It's goodnight from him...

And it's goodnight from me...

I notice that Mark Wadsworth has recently given notice to UKIP over their homeownerist tendencies. A rather excellent reason, I think.

I'm a former member, although, not on philosophical grounds so much as on forgetting to renew grounds. That was, until today, when I saw their attitude towards gay marriage.

Now, I'm not particularly strongly-minded towards gay marriage. I'm not gay, and can't see why a civil partnership doesn't do the job. On the other hand, I don't see a problem with renaming a civil partnership as marriage for gays. Really, it's just a name.

Two things that UKIP should consider: firstly, making claims about how gay marriage will be forced upon churches by the ECHR, despite the fact that gay marriage has existed in the Netherlands for 15 years and churches have a choice show that the ECHR threat is bollocks. And as it's bollocks, then a libertarian defence of being against gay marriage is also bollocks.

But even if it wasn't bollocks, I'd have a problem with it for the following reason: if the problem is the ECHR (or any court) poking their nose into private matters, then you deal with that court poking their nose into private matters, not with what the private matter is. For a party that declares itself as against Brussels, it is actually trying to avoid confrontation with Brussels, taking a path of least resistance and giving into fascism.

I found the burqa ban hard to deal with, but add this in and it's clear that UKIP are going for the Tory Taliban vote, a bunch of people that I want nothing to do with, the homeownerist, rent-seeking, fascist part of that party.