Conservative PPC Philippa Stroud ran prayer sessions to "cure" gays

[Ewe]

Link here

Glad they're so progressive these days

It is terrifying, if all of this is the stuff that they do publicly, what on earth are these Tory homophobes saying behind closed doors. She is also the lady to thank for the married couples tax allowance.

She is in neighbouring constituency, DP has been canvassing for her they have spent so much money and resources there. It'll be a miracle if she doesn't win!

That's appalling.

I don't understand why it's only just coming out now, though. She wrote a book featuring those sorts of comments (although her very worst ones don't seem to have been in it, it's still pretty damning) and the press has only just found it? Better late than never, I suppose.

What I find strange was that there was this huge hoo-ha about the Conservatives' lovely new candidates when Dave became leader, and yet they're such a motley crew that they make the beaming Tory squire types seem positive cuddly. Zac Goldsmith with all his money abroad? The Rees-Moggs? That awful woman in Westminster that someone linked to a couple of weeks back? Couldn't they do any better?

Blergh.

How vile.

It looks like she does a lot of good in the community.

But we have the prime minister calling little old ladies bigots for being concerned about our community, so there are black marks all round.

I am not sure calling an old lady a bigot (which it could be argued she was!) and trying to cure gay people of demons/homosexuality are really comparable IMO.

I don't want religion being part of politics, I don't think it has any place and it is often used as an excuse for intolerance.

Gays need to be cured IMHO. Cured so that they can end up marrying the opposite sex, then living happily ever after in a two-up two-down in a conservative constituency with the vast wealth generated by their married couple's tax break.

No, seriously, what they do in their own homes is their business, I just don't want them ramming it down my throat...

No, really, I believe in equality for homosexuals. Just not if they are schoolteachers, as we know that gays are probably paedophiles, for some reason...

No, seriously... Ah fuck it, I'm not really a tory. Can't hide my true colours. Damn me to hell for not being a bigot.

Which reminds me, referring to someone as a bigot, just the once, privately (well, GB thought it was privately), certainly ain't the same as writing a whole book about how a group of people's lifestyle is immoral. Hardly a fair comparison.

Absolutely disgusting, hidious, human being[if she can be even called a human] and more ashamedly, she isn't the only one one. Just absolutely horrified and lost for more words.

from a New Statesman interview with Nadine Dorries:

"But the vast majority of the new MPs will be social Conservatives who have similar opinions to myself," Nadine Dorries tells the New Statesman. ?I can think of half a dozen Conservatives that don't agree with me, but they're leaving at the next election - people like Andrew MacKay and David Curry. The new MPs that are coming in are all social Conservatives - people like Fiona Bruce, Philippa Stroud, Louise Bagshawe."

She's the same ilk who go to poor 3rd world countries like Guatemala. and tell illiterate women that birth control pills will make them sterile.

Evangelical Missionaries from America too.

I feel the urge to cross the road when I meet her sort.

Now while i'm not defending any of the god squads churches attitude towards homosexuality, I find this very telling;

""The church's approach was not that it was sinful to be homosexual but that it was sinful to act on it."

Isn't that the view in most faiths? Intollerence??

Aren't eastenders running the same storyline now??

Shall we run all catholics, muslims, christians etc out of the country??

All parties have people of faith, as all parties have homosexuals in them, so are people saying anyone of faith should not run as an MP?

Isn't that then forcing certain groups like muslims out of the political arena?

Vesela - so true about motley crew - could they not do better.

Our tory candidate is a scumbag too.

He keeps saying that he is the face of the new conservatives - that he wouldn't have been able to be a candidate under the old conservatives.

And then you google him and ... yuk. He's a liar and more.

apparently, even the local office don't like him.

Face of the new conservatives indeed. I am fervently hoping he is not elected. I will cringe.

It demonstrates such a gross misunderstanding of what it means to be gay. I'm not, but we rented a room to a gay friend for seven years. I couldn't possibly ever imagine him to swing the other way - it's a fundamental part of who he is.

atlantis - No, not all faiths are like this. In case you hadn't noticed, there has been uproar in the Catholic and Anglican faiths on precisely this issue.

The Anglican communion is changing a great deal, and needs support in its liberal wing. Not all churches run this Alpha course-style stuff.

there is a marked disjunction between the GB Catholic laity and the leaders of the Catholic church on this.

It all depends on who you think "the Church" is - laity or leaders. I say, supposrt the progressive element.

"atlantis - No, not all faiths are like this. In case you hadn't noticed, there has been uproar in the Catholic and Anglican faiths on precisely this issue."

