The Philippa Stroud story has received a fair bit of attention on the social networks, despite barely being touched by the mainstream media. It grabbed my attention particularly because she’s standing in Sutton & Cheam. A town where I lived until recently (and still make regular use of) could gain a constituency MP with some allegedly “interesting” former activities in the name of Christianity.
But that’s not the real issue. The local constituency crank is an inevitable component of the avalanche of news stories during the build-up to a general election. A couple of pages later in the Observer’s print edition (and the link below on their website) is this…
Religious right tightens grip on Tories
So having imported obesity and presidential politics from the US, we could be about to get our very own Religious Right. Hallelujah! One financial backer named in the print version but not the online version is Sir Peter Vardy of creationist academy fame. And this in a country where the Accelerated Christian Education scheme already has a small foothold. This election of apathy and ennui has been painted as a choice between several shades of grey spending cuts, but I’d prefer any type of blandness to government-approved homophobia, pro-life and anti-science gibberish.