Looking at coverage of the first (public) gay civil partnership (here) I’m struck not by the fact that it is happening (for which we have the Green party to thank) but by the fact that vocal opposition to it, where it has been voiced, has been rapidly dismissed as just plain odd. The sort of people who used to rant about “men being obsessed with other men’s back passages” (an old Questions and Answers favourite of mine) and were regarded as occupying a certain mainstream position are just cranky old nutters now. Not even bigots. Just nutters. Larry Grayson has a lot to be thanked for. Isn’t it nice that in these dark times the government has the power to spread a little happiness by extending rights to people?

I see that the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Fianna Fail coalition are promising the most measly tinkering of political reforms when it comes to corporate donations. Will ALL donations, regardless of size, be declared publicly? Not that it makes that much of a difference. If a €1000 donation from some randomer shows up on a list, what does that prove, if some tycoon gave it to him/her to pass on under their own name? How about requiring donors to sign a declaration, under threat of jail, that it is their money to donate, and then applying the CAB rules, in that if they can not prove where the money came from we can jail them? By the way, does anyone not believe that Fine Gael will not be grabbing cash left, right and centre before the new legislation comes in? Don’t know why, but the more I watch Fine Gael in government the more this comes to mind. Fianna Fail legs bad, Fine Gael legs good!