far has been received.  If there is any comment forthcoming, it will be published here as soon as it is received.

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