By Hilary White
LONDON, May 14, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life advocates are expressing concern after Britain’s new Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government announced cabinet appointments yesterday, some of whom have long records in favor of abortion or the homosexualist political program. Meanwhile, in the wake of the first announcements by the government of increases in taxes and constitutional changes, many commentators are warning that the election has ushered in a government even further to the left than that of the ousted Labour majority government.
John Smeaton, Director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) listed the top members in the new government – Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, Chancellor George Osborne, and Health Secretary Andrew Lansley – as most likely to “obstruct the pro-life cause.”
While some pro-life advocates have praised a statement from the new Health Secretary Andrew Lansley that the government would be open to lowering the gestational age limit for abortion by two weeks, Smeaton warned supporters not to be fooled. Calling praise from the Pro-Life Alliance “irresponsible commentary,” Smeaton said that Lansley is in full support of legal abortion.
In May last year, Lansley told the House of Commons that he resists the idea of moving away from “the principle of linking the time limit for abortion to the viability of the fetus.” Lansley also said that the House should “consider whether the requirement for two doctors to consent to an abortion being performed, and the restrictions on nurses providing medical abortions, need to be maintained.”
Smeaton also cited Lansley’s endorsement of the 2003 report by the Commons health select committee, which called for greater access to abortion through a national advice line and for non-hospital nurses to be allowed to administer chemical abortions.
Smeaton named six other members of the new Cabinet as likely problems for pro-life advocacy, but also listed several others as “more likely that not to be helpful or unobstructive.” These include some high level ministers such as Theresa May, the home secretary, William Hague, foreign secretary and Eric Pickles, communities secretary.
Anthony Ozimic, SPUC’s communications officer told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that pro-life work in the new Parliament would continue, but also urged caution. Ozimic said that “it remains to be seen how the Conservatives are going to deal with the issue” of sex education in schools, an issue on which SPUC has been lobbying hard in recent months.
While the Labour government insisted that faith schools would be forced to teach children how to obtain abortions and contraceptives, and about homosexuality as legitimate lifestyle, it is unclear how the new government would approach the issue. Ozimic said, however, that the Liberal Democrats, being further to the left even than Labour, would be likely to exert a “nefarious influence on Conservative policy.”
Lib Dems, he said, are strongly in favor of compulsory sex education, in which a keystone is to teach about homosexuality as “normal and harmless.” They are also on record as wanting to restrict parental rights even further than under Labour’s plans.
Ozimic said, however, that “there are some new MPs who have supported life and family.” He named William Hague, Liam Fox, and Owen Patterson, “who have voted for life and family in different ways, if not consistently.”
The problem SPUC is facing now is the lack of a researchable voting record of newly minted MPs who won their first seats last week. SPUC will be working to provide information to the public on this, but in the meantime Ozimic echoed Smeaton, saying, “There are people in Britain who support life and family who are unduly optimistic, having just got rid of the most anti-life government in British history.
“We would sound a note of caution. There are possibilities, opportunities that didn’t exist with the previous government. We must act prudently so there aren’t disasters.”
At the same time, many commentators have observed that even in its first days, the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition is encroaching on both Tory campaign promises and British constitutional traditions.
The new government’s plans to install legislation requiring non-confidence votes to be ratified by an “enhanced majority” of 55 per cent of MPs have come under criticism, with some labeling them a naked ploy to hold on to power, and one opposed to British Parliamentary tradition. Other conservative voices are contrasting Tory promises that Britain’s tax burden would be eased, with announcements this week of a rise in the VAT (Value Added Tax) to 20 per cent from its current 17.5, a change that had been rejected under Labour.
“It is no service to democracy for parties to make firm promises one week, which they sweep aside the next before a new government has been constituted,” Daily Mail columnist Stephen Glover wrote. “We have all been short-changed. Most who voted Tory will have done so in the belief that the party would not raise taxes.”
Other changes include a shelving of the Tory promise to raise the threshold for inheritance tax, that Glover called “arguably its most popular policy” in the past few years. The Lib Dems have also demanded a rise in the capital gains tax from its present 18 per cent to 40 to 50 per cent.
Peter Hitchens wrote in the Mail, “What we know of the Clegg-Cameron pact suggests that it is a major victory for the Liberal Democrats, made easier by the fact that David Cameron is himself by inclination a liberal, and offered no serious resistance to many of Nicholas Clegg's demands.”
The coalition deal, Hitchens said, “exposes the unspeakable truth, that there really is no substantial, principled difference between the leaderships of the major political parties.”
The future of conservatism in Britain, he said, will be determined by the immediate reaction of the “real conservatives” in the party. “If they submit and allow themselves to be co-opted, then all immediate hope is gone and political and social conservatism is dead in this country. We can all go off and keep bees.”