Ross Clark Ross Clark

Bermuda’s gay marriage row shows the liberal-left’s disdain for democracy

The Labour benches and the pages of the Guardian are not normally places one would go for a defence of Empire – until, that is, comes along an opportunity to further a popular liberal cause in a British overseas territory. Then, otherwise liberal-minded folk, who would normally be falling over themselves to apologise for the evils of the British Empire, bizarrely come over all neo-colonial – demanding that the Government lords it over the untrustworthy natives and imposes direct rule from Westminster.

This week, the Bermudan government overturned a ruling made by the island’s supreme court introducing gay marriage. The government’s decision was in response to a referendum on the island which had opposed gay marriage. Bermuda will now return to the situation which existed in Britain between 2005 and 2014, when gay couples could enter into civil partnerships – an arrangement with all the practical benefits of marriage – but not into formal marriages.

This has outraged Labour MP Chris Bryant, who claims

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