“My firm belief is that we are all sinners”. Who said that, then? The Pope? The Archbishop of Canterbury? Any one of the frock-wearing virgins of the Catholic church? No. It was the new leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron.
So far as I am concerned, Mr Farron can speak for himself on the sins front. I certainly don’t put myself into that category, but then Mr Farron has very different views on what might be regarded as a sin. In fact, when he was interviewed by Channel 4, he was asked whether he agreed with the Bible that homosexual sex is “an abomination”. Three times he declined to answer the question, giving the somewhat feeble response that it was not “our views on personal morality that matter”. With most people, I would say that was a fair enough answer. After all, I always argue the point that anyone is entitled to a view so long as they don’t interfere with mine. If you don’t like abortion, then don’t have one. If you don’t want gay marriage, then don’t marry a gay person and if you don’t like gay sex, then don’t have gay sex. Just don’t tell others how to run their lives. But the problem is that Farron is now the leader of a political party that was until recently in government. I would say his “personal morality” does matter.
Farron seems to think that you can separate personal morality and your political position. Well, how so? By voting for something the ancient, outdated and bigoted texts of the bible (other ancient, outdated and bigoted religious texts are available) says is a sin when you actually agree with the bible? That’s not separating personal morality from your political position: it’s hypocrisy, it’s a lie. But then, he has form. He also voted against the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations, which restricted businesses discriminating against people on the grounds of sexual orientation and he did not vote for equal marriage on the third reading of the bill. And on abortion, this: “Abortion is wrong. Society has to climb down from the position that says there is nothing morally objectionable about abortion before a certain time. If abortion is wrong, it is wrong at any time.” Can a God-botherer with such illiberal views lead a so-called liberal party, the Liberal Democrats?
The answer is, of course, that the Lib Dems can elect who the hell they like as their leader because it’s their party and, thankfully, not mine. And Farron is regarded as being on the left of the Lib Dems, which given their behaviour in the coalition from 2010 puts him in roughly the same place on the political spectrum as, say, Michael Gove, but well to the left of George Osborne, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander. To be fair, he’s probably not as right wing as them, especially given that he is against renewing Trident and actually voted against increasing tuition fees, unlike the rest of his colleagues who proposed getting rid of them until they got into office.
I am just very uncomfortable with the fact that he has such an illiberal track record. Say what you like about David Cameron, but his support for equal marriage was one of his great achievements among very few in office. Whilst I find much of what Cameron stands for as odious, he showed a lot of guts on the issue and moreover sounded like he meant it, too. Farron votes for one thing but believes in another, except when he follows his “personal morality”, which he has done more than once in the past.
If I was a Lib Dem, I would have voted for Norman Lamb who seems to be a real human being with considerable empathy with other real human beings. And he is not a God-botherer with dubious illiberal tendencies. These things matter with politicians who wield, or want to wield, power.
