Letters From A Tory

Dear Cath Elliott,

You really don’t get it, do you.  You and all the other supporters of lesbian parents accuse those who support the ‘traditional family’ of discriminating against you and being “religious fundamentalists who spewed their hatred on the streets”.  Your name-calling and “we’ve moved on” argument are outrageously selfish and I totally disagree with you.

I am not even remotely religious.  What affects my views is the rights of children.  I find it abhorrent that gay couples who want to have children claim that it’s their ‘right’ to have a family and that the ‘need for a father’ is discriminatory.  Well, let me ask you something - what about the ‘rights’ of children to have a mum and a dad?  Opposite sex parents have been the bedrock of the human race throughout history and now you think that you have the ‘right’ to impose same sex parents on children because you’re so special that you can deny children this?  I agree that “parenting can take many forms” but for you to say that ”it’s the quality of that parenting that matters” and then stand up for gay parents even though the quality of parenting from gay couples can NEVER be as good as a loving mum and a loving dad is outrageously self-centred.  In case you hadn’t noticed, ‘quality of parenting’ includes providing the best role models possible for children, which gay couples can never do as they are the same gender.

I’m not the kind of person who says that gay couples should never adopt, but the ‘traditional family’ (a term which you use in a derogatory sense whenever possible) is, and always will be, the best place for children to grow up.  Your desire to force out the traditional family and claim that lesbian parents are just as good for children is laughable and totally misguided if you had bothered to look at the research evidence on this subject.  Disagreeing with gay and lesbian parents is not discrimination - it’s called ‘doing what’s best for children’.

Yours in disgust,

A.Tory

Dear Chris Bryant,

Evidently the desire to release stupid initiatives is spreading like a nasty virus through the Labour Party.  It now seems that you honestly believe giving sex education to 9-year-olds is a good idea - a truly chilling thought.

It is quite clear that the Labour government has no idea how to prevent teenage pregnancies.  If you think that your approach to sex education is the correct one, surely the statistics would make you think twice.  Up to 20 teenagers are pregnant at any one time in some schools, which is a shocking assessment of the Government’s woeful decisions about how to tackle this issue.  Even though you admit that teenage pregnancy leads to “vicious cycle of under-achievement, benefit dependency, ill health, lack of aspiration, poor parenting and child poverty”, you still react in a classic Labour fashion and throw money at a problem while releasing a pointless initiative aimed at telling 9-year-olds about sex, which is far more likely to increase teenage pregnancy than to reduce it.

Your lack of respect for the newborn children caught up in this vicious cycle makes me sick.  You are destroying children’s lives before they have even had a change to begin.  For once, why don’t you deal with the causes of the issue - family breakdown, a failing benefits system, and tolerance of this behaviour when it should be shamed, not supported.

In disgust,

A.Tory

I don’t think I would ever want to work in exactly the same place as someone that I’m dating or married to, although I know many people who do precisely this and have no problem with it.  Having said that, I think the success of such an arrangement does somewhat depend on where you work.

For those of you were thinking about shoving your parents into an old people’s home to save a bit of hassle, perhaps you will consider spending more time with them in future - unless you want to go to jail, of course.

Dear Minette Marrin,

You are so lucky I didn’t find your article in The Times until today, because I’m normally a bit more relaxed at weekends so I don’t tend to dish out any serious anger - but I’ll make an exception.

Your points about the modern era being “a moment for serious revaluation of men” are sickeningly patronising.  Unless you haven’t noticed, everyone has been crying out for years for fathers to become more involved in family life because they have such an important role in children’s upbringing - and here you are saying ‘well, actually mums make better parents’.  I’m not denying that women have naturally better parenting skills, but to use that as an argument to say that lesbians should be allowed full access to IVF treatment is horrifying.

With divorce laws and parenting rights so unbelievably biased against men, your suggestion that “increasing numbers of straight women [don’t] appear to need men at all” is outrageous and just goes to show how heavily the law discriminates against men.  Obviously, some men are poor role models and don’t value their family enough - that much I agree with.  However, taxpayers funding lesbians to have IVF at a cost of around £10,000 a cycle (with an appallingly low success rate) is a disgrace and I would crush those laws if I became Prime Minister.

Children need a mother and father - it’s how evolution has shaped the human race and families with gay parents will never ever ever ever offer an upbringing as good as a loving mum and dad, not even close.  The fact that not all mums and dads make good parents is no reason to start looking at other options, because the government has done sod all to improve general parenting skills and financial incentives are in entirely the wrong place for parents.

Every child needs a father and a mother.  No argument, no discussion, no debate.

A.Tory

Dear Andy Burnham,

I am getting sick and tired of this.  Talk about a lack of vision and originality - your interview in the Telegraph has made it perfectly clear that Labour are about to steal yet another Conservative policy.

After the backlash against Alistair Darling’s policy theft, I thought I was on fairly safe ground by assuming that Labour had learnt their lesson about how the electorate views such behaviour.  To read this morning that despite many objections within Labour Party you will now press ahead with changing the tax system in favour of married couples is astonishing.  It alarms me how the tax system penalises married couples in many instances and I’m glad that you’ve finally seen sense, but it’s got to the point where the Conservatives announce any policy they like, set the agenda, and along come Labour within a fortnight and just openly grab the policy and present it as their own.  The government is treading water and you know it.

Yours in disbelief,

A.Tory