Teaser on the front page of the NYT yesterday:
British Victory for Gay Unions
The House of Commons voted to legalize same-sex marriage in England and Wales, a sign that the bill is assured of passage as it advances. Still, dissent was a setback for the prime minister.
Note: England and Wales, not the UK. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own legislatures.
So if you’re counting countries with same-sex marriage, England-and-Wales will count as one. But a same-sex marriage bill is working its way through the Commons in Scotland; that would be a second country. No forward movement in Northern Ireland, however.
February 7, 2013 at 2:52 pm |
Not “the Commons in Scotland”; there is no such thing. The Scottish Parliament is unicameral. For that reason there is an extended consultation period, with internet access to bills for public comment. I expect the legislation to be passed with a proportionately bigger majority in Scotland, as there are mercifully few Tory MSPs. (BTW, the Scottish Tory leader is an out lesbian.)
February 7, 2013 at 3:28 pm |
Sorry. That was a quote from a Scottish news source, which I suspect was referring to the one house of the Scottish Parliament as “the Commons”.
February 7, 2013 at 4:11 pm
That is very puzzling. I have never heard the Scottish Parliament called the Commons, and find it remarkable that a Scottish source has done so, as it prides itself on being as different from the UK House of Commons as possible. The only uses I can find of that phrase are archaic, and simply contrast the ‘commons’, i.e. the common people, with the aristocracy.