<font color="#FF0000">SAME SEX CIVIL MARRIAGE</font>

On Tuesday February 5th the House of Commons will debate and vote upon the Second Reading of this highly controversial bill. Many of my Parliamentary colleagues, including friends and cabinet ministers, are pledged to oppose the legislation. So am I. I have pondered long and hard about this moral question and come to the conclusion that what is suggested in the bill is neither sensible nor workable.

But I will not be present for the debate or the vote at Second Reading - much as I would like to be. You have a right to know why.

Several months ago I was asked to be part of a vital Parliamentary delegation to Morrocco. That is where I am right now. Please look at the map below and you may understand why Morrocco is so important in this region. It is shares borders with Algeria, scene of the hideous slaughter of British lives only a week or so ago. Look more closely and you will also spot Mali, just a short hop across the desert. These are regions of North Africa under serious threat. Last week the Prime Minister was in Algeria. My visit, long arranged, is an ingredient of that wider process to strengthen relationships in the wake of terrorism.

Some of my constituents have said - why not cancel the trip and vote on the bill instead? That course of action, I'm afraid, would have caused an international diplomatic furore and would have been seen as insulting to the Morrocdcan Royal family. Trips like this take months to arrange. The timing of Parliamentary bills, however, is sprung on MPs at the last moment.

However my absence at the vote certainly does not mean that I have changed my mind on the issue. If the bill proceeds past Second Reading there will be many opportunities to use my vote against it.

Your Local MP

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