LABOUR'S FRIENDS 3

Another Labour ally in the European Parliament is Romania's Social Democratic Party. This, of course, is stuffed with ex-Communists. It, too, holds the sort of 'conservative' views on gay-rights that Denis McShane and the Conservative-bashers at the BBC have been so exercised about.

When Traian Basescu was running in the 2004 presidential election he said that he saw nothing wrong with same sex marriage. The Social Democratic Party stood against him and, according to Wikipedia, "used his comments against him" during the campaign. Indeed, the Social Democrats have stated that they would "not initiate and would not support" legislation to legalise same-sex marriage.

I trust that Jim Naughtie will be pressing Labour Party spokemen on the matter shortly.