Hold on a moment, do I smell an EU rat?

I was puzzling over why David Cameron was so pro-gay marriage, to the extent that he took on a large part of his party. I originally thought that he was just trying to appeal to the BBC/Guardian types who he so wants to like him as they pretended to when the BBC helped him become Conservative leader beating the far harder to label as 'posh' David Davies. Then I read that France was also in the throes of passing similar legislation...

Hmm once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, do we have enemy action? There are a number of other countries with similar legislation pending including Luxembourg & Poland. But then there are also many other countries passing similar legislation, Progress or something else?



UKIP have a theory and it's an EU based one:

'The Government's controversial same-sex marriage legislation is being driven by an EU proposal which is set to become law later this year, say UKIP.
"Many people have been asking what prompted the Prime Minister to pick this uncalled-for fight with many people in his own party and the country at large," said UKIP leader Nigel Farage.
"It has also been unclear why the same debate is being had simultaneously in other countries such as France, where opposition is also growing. Now we know the answer."

An EU report due to be voted through the EU Parliament this November would see all marriages and civil contracts conducted in any EU country become legally binding in all other member states. Under the Berlinguer Report, a couple who are not permitted to marry in their home country could travel to another member state in order to wed, knowing that on their return home they would have to be regarded as married.

Paragraph 40 of the Report would mean that any member state would have to grant 'all social benefits and other legal effects' such as legal recognition, tax breaks and benefit entitlements to a married couple, even if such a marriage did not exist in their own legal system.

Mr Farage said: "Now we know why David Cameron has launched this highly contentious and disruptive legislation, apparently out of the blue.

"If a couple were to marry in Belgium, Spain, Portugal or Sweden where same-sex marriage is possible, the EU will say that they have to be given the same legal rights in whichever member state they then chose to live – even if that state itself opposes the introduction of same-sex marriage. In essence the Berlinguer Report seeks to establish an EU-wide right to same-sex marriage.

"It's no surprise that the Prime Minister has kept quiet about this, even at the expense of cohesion in his own party. He has a hard enough time trying to force his own backbenchers to swallow both his dedication to keeping Britain in the EU and his wish for the state to interfere in the definition of marriage. To suggest that the two issues are in fact interconnected would have caused complete uproar."'

Interestingly, I found this at Salt and Light::

'Under the title on civil law, commercial law, family law and private international law aspects of the Action Plan Implementing the Stockholm Programme members of the EU should be forced to recognise homosexual marriage and adoption of homosexuals.

Para 40 reads:

Stresses the need to ensure mutual recognition of official documents issued by national administrations;  welcomes the Commission’s efforts to empower citizens to exercise their free movement rights and  strongly supports plans to enable the mutual recognition of the effects  of civil status documents; calls for further efforts to reduce barriers for citizens who exercise their rights of free movement, particularly with regard to access to the social benefits to which they are entitled and their right to vote in municipal elections;

So if there is a homosexual partnership recognized in one EU country, another EU country will be forced to also recognize homosexual partnerships, if the couple decides to move to another EU country.'

For the record, I'm not anti-homosexuals getting married, I'm not in favour - I'm pretty agnostic but I would like some honesty from my Prime Minister as to why he is so in favour of it and desperate to legislate in favour of it. Especially when that Prime Minister claims to be realistic on Europe despite all the evidence to the contrary.