In defence of Jacob Rees-Mogg
8th September 2017
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A musty and old fashioned political leader of a modern Western nation doesn’t support gay marriage. Their party has historically sought to place limits upon the right to abortion. Votes are held, after which both gay marriage and abortion are deemed perfectly legal. This despite the personal morality of said leader, who is a proud and conservative Christian.
And everyone moves on.
This is not a vision of a future Rees-Mogg premiership but an account of what actually occurred in Germany on June 30th of this year. The gay marriage question had become unavoidable, and Angela Merkel determined that a free vote in the Bundestag was the best solution. She voted against the bill, saying that ‘[f]or me, marriage in German law is marriage between a man and a woman.’
But the bill was passed, weddings in Germany are now permitted by law to be fabulous, and there’s not much else to say on the matter. The Chancellor still has the respect of a vast swathe of her electorate. It is likely that she will be re-elected this year.
This is not because the German populace is a bunch of hard-right moralists opposed to liberal values and achievements. Quite the opposite. That faction has been quiet since the ‘40s.
Rather, Merkel’s enduring popularity is evidence of Teutonic common sense. Few would claim that their Chancellor is perfect, and many would disagree with her religious and moral views. But they understand that her views are personal. They are hers, not the state’s or the peoples’. They are not being imposed upon an unwilling populace.
It is a point that we would do well to remember.
Which brings me to Rees-Mogg. Deemed the favourite to succeed Theresa May (by people who don’t know how the Conservative Party works), the MP for the sixteenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries recently appeared on ITV’s gaudy travesty Good Morning Britain, and he used the occasion to do what Tim Farron could not: he answered questions.
He revealed that, as an observant Catholic, he is personally opposed to abortion in all circumstances. He also opposes same-sex marriage.

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