UK Parliament / Open data

Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill

Proceeding contribution from Michael McCann (Labour) in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 5 February 2013. It occurred during Debate on bills on Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill.

I am grateful for that intervention, because I am going to deal with that point right now.

The much-vaunted quadruple lock is underpinned by case law. Everyone in the House knows that what makes case law is cases. I am damn sure—as sure as the sun rises in the morning—that a same-sex couple will go to a church or synagogue and demand to be married, their demand will be refused and they will go to court; and we in turn will have to wait to see what new case law is created. By that time, it is possible that none of us will be serving in the House—we may have left politics altogether or indeed left this mortal coil—but in that set of circumstances people will look back and ask, “How did we get into this mess?” They will look back in Hansard and say, “It’s because we made a bad law in 2013, and some politician said at the time that there was a quadruple lock, underpinned by case law.”

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
558 c180 
Session
2012-13
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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