Man love rules, ok?

Gay marriage should have been made legal decades ago.

I think it's a travesty and an absolute insult to the 3.6 million gay people in this country that it's not.

I can't entirely get my head around why people are still, in this day and age, against equal rights. 

Most of the arguments against gay marriage come from the church and religion. Many say that the bible defines marriage as between one man and one woman (but that's only as long as we ignore all the polygamy in the old testament). So, we're focusing on the new testament here, I see. Oh, the bible says homosexuality is a sin? But the new testament doesn't even mention homosexuality? Ah you're referring to the passage in the old testament calling gay sex an abomination? ...But I thought we were ignoring the old testament? ... See my point?

I'm sick and tired of people picking and choosing the parts of the bible they agree with and ignoring the parts they don't. They're using their religion to cover up their own prejudices and as a weapon to take away other people's rights. The truth of the matter is that they find gay people icky. Well, that's their problem.

If you don't want a gay marriage, don't have one.

The other arguments I've seen have been bigoted statements such as 'It will devalue conventional marriages' and 'It'll lead to polygamy and marrying your dog becoming legal'. I've even heard things such as 'It'll make children more likely to be gay'

With great arguments such as this it's no wonder the government  is hesitant to give gay people equal rights.

  Love is love no matter who it's between. Gay couples deserve to celebrate their love just as much as straight couples. And that's all this argument should come down to. 

Just a quick note:

Just so you don't think I'm one of those crazy, hate preaching atheists which prowls around the interwebs, let me just explain one thing. I am not against religion. People have the right to believe what they want. I am, however a secularist. Religious beliefs should be kept out of political policy and not infringe on people's rights,That's all.

Why does it take a death to cause change?

I was disgusted to read recently about the death of Savita Halappanavar, a woman who was denied an abortion in Ireland, even though she was suffering a miscarriage, and died as a result of septicemia.

The reason the doctors gave her as to why they wouldn't abort her baby?: 'This is a catholic country'.

I'm sorry but when did religion come before the Hippocratic oath? It was clear the baby was dying and Savita was in danger but since the foetus still had a faint heartbeat the doctors didn't do anything.
What about Savita's heartbeat? The doctors blind obedience to their faith has led to two deaths instead of one.

I guess there is a silver lining here as this story has caused international uproar and pressure on the Irish government to change the law, and if not, make their abortion laws clearer.

But the main thing this story shows is that religion needs to stay far away from the realm of politics. I mean, a few galaxies away. Abortions are against your faith? Great- don't get one. But don't legislate so that no one else is allowed one either. Women should have the choice.

Did we really need a martyr to exemplify this point?

If Savita had suffered this miscarriage in the UK, for example, just a few miles away, she would still be alive. Ireland needs to escape from the middle ages and abort its ridiculous abortion laws.

Why we're failing our children

When I was 16 I made a decision which changed my life forever.

I decided to study politics.

I didn't know anything about politics. At all. I didn't understand our system at all. I didn't understand elections at all. I didn't know any of the political parties in this country's views or policies. I knew my Dad voted for the Tories and if it wasn't for that one crazy, impulsive decision I made back when I was 16 I would probably be voting Tory as well. What a scary thought.

Then all of a sudden in a year my eyes were opened. I realised that what I thought was a democracy is actually a joke. I learned that the way we elect our leaders means that they don't have as much legitimacy as they should and I was shown ways that this could be changed so that everyone received fairer representation. It was suddenly clear that the three main parties in this country are all, apart from a few small things, exactly the same. My teachers didn't push me to feel this way- in fact they were very neutral. They showed us the facts and we drew up our own conclusions.

I can promise you, most of the people in my class felt the same way.

Why is it that I only learned about politics when I went to college and chose to? I think this is one of the biggest failings in this country. at school we get taught how to solve long equations, recite Shakespeare and even how to put on a condom but we don't get taught how to vote. We don't get given even the most basic understanding of our political system and the parties within it.

Recently me and a friend from my course had an assignment to go out and ask the general public a question on a subject of our choice. We chose lowering the voting age to 16. We asked a few students from our uni and do you know what many of them said? 'I'm 18 and I don't know who to vote for' that or 'oh, I don't really have an opinion on that'. Democracy in action people.

Maybe the government hasn't made teaching politics in school mandatory yet because they don't want the UK's teenagers to know how undemocratic and one sided our political system is. They would rather they just voted how their parents vote. No questions asked.

This country would become a so much more ideologically vibrant place if only we showed our young people that there is more than just one way to think and to see the world.

Save our furry friends!

The pure stupidity and stubbornness of the British government never ceases to amaze me. 

Can someone please explain to me why, after seeing the alternatives and getting advice from dozens of scientists and experts, the government is still going to go ahead with its insane badger culling policy. A vaccine program is being developed while I type and scientists everywhere are not only saying that slaughtering 70% of Britain's badger population won't stop bovine TB, it may in fact make it worse. 

Maybe the conservatives are still sore about the banning of fox hunting and are trying to find a way of allowing people to mindlessly slaughter animals which can't fight back. after all, it's tradition- and tradition must be defended, no matter how inhumane and outdated it is.

The best way to reduce bovine TB is simply to make the area farmers graze their cows in more secure, so badgers can't get in. Thousands of healthy badgers are going to be killed, for seemingly no reason at all.

please if you read this, sign the petition. If we make our voice loud enough maybe the government will be able to hear it through all that jingling in their pockets .

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/38257

 UPDATE 

 Looks like the cull has been put off for a year. Hopefully that will be enough time for either the government to come to its senses or an effective vaccine program to be developed. I'm gunna go with the latter.