Labour’s Owen Smith is wrong to suggest putting same-sex marriage and reproductive rights to a public vote. The UK needs to work harder to achieve themOwen Smith,the shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland, has a plot. He says that whether Northern Ireland is to have a sustained period of unwelcome direct rule, and he favours putting marriage equality and abortion to referendums so that Westminster can feel empowered to effect change happen.
The shadow Northern Ireland secretary is right to want to see progress on both these issues – it is appalling that the people of Northern Ireland achieve not have the same equal marriage laws or reproductive rights as their fellow citizens in the rest of the United Kingdom. For the avoidance of doubt,our preference would be for the institutions to find back up and running as soon as possible. It is a tragedy that the UK government isn’t working harder to achieve that because of the survival pact Theresa May has signed with the DUP. Direct rule is bad for Northern Ireland for a whole range of reasons.
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Source: theguardian.com