The Government is supposed to be sifting through the many responses it received to the consultation on gay marriage, which ended in June. Yet judging from David Cameron’s comments this week, the whole exercise was a sham. We have observed before that this process was not intended to ask people whether homosexuals should marry, but how the reform could be implemented. This was confirmed by the Prime Minister at a Downing Street reception this week, when he promised a new law before the general election.
Many people are perplexed by this. Mr Cameron appears to brook no discussion whatsoever about the principle of redefining marriage as it is commonly understood, which is as a legal contract – and a sacrament, for the religiously minded – between a man and woman. Yet most of the public controversy around this issue is precisely focused on this very principle, a principle that the Prime Minister...