Except of course that as much as we'd like to think gay rights were central to the race, it was more likely the economic debates that won the race for the socialists.

The reformist Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) has its faults but on the question of our rights they’re miles ahead of the right centrist Peoples Party (PP), which is more like the Democratic or Republican Party in the US.

The despicable bigots of the PP are led by an unrepentant collection of reactionaries with connections to the catholic cult, and with Opus Dei, the religious branch of Franco’s fascist movement. Their US equivalents are the theocratic religious right.

If Opus Dei they could repeat the monstrous evils of the Inquisition and Franco’s brutal régime they’d do it with pleasure. They have a lot in common with the ayatollahs and the religious right here in the US and the EU but are held back by secularism.

Like their cousins in the Australian "Liberal" Party and the English Conservatives, the PP can look forward to a long, well deserved retirement from politics for their anti-GLBT, anti-labor and prowar politics.

Bill,

A couple thoughts:

* The Republicans are also fairly conservative and affected by the church, admittedly not the catholic but just as damaging, particularly in terms of gay rights.

* It's entirely possible that the UK conservative party could win the next election so I would advise against being too comfortable about them enjoying a long retirement from politics.

Andrew

Andrew,

"The Republicans are also fairly conservative and affected by the church, admittedly not the catholic but just as damaging, particularly in terms of gay rights."

I couldn’t agree more, and so are the Democrats. The difference is the Republicans are open about it and the Democrats lie about it. Each party panders to bigots, each supports DOMA and DADT and they jointly cut ENDA to ribbons before ditching it and the hate crimes act. The catholic cult is moving to the right politically and plays a leading role in anti-choice and ant-GLBT politics. A big part of their political motivation is to sidetrack attention from their pedophile scandal by scapegoating us.

"It’s entirely possible that the UK conservative party could win the next election".

Again, I agree. If Labour’s rightward turn under Blair and support for Bush's war in Iraq intensifies it’ll hurt them by driving away antiwar voters and blurring the substantive differences between themselves and the Thatcher-Major-Jones Section 28 Tories.

The Labour Party will commit political suicide if they continue moving right. If that happens English voters may bump into the same political roadblock that’s been holding up progress in the US for decades. Here we’re faced with the dilemma of choosing between two parties opposed to our interests or creating a new party.