Religion & politics

[mrph]

199 votes saying that so far there's no cause for war on Iraq, 122 of them from Blair's own Labour party. I hope Tony (and George) are paying attention - when 1/4 of the party votes against the government, things are getting serious.

[My MP, Bob Ainsworth, backed the government. Git.]

Watched Newsnight, too - a long feature on the Church of England and Rowan Williams. The evangelists and anglo-catholics seem to be unhappy - the former because he's not loudly anti-gay, the latter because they don't believe women should be ordained (but, at least in the case of the minister they interviewed, seem to have no real problem with gay Christians. Bi christians didn't even get a mention, of course).

Odd. I'd always assumed (without much evidence) that the anti-women wing of the church was presumably also anti-gay (but not necessarily vice-versa). Evidently not.

Comments

[lougarry.livejournal.com]

I've not been watching too much TBH, too busy working. Whats the total votes?

And Tony appears to have cocked-up for the 'Humanitarian' push for war, when he mentione din a speech on Tuesday, that Saddam can keep his regime if he just disarms (or somethign along those lines)
So, it's not really about weapons, and it's not about humanitarian issues...

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Ah. It's humanitarian. So it doesn't depend on weapons inspectors at all then? *sigh* He's not doing himself any favours with the ever-changing argument, is he?

Total votes...

Main vote - "final warning to Saddam" - 434 votes to 124 - 59 of the 124 were Labour.

Rebel (need for war not proven yet) amendment: 199 in favour, against the government. 122 of them Labour, and a dozen or so Conservatives in there disobeying IDS too.

[lougarry.livejournal.com]

no, it was the speech he made on Tuesday (some time on Tuesday, I caught the end of it on the way to Leics after work) and he definitely said that Saddam can "keep his regime" if he just disarms.
I can't find it now, haven't got time before work etc, but it was definitely along those lines
This one from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2795925.stm, says : 'Mr Blair said he "detested" the Iraqi regime, but even now Saddam could save his government by disarming peacefully. ' (though not the one I'm looking for)
I know it's about humanitarian issues...or should be, but it doesn't appear to be the reasons Blair and bush want to go to war.

[smogo.livejournal.com]

Well, my dad and stepmum are Christians, and they've got gay friends but are against the ordination of women... and opposed to abortion is the other thing I've found out. Every time I think about the fact that they're Christians, I find it really hard to equate it with the fact that they're intelligent people. I don't understand what goes through their minds.

And my MP voted in favour of the amendment (hooray!), although I can't find a list of MPs who voted against in the main vote.

My MP, Bob Ainsworth, backed the government. Git.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Mine too. But then, what would you expect from a woman who's currently collecting signatures on a petition which will have to be sent to herself?