Ok, so what about muslim MP's then should they not run?

Bless you atlantis, floundering about there trying to find a way to make this a non-story.

She is standing as a candidate for a party that professes to espouse equal rights for gay people, yeah?

Not only that, she is apparently one of the 'new breed' of 'social conservatives', not one of those horrid old fashioned homophobic types.

Yet she ran prayer sessions to "cure" gays.

I would be deeply suspicious of any candidate whose private views were significantly at odds with those of the party he or she is standing for.

Atlantis - i was only picking you up on the "all faiths are like this". I think it's important people remember that a lot of the laity are progressive, and to support that move for liberal faith. Just imo.

And your implicit identification of faith with certain social views. The two don't go together. It's possible to be a social liberal and a member of a faith whose leadership articulates the faith's position on those issues quite differently. Sometimes they articulate that position of dissonance from within the faith.

Don't really want to take you up on your anti-Muslim bait but, yes, I've read work by feminists and lesbians articulating the Islamic faith, form within, against a more dominant, patricarchal, anti-lesbian interpretation.

As regards going into politics. Which is separate.

Anyone can run, provided they're not breaking the law.

But people publicly holding these views? Well, we, the electorate, have the right to be fully informed, and make a judgment.

Ewe is pointing out that this candidate's views are not that widely known, and have not been widely publicly discussed, and (correctly, I feel) suggesting that this is perhaps something people might wish to take into consideration as they enter the voting booth.

Other posters have made, other, valuable, points.

Back to the OP ...

I'm in such a quandary re. our tory candidate. I feel outraged that people don't know what he is really "like". I'm not talking about the private morality stuff, whcih though unpleasant, and typical 80s tory stuff, is private, it's the other stuff.

But there is such a dissemination gap. There is no way to counter the publicly available image. It's weird.

"Bless you atlantis, floundering about there trying to find a way to make this a non-story."

No, be fair, even if this was a candidate from another party I would say the same.

IMO people of 'faith' shouldn't be allowed to run in public office, but that would be unpopular wouldn't it?

But all parties have people of faith and I don't want to single out any particular faith but for arguement sake, and because it's topical at the moment on eastenders, all the people who are up in arms over this stupid woman should also feel the same for any Muslim candidate for any party.

You can't have it both ways, you can't say isn't she awful because she's a christian but it's ok for a muslim to hold their values.

It's hypocritical to think any other way.

I don't think she's awful for being a christian though. I think she's a hypocrite because she claims to espouse the views of the conservative party when she clearly does not espouse those views herself, and all of this in the context of a sustained effort by David Cameron to convince the electorate that the tories have changed. As far as I know she hasn't responded to these reports to explain this discrepancy.

They worry you dont they? If this is the sort of thing that goes through their minds, what else do the likes of PS think? The world was made in 7 days?

It's not because she's a Christian.

If she were any other faith+these views it would be an issue.

Faith does not, necessarily=these views.

OP is about, afaik, dissemination and disjunction.

Disjunction between what NuTory says it is, and what it's NuTory candidates actually think and

Dissemination of knowledge about this disjunction.

You know, there is nothing, necessarily against people running for parliament with these views. Just so long as people know.

Thoug I must admit I wouldn't vote for them. And it is to DC's credit that he has made attempts to move his party away from this madness. Though, clearly, he is finding it v. hard to get the staff.

I live in this constutuency and its very close between Lib dem and Tory - my one hope was that she seemd ok - big on social justice etc and then I read this and my heart just sank - to be parachueted in was bad enough but now this - and shes standing against a truly local lib dem mp who the evening standard say is the 'hardest working in London'

[despairs]

"I don't think she's awful for being a christian though. I think she's a hypocrite because she claims to espouse the views of the conservative party when she clearly does not espouse those views herself.."

But what I am saying is the same for any candidate in any party who has these 'faith' issues, so why are we hyping on about her and not every other candidate from every other party who has these faith issues?

They are all bloody hyprocrites aren't they as each party believes in gay rights.

Yes, she's a bloody idiot, but then are so many candidates who have faith issues, so should we rule out anyone of 'faith' from standing or just her?

Its just atlantis that nowhere has she mentioned this on her literature - that she has an evangelical christian background and believes in demons that can be cast out through prayer etc - I think it is important to know these things and IME a Muslim candidate for whichever party will say so in their pamphlets.

It is hypocrisy because she is standing as an advocate of social justice and those people drawn to that will assume she on the progressive side of the Tory party and have certain views because of that when it is patently not the case.