In the United Kingdom, the next
general election will be held in a month's time. Who will win? Good question.
And what will the consequences be for Great Britain's LGBT population?
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At present, the United Kingdom
is governed by a coalition government between Prime Minister David Cameron's
Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, themselves internally divided
between social liberals and centre-right 'classical liberals.' It may have been
under the influence of the latter that the Liberal Democrats entered coalition
with the Conservatives, but it has cost them support amongst their formerly
broad-based constituency. Social liberals dislike Tory austerity policies and
benefit and social service cuts and have deserted the Liberal Democrats for
Labour, the Greens and Scottish Nationalist Party (north of Hadrian's Wall).
However, Cameron has been pragmatic enough to keep the Liberal Democrats onside
with a half-hearted, weak 'electoral reform' referendum that pitted FPP against
the weak, barely proportional electoral system known as the Alternative Vote (or
Preferential Vote), used predominantly within Australia's federal and most state
lower parliamentary chambers. More popularly, it also backed marriage equality.
Although half of the Conservative caucus voted against marriage equality,
Cameron and his core Tory allies tend to be centre-right social liberals and
thus voted for it, along with most of Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the sole
UK Green MP, in Brighton. That said, it seems possible that the subsidence of
the Liberal Democrat vote will lead to resurgence of the Labour oppositional
vote against the Conservatives, although Labour may also lose votes in Scotland.
Labour favours comprehensive, LGBT-inclusive anti-bullying legislation, the last
frontier for LGBT rights within the United Kingdom.
At this point, there is another
variable to consider within the uncertainty equation that currently describes
British politics. During Tony Blair's term of office, one significant move to
undo Margaret Thatcher's highly destructive centralist brand of authoritarian
conservatism was devolution of some power to constituent elements of the United
Kingdom, such as Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and London. In Scotland and
Wales, this led to the rise of regional nationalist parties, Plaid Cymru in
Wales and the Scottish Nationalist Party, whose ultimate objective used to
secession from the perceived English-dominated United Kingdom. However, Scottish
voters rejected that option in another referendum this term. However, there is a
very real prospect that if there is another hung parliament without any single
party majority, Labour and the Scottish Nationalists may end up in coalition,
despite current Labour leader Ed Miliband's stance that this will not happen.
This would be a positive development. In order to keep Scotland within the
United Kingdom, concessions will have to be made on Scottish autonomy within the
United Kingdom, as well as a written constitution. Which is where we come in, as
well as other communities of interest within Scottish civil society, because the
Scottish Nationalist Party is as progay and pro-inclusion as Labour, which may
result in the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity within any
such document. Moreover, it may not be restricted to Scotland. Given the
dysfunctional nature of the Liberal Democrat coalition relationship with the
Conservatives, they may also come onboard any such coalition, facilitating the
aforementioned constitutional reform process.
The excellent, the bad and the
ugly. Over the next month, I'll be covering whatever relevant aspects of the
election debate emerge within the LGBT context.
Recommended:
Attitude:http://www.attitude.co.uk
Gay Times: http://www.gaytimes.co.uk
Diva: http://www.divamag.co.uk
Pinknews: http://www.pinknews.co.uk
Gaystarnews: http://www.gaystarnews.com
BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news
