The chilling logic of the bigot

When I studied argument at Slough College Thames Valley University, as part of a business management diploma, one of the people we looked at was Enoch Powell. A fascinating, but chilling man. As an exercise, we had to study a passage from one of his speeches, and critique it. As I went through the text, phrase by phrase, I marvelled at the perfection of it. Every statement elegantly followed on from the last one. Powell took you down a path with great skill. Every single statement in his speech was perfectly logical.

There was only one slight snag. Not a single one of his statements was actually true. So, the exercise brilliantly demonstrated that your conclusion can be totally logical but it can be based on a load of old...well....er....horse manure.

So it was with this in mind that I read Norman Tebbit's article in the Mail today. It's about Rowan Williams. Tebbitt is "school of Powell" but not a patch on the master. Nevertheless, he leads you seductively down a path. You then shake your head at the end and realise that the man (Tebbit that is) is bonkers.

The essence of what he is saying is that by approving of gay relationships, Rowan Williams is giving succour to those who are attacking the tradition of the family. With a coffee in one hand and half a mind on the forthcoming quick crossword and Fred Bassett cartoon on later pages, a Mail reader could be forgiven for swallowing this almighty porky.

Perhaps one or two Mail readers might actually ask the question: "Why?" Why does approval of gay relationships constitute giving succour to those who attack the "traditional" family unit? Why can't the two, gay relationships and families, exist side by side in society?

That would be all very well, but Tebbit goes a step further. A step too far, you might say. He suggests that because of Williams' stance, or the apparent equivocal nature of his stance, on gay relationships and the clergy, there will soon be "talk of" Britain becoming "a secular Muslim state" like Turkey.

Nurse, the strait jacket please, quickly.