Let me declare right away that I have no strong feelings either way on gay marriage, but some things about this matter are puzzling.

On the 5th of February 2013 the House Commons voted by 400 to 175 in favour of allowing same-sex couples to be married.

On the afternoon and evening of the vote there was much argument from both sides. David Cameron, however, the chief proponent of this legislation, did not involve himself in the debate in the House but made a number of statements from Number Ten. He described gay marriage as 'an important step forward for our country'....and that he thought '…. it is right that gay people should be able to get married too. Yes, this is about equality but it is also about making our society stronger'.

When the vote was called, Jon Snow on Channel Four News, could hardly contain himself. He described it as 'a momentous night in British legal, cultural and political development' and proceeded then to give a potted history of gay campaigning over the last 34 years which had culminated in bringing about the forthcoming vote.

Sure enough the Bill was voted through.

As far as I can gather, no politician or member of the press mentioned the following.

In November, 2013 there will be a vote in the European Parliament on 'the Stockholm Program' which compels Member States to recognise and uphold the 'effect of civil status documents of another EU state'. The report deals with the issue of cross-border harmonisation within the European Union and implies an EU-wide de facto recognition of same-sex marriage.

Paragraph 40 of the report stresses the need to ensure mutual recognition of official documents issued by national administrations despite the obvious risk of undermining the sovereignty of the Member States by shifting the definition of 'marriage' from family law, which is an exclusive competence of Member States, to procedural law as defined under the Stockholm Program.

Once the Stockholm Program is implemented, a Member State's refusal to acknowledge the married status of a same-sex couple becomes illegal. Potentially this is a huge problem as same-sex marriage is already recognised in some Member States, such as Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Sweden, for example, but not in Britain and France and a host of other countries.

Is it coincidental that David Cameron's recognition of gay marriage should surface a few months before the imposition of EU legislation demanding precisely that? Is it also just a coincidence that Cameron and President Hollande are currently each trying to legislate for gay marriage in their individual countries? Can it be that not one MP in the whole House of Commons was aware of the Stockholm Program or that all the British journalists, all TV and radio channels and every British newspaper editor were similarly ignorant?

Or is this yet another example of the arrogant manner in which our politicians (and media), when dealing with EU influence on Britain, distort and manipulate the truth?

What do you think?

Trevor Colman

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