Tim Farron quits;hostility vs Christians reaches fever pitch

Jun 19, 2017 13:22:00 GMT @graham said:

Jun 19, 2017 13:01:58 GMT The Lost One said:

I would say a few things in Farron's favour. One is he's one of the more left-leaning Lib Dems economically (in fact that was largely how he became leader as the Lib Dems wanted to regain their lefty credentials after Nicholas Clegg took them into a coalition with the Tories). The second is whatever his deeply held religious beliefs, he has never used them as an excuse to go against the party line when it came to gay rights.

That is indeed in his favour. But it's not a free pass. If a politician was strongly racist or anti-semetic, he or she wouldn't really get a free pass if they said "Well yes, I do think black people are inferior to whites and that jews are subhuman scum - but that's just my personal view, I don't intend to enact it as party policy."

Well with Farron it would be more equivalent to a person who was in a member of a group with some well-known racist members being asked if s/he had racist views and then dodging the question for some time before saying that s/he doesn't.

But yeah, I agree. I don't blame people for being turned off by Farron's unconvincing denial of having homophobic beliefs, and I'm no huge fan of his, even aside from views on homosexuality. I do wonder though if he might be replaced by someone worse in most respects even if they do say the right things about homosexuality.

But I suppose it doesn't matter overly, the Lib Dems seem to be pretty much finished as a serious political force.