Warning! Special Interest Groups Ahead!

Tamsin Omond (an ‘environmental activist’ and the PPC for Hampstead and Kilburn) kicks off the election runup by ensuring that squeaky wheels will be greased, and greased well, by the new incumbent of No 10 Downing Street:

Easter Day and my extended family piled in, after church, as I sat and read the paper. Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, had let slip that he's closer to those that find gay people distasteful than he is to us gays.

*sigh*

No, he’s not. And no, they didn’t ‘find gay people distasteful’. They were happy to rent them single rooms, after all – it was the act itself that they found distasteful. And as it’s their home, why shouldn’t they?

But little Tamsin is winding up into a spectacular tantrum in case those mean old Tories win:

Should we be that surprised? After all he is shadow home secretary for the Tory opposition. But we've been told there's a different Conservative story, David Cameron is its champion and this is what they say about picking on gay people: "Yes, we may have sometimes been slow and, yes, we may have made mistakes, including Section 28, but the change has happened."

Not satisfied with that, are you, Tamsin?

Thought not:

Words are important when they promise action, and these words of Cameron's say that a mistake's been made, lessons have been learnt, and from now on it will be different.

And yet, the promised land of milk and honey and bowing to the pink vote doesn’t seem to have materialised.

Where’s the special concessions? Where’s the promised seats on committees for the special interest groups?

My family sat around the table would not talk to me about Grayling's revelations. I guess that most of them could see the B&B owners' point of view. People find it difficult to get over the feeling that gay people are being provocative just by being a bit too visibly gay.

I couldn’t care less if you are swishy as Danny LaRue or as closeted as Rock Hudson, and nor could most people, truth be known.

No, what gets up most people’s nose is the constant clamouring for special treatment and advantages simply because you belong to a particular identity group.

In 2003, Cameron voted in favour of maintaining Section 28, a law that filled my school life with shame. Earlier this year, Tory MEPs abstained from voting against anti-gay legislation in Europe. Yesterday the shadow home secretary expressed his support for homophobic B&B owners. Nothing about Cameron inspires me that he will bring in a stronger, more woven society.

Really..?

I don’t think so either, but for different reasons. I think he’s going to cave in to all kinds of identity groups and promise them the earth if they vote for him.

That, Tamsin, is what will ensure that he doesn’t plan to bring in a ‘stronger, more woven’ society. Just a society where those who can shout loudest, or wrap themselves up in a ‘victimhood’ flag, will get the powerful paying attention to them

This week, Peter Tatchell and I aim to meet with David Cameron. If he has time to explain his party's stance on gay rights, then we give him that opportunity. If he will not, then we're taking gay pride to him.

Oh, just great.

The battle of the special interest groups starts here. Pick your corners, folks. But not you smokers, oh, dear me, no…

Update: Hmmm, I wonder if iDave will start to realise what a mistake he made chasing after all those young, trendy, special identity groups?

"I feel guilty because as a gay woman affected by LGBT rights I am on record saying you should vote Conservative, and I want to reverse that," she said. "I want to go on record to say don't vote Conservative. I'd go as far to say that I'll vote Labour at this general election." The endorsement for Labour from Ms Beaumont-Bott, 20, will be an embarrassment for the Tories. She had been picked out as one of the faces of Mr Cameron's young, modern Conservatives for her work in promoting gay rights within the party.

Shouldn't have tried to appease that crocodile, Dave...