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If too many people vote Tory on Thursday; Friday 6th May 2010 will forever be known as the day when the entire LGBT community ran screaming from the British Isles.

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I told myself yesterday that I’d cut back on blogging for the time being. I’ve been writing a lot lately (mostly because I’m currently recuperating from an ankle injury and unable to walk) and I know I won’t be able to maintain this blog-rate in the weeks to come.

Slow it down, I told myself, only blog when things absolutely need to be said.

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Well thank you very-damn-much Philippa Stroud.

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The End is Nigh
Philippa Stroud is making headlines today because of her Church – which is doing sterling work exorcising the demons which make people gay. Or lesbian. Or anything outside the standard heterosexual goalposts of right-wing Christianity.

Did I say “sterling”? I meant “ludicrous”.

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Well, we all know Christians can be a bit nutty from time to time. Anyone remember the crusades? Spanish Inquisition? That whole paedophilia thing? What does it matter if there’s one more of them?

Except that she’s head of the Centre for Social Justice – the Tory think-tank that dreams-up all of David Cameron’s Social Affairs policies.

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The Big Heterosexual Society
That’s right – the woman behind the very core of the “Big Society” – the woman in charge of making the Conservative Party more equal, more fair, more balanced… is a raging, delusional, extremist homophobe.

Every policy out of the, ironically named, Centre for Social Justice in the last five years has been – at least in part – designed by someone who thinks the gay community should be corralled into some sort of massive prayer-pit and not allowed out until they can prove their new-found distaste for Cher.

Thankfully, this information has now been brought to light.

Or perhaps “stepped into the light” would be a better metaphor.

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Demongate
It’s early days in what the media will likely soon dub gaygate or, if we’re lucky, demongate.

At least, I’d like to think they will, but with the entirety of the sensationalist-machine arrayed in the tory camp – many doing their best to exorcise homosexuality already – so I doubt we’ll see much more of this. The Tory press will quash it and the Labour/LibDem press are not those traditionally known for ramping up stories beyond their worth.

Still, we can dream.

Or perhaps we shouldn’t – just in case Phillipa Stroud finds out and tries to see if our heads rotate 360-degrees.

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So who is Saint Stroud?
Aside from being God’s foremost weapon against the evil hoards of perfectly-normal-people, Stroud is the Tory candidate for Sutton and Cheam (in South London) – currently held by Liberal Democrat Paul Burstow who introduced the “Care of Older and Incapacitated People” Bill and voted against the Digital Economy Bill.

Burstow sounds like a nice guy. Plus he had a comfortable 7% margin of victory back in 2005…

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…and he’s expected to lose.

That’s right, Ms Stroud is likely to win. She will go from loony think-tank leader – to loony parliament member. Dear God, don’t let her out of her tank!

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The Wider Issue
But surely she’s entitled to her beliefs? Surely she’s allowed to choose her own opinions? Of course she is. I may not agree with her views, but she has a right to hold them. And this would be fine – if she were not a public representative.

This is, at its heart, the very problem with a non-secular government. It’s the problem with Phillippa Stroud. It’s the problem with religious parties in general.

Anyone running for office must be able to represent the people in their charge. Sutton and Cheam is a constituency holding almost 100 000 people. Playing the stats, 10 000 of those people will fall somewhere in the LGBT community. If Phillippa Stroud is elected, she can not – without renouncing her faith – represent those people.

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Secularism
Should a Labour candidate be elected in Sutton and Cheam, he or she (currently she – Kathy Allen), would still have to represent everyone – even those who voted against her. That is what MPs do – they represent that region, not just those who voted for them and certainly not just those who share their religious views.

Anyone elected under a religious flag, for a religious party, cannot hope to represent constituents of other beliefs.

That said, it is perfectly acceptable for a religious person to be elected to office, providing they keep their religion separate from the affairs of their charge. But with the extreme views held by Phillippa Stroud – and they are, considering the UK Christian population as a whole, largely extreme – she will, in many instances, be faced with a conflict of interest between her faith and her civic duty.

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Faith versus Duty
How is she to uphold the Human Rights Act when it gives equal rights to a portion of the population who she believes to be Demons? How is she to uphold the rights of Muslims? Or Sikhs? Or Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Wiccans and Atheists? How does she uphold their rights when she believes them to be already damned to hellfire for all eternity? How is she to support or implement drug legislation when she thinks the way to cure drug addiction is with an exorcism and a good hard pray?

And that’s just her standing as MP.

How can we hope that she – as creator of social policy and rising star under David Cameron’s regime – will create policies which benefit everyone in the UK? Do we expect her to create and uphold policy which gives the gay community the same rights as married couples? Or anyone, come to that? If she did, that would be a sin in the eyes of her faith.

In short, can we expect her to represent her constituency when, to do that properly, she would have to – by her own faith – condemn herself to Hell?

I really don’t think so.

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So – for God’s sake – if you live in Sutton and Cheam, it is imperative you vote LibDem on Thursday!

The Power of Christ Compels You! The Power of Christ Compels You!!!!

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(Yes, I was really hoping the current Sutton and Cheam MP would be called Chris so I could use the “Power of Chris” line. Unfortunately, it was not to be. It’s almost as if some kind of “higher-power” was out to stop me… Must be Thor.)

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