Listening
to the UK current affairs programme 'Any Questions' panel last week was a bad Orwellian dream. All
the panelists were chanting about how happy they were to hear Tom
Daley's news.
This is
the news that makes our esteemed panelists so happy. Tom Daley, the brilliant diver, a nineteen year old, has told the world that he is in a
relationship with a man.
The man
is twenty years older than Tom Daley.
Now if a
nineteen year old daughter came back and announced to her parents
that she was in a relationship with a thirty nine year old man, a lot
of normal parents would be concerned. They would not immediately
dance for joy and start phoning the likes of Jonathan Ross or
Dimbleby to say how wonderful it is.
And some
parents would quite rightly wonder whether this thirty nine year old
man's intentions were honourable, whether he was more interested in
the well being and long-term future of their daughter, or whether he
was more interested in using her to get sexual pleasure for himself.
Our panelists didn't express any doubt over the decency of the
relationship. Nor did they mention something else. Daley has told a
newspaper that he still fancies girls. It might be he is going
through a teenage phase and in a few years time he will fall in love
and want to marry. It might then well be that he will look back with
some regret at both this relationship – and its publicity. And
those who are cheering now will look rather childish.
None of
our panelists showed any concern about the age, or bothered to think
ahead of the implications of all of this for Tom Daley's future.
Their only concern was to bleat with the sheep that gay is good. It
was poisonous blandness.
Two of
the panelists were Orwellian in other ways. As well as their
mindless bleating, there was the clear threat that
other views would not be heard. Jeanette Winterson actually said that
Andrew Lansley did not have a right to be heard; and I think it was
Tristian Hunt who said that those who had doubts about the decency of
Tom Daley's new relationship had to be 'fought'.
Jonathan
Dimbleby stood up for Andrew Lansley – but completely failed to
question any of the panelists bleating over Tom Daley. The chairman
joined the sheep.
The
irony is that none of this has anything to do with the rights of
'gay' people, or people who for one reason or another are different
from the rest of us. The moral case of the gay lobby is that
homosexuals are like ethnic minorities, people born with a different
sexual nature. But Tom Daley still fancies girls. There's plenty of
heterosexual in him.
A few years ago David Bowie was being interviewed about his youth and he used an old fashioned word that applies here. Bowie said he had been very promiscuous. Our panelists thought they were cheering on some grand new advance for gay rights. But to some it might seen that when there's a case of a nineteen year old man having sex with a thirty nine year old man, but still admitting to having sexual feelings towards women, it might be, we don't know, it might that for reasons only the panelists can answer they are cheering on something that looks like an old fashioned case of promiscuity, sexual experimentation, 'free' love.
A few years ago David Bowie was being interviewed about his youth and he used an old fashioned word that applies here. Bowie said he had been very promiscuous. Our panelists thought they were cheering on some grand new advance for gay rights. But to some it might seen that when there's a case of a nineteen year old man having sex with a thirty nine year old man, but still admitting to having sexual feelings towards women, it might be, we don't know, it might that for reasons only the panelists can answer they are cheering on something that looks like an old fashioned case of promiscuity, sexual experimentation, 'free' love.
Now they
are all happy, just like at the start of Animal Farm. But check out
the history books – societies that cheer on promiscuity implode.
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