Basil Grayling has finally surfaced to demonstrate that he is an astute political operator… Politics Home reports: “Mr Grayling apologised for the impression of controversial comments he made last week about B&B owners refusing gay couples and insisted that he has always voted for gay rights.
“I am certainly sorry if what I said gave the wrong impression,” Mr Grayling said. “I certainly didn’t intend to offend anyone. But let’s be clear – I have voted for gay rights, I have voted for gay issues.” Mr Grayling defended his record on gay rights issues and said he voted for the current law.
“I have always supported gay rights. I voted for this measure. I voted for civil partnerships,” he said. “I voted for the law as it currently is. I did that because my conscience told me it was the right thing to do,” he said.
Meanwhile the Labour Party has sacked Stuart MacLennan for his amusing – but inappropriate for a prospective MP – comments on Twitter. To be fair… they weren’t anything I haven’t seen on twitter from many others… but I suppose it not unreasonable for prospective MPs to keep it vaguely sane. I’m sure Mr MacLennan, who, they say, did not have much prospect of winning will surface again. I hope so. Not exactly a hanging offence.. just a bit ‘daft’ for a prospective MP perhaps?
It appears that Dave Cameron plans to continue with his support for Basil and Manuel Osbore…. fair enough… at least we know what we are dealing with.