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BRITISH LAWMAKERS HAVE passed a bill today legalising same-sex marriage in England and Wales, paving the way for the first gay weddings in 2014.
MPs in the House of Commons decided not to oppose a number of minor amendments to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill proposed by the House of Lords, the upper parliamentary chamber.
The legislation is now expected to receive official assent from Queen Elizabeth II later this week after MPs agreed to changes such as ensuring protections for transgender couples.
A spokesman for the culture ministry, which is overseeing the new law, told AFP the bill would probably receive royal assent on Wednesday or Thursday.
“But we are looking at seeing the first gay weddings in the middle of 2014 because there are various issues to sort out, such as its impact on pensions,” the spokesman added.
Registration of marriages
Government computer systems also need to be updated to allow same-sex marriages to be registered, at an estimated cost of £2 million (€2.3 million).
But the government hopes legalising gay marriage will bring an overall boost to the economy, estimating that the change could bring in up to £14.4 million a year for caterers, hotels and the rest of the wedding industry.
The bill survived a stormy passage through parliament, with dozens of members of Prime Minister David Cameron’s own Conservative party voting against it.
Tory minister Gerald Howarth criticised the way the government had backed the bill.
“I have to say that it is astonishing that a bill for which there is absolutely no mandate, against which a majority of Conservatives voted against, has been bulldozed through both Houses and just two hours of debate tonight is an absolute parliamentary disgrace,” he said.
“I think the government should think very carefully in future if they want the support of these benches. Offending large swathes of the Conservative Party is not a good way of going about it.”
An attempt in the Lords last month to kill off the legislation with a “wrecking amendment” failed.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who leads Cameron’s junior coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, said the new law would ensure that gay couples felt “recognised and valued, not excluded”.
Gay rights activists have vowed to press on for equal marriage in the United Kingdom’s other two nations, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
But opponents of gay marriage have warned that the legislation will “come back to bite” Cameron.
The Coalition for Marriage campaign group said it would mobilise a 700,000-strong support base ahead of next year’s European elections and the general election in 2015.
Civil partnerships
Civil partnerships for gay couples have been legal in Britain since 2005, giving them identical rights and responsibilities to straight couples in a civil marriage.
But campaigners point to differences, such as gay couples’ inability to choose a religious ceremony or to call their partnership a “marriage”.
The new law will ban the established Churches of England and Wales – which are opposed to gay marriage – from conducting ceremonies. That will give them the legal framework they need to be able to refuse to conduct such marriages.
Other religious institutions will be able to “opt in” if they wish.
Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own laws on the matter. The Scottish government published its own same-sex marriage bill last month, but Northern Ireland’s assembly voted to block a similar measure.
France became the 14th country to legalise same-sex marriage in May, joining The Netherlands, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland, Argentina, Denmark, Uruguay, Belgium, and New Zealand.
Gay couples can marry in 13 US states, as well as in the capital Washington DC, while parts of Mexico also allow same-sex marriage.
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As usual trying to put a good spin on Ireland’s figures. Most of our improvement is due to “scambridge” hiring interns.
Most countries have internships. My friend is doing one in London.
And most of Germanys low figure is accountable due to the fact that they don’t have a minimum hourly wage – I’m not sure if it is the same in Austria. This means people can be working, legally, for nothing. Just another way that a government is trying to hide it’s unemployment rate.
Although, some quick googling to fact check shows that Germany have actually agreed to introduce a minimum wage by next year – Let’s see if they keep the same low unemployment levels with that.
Bobby, the difference between an internship and the ‘job’bridge interns is that any employer can hire as many job bridge interns as they want, pay them nothing, and then let them go after the time, and then just hire another poor soul to do the exact same job. No promise to keep them on, and in a lot of cases you see, no real value to the internships offered (stacking shelves, washing cars etc.).
Exactly, it’s mostly completely taken advantage of.
It is a crap system, but it’s the same in England, graduates doing interns stacking shelves. Recently a graduate was sent to work in a pound shop by the jobcentre to stack shelves. She took them to court and won?
So just because they are taking complete advantage of young unemployed people in Britain, it’s grand that we’re doing the same here?
Nope, I never said that, just letting you know you’re not alone.
Ah sorry, my misunderstanding. I thought you were just trying to justify the system because it happens elsewhere.
Actually, I believe Germany has just introduced a minimum wage (€8.50) in the last few weeks.
White Fang, yes I know and linked to an article about it (as it was news to me until I looked it up) in my post above.
Maybe people should look up the definition of internships. Then compare them to what happens on the jobsbridge scam!
Sorry Dave, I completely missed that!
@alan Most of our improvement is due to high end IT, Pharma and Finance jobs. Basic maths kiddo (which ironically is the reason you wouldn’t get a job in any of those sectors.)
Every job in FAS/Solas is for this scam, and scam it is when local auctioneers & solicitors advertising for staff promising a good internship, funded by money stolen from private pension accounts, most vile Government in the history of the state.l
@Bobby
I don’t know if it’s the same story, but I read about a woman with a history degree who was serving as a volunteer intern in a museum.
But her local job centre told her she couldn’t volunteer as that meant she wasn’t “available for work”. They then promptly put her to work in Dealz. And she would lose her dole payment if she refused to take the “job”. So she ended up working a 40 hour week against her will for approx £70.
Dealz wins. Job centre wins. Everyone but the poor woman who was working towards a more permanent placement in the museum wins.
Thanks for that Tom.
The BBC said last week, 26 million people unemployed in the EU
Bobby what possible reason could Eurostat have for manipulation of the true figures.
Does anybody have an accurate figure as to what our unemployment rate would look like without the old immigration release valve? I imagine we’d be looking at close to the same rate as Greece. We sure are lucky that we speak English and can ship out all those workers for whom there are no jobs.
18 million jobless in the EU and still hundreds of thousands on non EU migrants are allowed enter Europe looking for work every year…madness
I’d love to know out of that 18.9 million how many are people that never want to work . Freeloaders if you will.
With any luck Gilmore will be out of a job soon.
Going by some of the regular trolls….probably 18 million or so..sure who,d want to work when you can live in luxury on the scratcher..and the sort of tripe these idiots post.
The people out of work need help people like you gay only make the situation worse !!
Who are the freeloaders to which you refer? Politicans such as our own, spineless lot? or people in long term unemployment on benefits who require said benefits to survive? We know who gets the blame these days and its the latter.
Yes its so much fun been on the dole and trying to scrape by on 100euro a week…madness!.and you have the cheek to call us all freeloaders?.funnily enough most of us would rather be working and earning some sort of living for ourselves as opposed to living on peanuts!.
well said Denise. the contempt is disgraceful
Thank you Sean, I just get tired of hearing how we are all lazy so-and-so’s when its not the case at all…i got laid off a couple of weeks back simply because there wasnt enough work and have had no luck with finding another job
At 5000 jobs a month Happy Gilmore will have it sorted in 300 years. On a side note… That labour, 70000 jobs ad (blatant lie) at the bottom is making me sick.
I am glad to see those good for nothing screw balls in Leinster house got them self A3Job .
have your say