No Fault Of My Own

Richard Holden's vote to continue to allow abortions by pills through the post is a clear line of differentiation between him and me. That kind of concern may not be the power that it once was, even well into this century, in these parts, but it is still there, and the majority at North West Durham is only 1,144, with no sign of a Labour candidate who would these days certainly be of the same view as Richard.

As no-fault divorce comes into effect courtesy of the Conservative Party, then we need to give any marrying couple the right to register their marriage as bound by the divorce law that obtained prior to 1969, give any religious organisation the right to specify that any marriage that it conducted would be so bound, give existing married couples the right to re-register their marriages as being so bound, and remove the restriction of civil partnerships to unrelated couples, since civil partnerships, as such, have no sexual aspect. No other candidate at North West Durham is going to be saying any of this.

And no more than any hypothetical Labour candidate is Richard, or indeed Boris Johnson, on record that anyone with a penis is by definition not a woman, since, in the famous words of Maya Forstater: "Sex is a biological fact, and is immutable. There are two sexes, male and female. Men and boys are male. Women and girls are female. It is impossible to change sex. These were until very recently understood as basic facts of life by almost everyone." That is my position.

My defeat would lead to an action to seek to have the result overturned on the grounds of undue spiritual influence by the Diocesan Safeguarding Office. Then the dominoes really would start to fall.