This old gay marriage malarkey is getting a bit over the top isn’t it? I really do wonder what all the fuss about as because the last time I checked, I was firmly of the belief that what makes a good society is a happy society. If getting married creates happiness between same sex couples, who really cares?

The extreme right wing of the Tory party seem to care; they seem to be stuck in a somewhat bizarre place where buggering children or asphyxiating on oranges whilst clad in suspenders appears to be acceptable but a homosexual marriage is abhorrent; What is actually taught in Eton sex education classes?  I have no idea but there appears to be some in the educated elite who are confused by what sexual practices are acceptable in the 21st century.

In an alleged free society or democracy, the assumption, or at least my assumption, has to be that people of any sexual orientation should be allowed to get married to who they want just as long as it is consensual and over the legal age limit. That has to be right doesn’t it…Who else’s business should it be?

Of course under a media storm, this has all turned into something of a political hot potato for David Cameron because the common consensus was that the modernisers in the party saw the legislation of gay marriage as a huge signal to centre right and indeed, centre left voters (of which there are many) that Conservatism is moving into the 21st century.

What he or they didn’t reckon for, was the voices of the nutters on the far right, UKIP and the procreation evangelists who seem to spend their whole lives nose poking and dictating to intelligent adults about how they should conduct themselves. These attention seeking minority groups are now causing a real nuisance and could, at great expense, bring the government down.

What was meant to be a vote winning smokescreen over more important current issues such as the economy, tax evasion and the rapidly approaching American/Israeli blitz of Iran, has been become a political minefield. Like the populist New Labour law on fox hunting, it will cost a bloody fortune but hardly change anything to the daily lives of the masses and do nothing to correct more serious political  issues at stake.

The whole situation gets even more confused as it would now appear that as part of the deal for passing legislation on gay marriage quickly, civil partnerships are to be abolished. Why not just leave civil partnerships as they are and open them up to heterosexuals as well?  They aren’t doing anyone any harm are they?

There are now estimates flying around that the whole process of something that 95% of the population are pretty much apathetic about, could cost the tax payer up to £4billion….That’s nearly enough fill in all the potholes in Hampshire!  Joking aside, if the Government and the opposition wanted this bill passed quickly without huge cost and political embarrassment, why on earth wasn’t it included in the Tory election manifesto…Or was it?

Sadly, the whole debacle gets more ridiculous as the Tories opposed to gay marriage say it wasn’t in the election manifesto, whilst those in favour say it was and point to the Conservative’s “contract for equalities” which clearly includes the prospect of changing the law to rename civil partnerships as marriages. It needs sorting out quickly otherwise it will be a financial and political disaster.

Personally, I have known quite a few homosexuals who are friends of friends as well as working alongside them on occasion and I can’t really say that their sexuality has ever had any deep effect on how I go about my daily life. Conversely, I have also worked with people who are rampantly anti-gay and are in constant need to be graphic about their heterosexual exploits with their wives or girlfriends or both.

If I am entirely honest, I find these individuals more disturbing than any homosexual I have met, probably because I rarely feel in the frame of mind to gain any interest or indeed, sexual thrill, from a conversation about someone’s wife getting a semi-consensual rogering from a middle-aged fat bloke with 10 pints of lager swilling round his gut. Never yet has a homosexual bragged to me about his sex life, probably because the vibe of non interest coming from me is just as clear as it should be to the repressed heterosexual.

Here is how my life generally operates; it is fundamentally the same sort of life that is held by my chosen peer group and many people who are reading this post. I work, I own a house, I like sports such as football and cricket, I spend time with my kids and girlfriend and enjoy socialising in pubs or restaurants.  That’s about it really and when I check through that list, I really can’t find any employment or pleasure that would be taken away from me as the result of gay people getting married.

In fact as a heterosexual, I really cannot find anything anywhere that should stop a gay marriage taking place apart from the religious theories from evangelists that marriage should always be the first step on the ladder to procreation and that should be its sole and only purpose.

Really?

Does that mean that tens of thousands of divorced people like me, who don’t want more, or indeed, can’t have more children, should be banned from marrying for the rest of our lives?

Or is that different?