Wednesday 21 May 2008

That Ye Be Not Deceived

Nadine Dorries, on the Today programme this morning, suggested that the time limit for abortion would come down if the Tories won the next General Election.

The American Republican Party has been keeping itself in existence like that for forty years: promising to ban or at least restrict abortion, but never doing the slightest thing about it, because those on whose votes it has come to depend would then declare "Mission Accomplished" and go home to the Democratic Party, whence they came and where their economic interest actually lies.

But the Tories could never pull off that trick here. Just as by far the most socialised sector would still never vote Labour in a million years, so the Catholics and the black-majority churches would never vote Tory in a million years. That's just the way it is.

Instead, common cause begins elsewhere.

4 comments:

  1. Abortion in America wasn't legalised by politicians but by activist judges on the Supreme Court appointed by LBJ and Nixon. Bush's appointments to that body have so far all been excellent, and if McCain wins in November then the Bush tendency to appoint so-called "strict constructionists" will probably continue. (The alternative possibility, that Obama will win and just carry on appointing pro-abortionists, is just too depressing.)

    People in this country often claim that abortion here is not a "political" issue "like it is in America" - normally indicating only how little they know not just of America but of English politics as well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Bush's appointments to that body have so far all been excellent"

    What have they done?

    "abortion here is not a "political" issue "like it is in America""

    It's not "political" in either country. They have two pro-abortion parties out of two, and we have three pro-abortion parties out of three. The next Tory Leader voted to keep the present limit and to abolish fatherhood. Nobody minded. Indeed, hardly anybody even noticed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Indeed! And who, pray, is the next Tory leader? (My own crystal ball is on the blink, seemingly.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. George Osborne.

    Why, who else might it conceivably be?

    ReplyDelete