In my spare time I no longer read Schopenhauer or Tolstoy, but mostly thrillers, historical novels, books about old London, biographies, diaries, memoirs and such.
I have mentioned before, I hope, James Lees-Milne, whose utterly magnificent diaries I have been reading with great joy for years now. I thought of him when I read something by Richard Ingrams in The Independent about David Cameron.
Ingrams says Cameron is following his role model Tony Blair in making meaningless apologies.
Blair apologised to the Irish nation for the potato famine of the 1840s while Cameron has now apologised for the Thatcher government’s controversial Section 28, which banned local authorities and schools from promoting homosexuality. “I hope you can forgive us,” he said with apparent sincerity.
It is not always clear to whom these political apologies are addressed. I suppose Cameron would argue that he was abasing himself before the gay community and it was their forgiveness that he craved.
Ingrams then went on to talk about the homosexual propagandists like Peter Tatchell, saying “For all I know there might even be gays who actually approved of Section 28.”
I am quite sure there are. One gay friend of mine finds all these gay evangelists deeply embarrassing; and Lees-Milne, who was enthusiastically bi-sexual certainly disapproved.
Why should homosexuality or for that matter any other kind of sexuality need promoting? These should be private matters. But even more of a mystery: why does oily Dave want to stick his oar – or anything else – in.
It reinforces my worries about the man. If he feels that strongly about it he should keep his mouth shut, quietly make his way to a friendly public toilet and get on with whatever he learnt to do at Eton.
