As a card-carrying, dyed-in-the-wool, bleeding heart pinko liberal (though not in the party political sense), I don’t have much time for the UK Independence Party. To me, it looks like a motley crew of disaffected Tories, the swivel-eyed variety, bible-thumping zealots, little England xenophobes and closet and not-so-closet fascists – not the kind of people I’d give my last Rolo to. Just sit back and watch as they trip themselves up with their own silly rhetoric, something that happens with embarrassing regularity. Cue the nice UKIP town councillor from Henley-on-Thames, David Silvester. Mr Silvester raised a few eyebrows when he wrote a letter to his local rag, the Henley Standard. In it, he claimed that the floods which recently beset these soggy islands were divine retribution for the legalisation of gay marriage. He wrote:
“The scriptures make it abundantly clear that a Christian nation that abandons its faith and acts contrary to the Gospel (and in naked breach of a coronation oath) will be beset by natural disasters.”
Mr Silvester was once a Conservative councillor (nuff said) but defected to UKIP because of the Government’s policy on marriage equality. I wonder how the wise councillor explains the Great North Sea Flood of 1953, the very year of the Coronation. It was a time when England was still largely the God-fearing, church-going, gay-jailing, warm-beer drinking, class-ridden, women-know-their-place, whites only earthly paradise that, presumably, Mr Silvester pines after. The flood claimed the lives of 300 souls in England alone (with more in Scotland, and the Low Countries), badly damaged over 24,000 buildings and forced 30,000 people to flee their homes. God really does work in mysterious ways.
Mr Silvester’s words unleashed a firestorm of ridicule on social media. So much so, that he’s now considered too extreme even for UKIP, who have since suspended him from the party. The delicious furore has even spawned some spoof news items. My personal favourites are:
Married Gays to Tour Drought-hit Countries
Liam is packing our saddle bags as I write but we think the Sahara might be a challenge, even for these two unrepentant sinners.
Perking the Pansies 
Mindbogglingly stupid comments by this politician…and I thought our Mayor Rob Ford was dumb! Please tell me that photo isn’t your near your home!! Although I love the ducks all lined up waiting to get out there.
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No it’s not. It’s in Wales on the other side of the country. We all have our stupid politicians. Kinda wonder how though!
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There’s been a lot of very funny response s this week to this story, I’ll include yours as well now
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They’ve been great, haven’t they?Anything that trips up UKIP gets my vote every time 😀
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Stupid indeed but what I’ve noticed in the past short while, EVERYbody on the globe is bringing their governments to the table.Is everyone losing their mind? Something in the water maybe causing all this senseless chatter? Are politician so over-worked their brains aren’t functioning?
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I like keeping our politicians on their toes because politicians are, well…politicians and should always be challenged. But, really, blaming gay marriage for the floods, you just gotta laugh. This gives religion a bad name. On the other hand, it’s a great advert for keeping religion and politics separate.
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I totally agree, Jack. It does indeed give religion a bad name and you know how many people hide behind religion to make a (bad) point these days.
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Far too many. “Father forgive them since they know not what they do”, as someone famous once said (allegedly) 😀
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😀 😀
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. . with a dearth of decent comedy on the MSM where else are folks supposed to get their belly laughs?
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It’s been a quiet January (except for those flooded out, obviously).
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I have to say, it’s been drier here since you left! So much so that potatoes have shot up in price, so following on, you are probably responsible for an increase in the cost of living.
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Blimey, maybe there’s something in it! I’ve always been a bit wet 🙂
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Yes no doubt Mr Silvester. (I thought these people were mainly limited to middle America – yikes they’re everywhere!) On a positive note I have four lovely friends ( two couples) who have lived together for years getting married this year. One set is traveling to San Francisco for the ceremony. I’m proud to live (close to) SF! Come visit – we are having a drought – please bring some weather.
(AT least your ducks look happy!)
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Middle England is no less scary, believe me, Congratulations to your friends. I wish them much happiness. Liam and I got hitched in 2008 (Civil Partnership, marriage all but name) and we plan to convert this to marriage as soon as arrangements can be made.
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those stupid bible thumpers need to be hit on the head with their own bibles. If they want to quote a zillion year old story book, they have to adhere to EVERYTHIING in it. Stop the cherry-picking. (If they knew what they were in for they’d wet their skivvies.) On another note–I love it when their stupidity bites them in the ass. Yay for social media.
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Amen to that! 🙂
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