Author Archives: Peter Tatchell

The Independent View | Peter Tatchell writes… Lib Dems should stick to their principles and urge Lynne not to renege on equality pledge

Bravo to the Liberal Democrat party conference. Two years ago, party members voted overwhelmingly to end the twin legal bans on same-sex civil marriages and opposite-sex civil partnerships. They committed a future Lib Dem government to scrap sexual orientation discrimination in marriage and partnership law. Well done. Thank you

Sadly, the Lib Dem Equality Minister, Lynne Featherstone, apparently with the support of the Lib Dem Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, is now actively backing discrimination. She plans to keep unequal laws, contrary to the Lib Dem’s election pledges.

Specifically, Lynne is vowing to retain the prohibition on heterosexual civil …

Posted in The Independent View | Tagged , , , and | 18 Comments

Peter Tatchell writes … Is Museveni the new Mugabe?

Peter Tatchell reports on Uganda’s drift to authoritarianism …

Uganda’s President, Yoweri Museveni, was once seen as the country’s great democratic saviour. Increasingly, he is becoming ever-more tyrannical, repeatedly violating the democratic and human rights principles of the African Union, United Nations and the Commonwealth. The international community is mute. It colludes with his regime.

How odd. World leaders readily condemn President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan – but they happily fund and support Museveni. Why the double standards? How can they justify such silence and inaction?

President Museveni’s Ugandan critics say his regime is a constitutional …

Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged and | 16 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • cim
    Agreed with a lot of the above, "compulsory voting" is just a way to mask the symptom that there's not much in our current democracy that gets people excited to...
  • SteveTrevethan
    Thanks to all for a most interesting and relevant article and set of comments! From the information and possibilities therein contained, is it the case that ...
  • David Evans
    Let's be honest here. The whole thing is a political carve up, by an instinctively centralising and authoritarian Labour party, emboldened by a huge parliament...
  • George Thomas
    Perhaps my most illiberal "opinion" is that automatic freedom of movement for immigrants is possibly a bad thing*. I remember speaking with a recent refugee who...
  • Chloe
    'underlying emotions are fear, resentment and inadequacy relating to their own lives' Are you saying the residents of Crowborough or Bicester who've protested ...