Why the “Brokeback Club” so badly misses the point

Criticisms from the Tory right are useful for Cameron and Clegg.

By James Macintyre Published 26 July 2010 15:25

The theme of anger aimed at the coalition from the Tory right is becoming such common currency in Westminster that even John Redwood has been forced to deny joining a "Brokeback Club", named after David Davis's remarks attributed to Lord Ashcroft, comparing David Cameron and Nick Clegg to the two gay cowboys in the Hollywood film.

In reality, such rumblings play straight into the hands of the Cameron and Clegg camps, which seem remarkably relaxed about it all. With a huge and apparently ideologically driven cuts agenda to which the new Liberal Democrat leadership has signed up, it is mainstream Lib Dems and those on its left who are most unhappy. Which is why, perhaps, the state-slashing Redwood is urging against Tory attacks on the coalition. It appears that Redwood has a greater understanding than many of where the centre of gravity lies in this government.

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2 comments

Mon, 2010-07-26 17:37 — Christopher Hobe Morrison

The Brokeback Club is also the swort of slap at gay people that can be expected from a party whose racist and homophobic tendencies have always been there. David Cameron has been attempting to make gays feel that they are welcome in the Conservative Party, and this is one of the changes that the right-wing of the Tory Party is unhappy with. They are not really happy unless they are targeting gays, foreigners, workers, women, poor people, and animals. This is not because they necessarily stand to gain anything from it but more because they are just not happy unless they are hurting someone or taking things from other people. Of course, they did not mean anything hurtful, at least consciously, from their little joke, but in many ways this makes it worse because it shows their inner malice goes right to the core of their being.