Thursday, April 10, 2008

Sex Survey: Gayers in the Westminster Village

Another result from the sex survey, which more than 2,300 of you have taken part in. I'm beginning to think one or two people may have been having a 'reet laff' and filled in the BNP survey erroneously. How on earth, otherwise, could 21.9% of BNP supporters be gay? Yes, I know there was a lot of it about in Nazi Germany, and they do so love their uniforms, but even so, 21.9%? I don't think so. Anyway, here were the other parties rankings.

LibDem 16.4%
Floating Voters 13.5%
Conservatives 11.6%
Labour 11.4%
SNP/Plaid 9.8%
Greens 4.8%
UKIP 1.6%

Don't think I'll be bothering to go to a UKIP conference anytime soon then. While the Greens have a very low gay quota, they seem to be quite happy to swing both ways. Here are the figures for the number of people who said they were bisexual...

Greens 14.3%
Floating Voters 10.5%
LibDem 8.9%
Labour 7.6%
Conservative 5.7%
SNP/Plaid 3.9%
BNP 3.1%
UKIP 1.7%

All this does seem to prove that political parties do attract more gay people, proportionately, than other areas of society. This is especially true among activists, I think. One or two people in previous threads have had a go at explaining this phenomenon, but I don' think any of them have done so very successfully.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is so funny and I feel secretly guilty for enjoying such a popularist unashamedly blog-visit-boosting subject.

If the Lib Dems are such a bunch of poofs, why then, do they not come out of the closet and nail their calvin kleins to the mast?

It's not done Alan Duncan any harm and people who are just themselves always much more trustworthy in my book.

Has Ming told Elspeth? Does Vince play the pink oboe? How come you are so pally with Nick?

Graeme Archer said...

Shome mishtake shurely? The gay Tory activist count should be about 89%. I can't actually remember meeting a straight Tory activist, though I've read about them in books. We put a "diversity" statement on all our Hackney leaflets: "straight men and other minorities are particularly welcome to apply for membership", as we only have one, and he gets lonely. (Actually that's no longer true: we have three now. It's the BoJo effect).

Isn't the most sensible (and boring) theory to explain the oddly high prevalence of homosexuality amongst activists just that if you don't have children, you've got more time to deliver leaflets? I'd rather it was something to do with genetics and science dahling, but I fear it's just boring practicalities.

Anonymous said...

Re: the BNP - I have heard it said from friends who were politically active in the late Seventies that the big schism between the National Front and the BNP wasn't about matters of racist dogma, but about homosexuality. The terrible homoeroticism of all those shaven-headed men in tight jeans, or something.

In essence, the BNP is the less-gay version of the NF.

wonkotsane said...

This makes sense Iain. We're all getting shafted by politicians and as most of them are men, it follows that they must all play cricket for India (bat for the other side ... I didn't say it was funny).

Anonymous said...

Thank-you oh thank-you for putting up this post about the sexual habits of British blog-readers.

Anonymous said...

I object to the use of the word 'gayers'. Take it down now. I am an MP in the morning.

Gregg said...

All this does seem to prove that political parties do attract more gay people, proportionately, than other areas of society.

Excluding the BNP, the gay figures average out at 10%, so it doesn't actually seem so. The bi figure is perhaps a little high - in my experience, regardless of their sexual activity, fairly few people identify as bi (I'm the only one in my circle of friends, even though several have swung both ways in their time).

And I'm not sure the BNP figure is dishonest. Wouldn't it tie up with so many of them being virgins? We know the most ardent gay-bashers are repressed homosexuals. I think this is a good thing - even if the test was anonymous, admitting their homosexuality is the first step to leaving the BNP.

The Scoffer said...

All this does seem to prove that political parties do attract more gay people, proportionately, than other areas of society. This is especially true among activists, I think. One or two people in previous threads have had a go at explaining this phenomenon, but I don' think any of them have done so very successfully.

Iain,

I think I have a theory which stands up. Perhaps it is merely that politically active people, having already "come out" as such (either politically affiliated, or merely active/interested) find it easier to be open about other things.

Just a thought.

Anonymous said...

Well, gays have less often children, so they have more time, especially in their 30's, to their hobbies, like politics. And beside that, gays are everywhere a more or less discriminated minority, so they have more interest to try to affect the politics.

Anonymous said...

Lib Dems should alter their standard slogan from "It's a straight choice" to "It's a gay choice".

Anonymous said...

Whilst at university, i found a LOT of the gay Libbies were in that party because it was perceived to be more 'gay friendly' than the others! That was the motivating reason to join the Libbies! Nothing about policy whatsoever!

Julian the Wonderhorse said...

With all these "gayers", who is the "gayest", Iain?

You weren't one of the "Clegg 30", were you?

Anonymous said...

Ian,
You're welcome to our national conference anytime.
You'll be pleased to hear that we'll be in sunny Bournemouth at the BIC this year, which I'm sure you'd prefer to Birmingham?
http://www.conference.westbournemouthukip.com/default.htm

Anonymous said...

I worked in lobbying and I swear I was about the only straight male in the whole company. And it was divided roughly 50/50 Conservative - Labour, so my anecdotal evidence would bear that out.

And no...I'm not telling you which one it was.

asquith said...

Apparently, the reason male Republicans were so angered about the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky incident is that they wanted his lovin' for themselves. It wouldn't surprise me.

Anonymous said...

Gregg wrote: "We know the most ardent gay-bashers are repressed homosexuals."

We do? Stats and references please, to support this old wives' tale. Some men seem just to feel that gay men are letting the side down by not being attracted to women. The bashers take it as a snub one step removed.

I do think the point about gay activists having more time is quite interesting. But it doesn't address the central question: why are so many gay men attracted to politics?

Anonymous said...

errmmm more moxies in politics - thats a hard one, matron.

would it just possibly have anything to do with a heightened sense of injustice?

Anonymous said...

Verity, why would a straight man think that gay men were "letting the side down"? Every man I know has a very singular view of their sexuality (you may not understand but its the "little head tells the big head what to do" thing).

I've tried to pick up "straight" men who have turned out to be gay or bisexual, I've tried to pick up straight men who got aggressive and I've tried to pick up straight men who just said "sorry mate, no interest" and gone on to be great friends. I must admit I have also tried to pick up gay men who said "sorry mate no interest". But that's just my bad luck. Which of these do you think are being honest?

Anonymous said...

traditional Tory gays posibly did it for a number a reasons (a) the male dominated student political environment at Oxbridge reminded them of the all-male public schools they came from, (b) while the Tories were officially anti-homosexual they had no problem with it personally (along with adultery, natch) provided you didnt get caught out and embaress the party. (c) once you got married you could spent large parts of the year away from your wife in London and so indulge ones illegal proclivities. Its surely no coincidence that the guards in St James Park were traditionally the location of late night pleasure for the gentlement of St James gentlemen's clubs.

Anonymous said...

we're not talking tv chat show dominance here. Imagine if Andrew Lloyd Webber was gay? The lord of musical theatre. But he is not. So get over it.