"Society is breaking down"
One of the more infamous members of the House of Lords, Baroness Young, spoke to the Oxford Student last Thursday. Baroness Young gained a name for herself recently by fiercely campaigning against repealing Section 28 and lowering the gay age of consent from 18 to 16, campaigns which, as Roy Hattersley wrote in The Guardian, made her "the toast of homophobes everywhere".
As a Conservative peer and patron of the staunchly traditionalist Christian Institute, Baroness Young claimed to be the standard-bearer for values of the "great Judaeo- Christian tradition", a phrase she often repeated, and the voice of 'proper' morality in a "secular society, based on the values of the French Revolution".
"The whole of society is breaking down", she claimed. An "accepted pattern and framework no longer exists", therefore we must return to "traditional standards" such as marriage and the sanctity of the family unit.
No stranger to controversy, she upheld these traditionalist views to the letter and refused to be moved in her condemnation of abortion - "two billion dead babies later, here we are" - stem cell research using embryos, and, in her words, "sodomy".
The Baroness outspokenly defended her campaign to keep the homosexual age of consent at 18 by saying, "It is not a subject suitable for children." She went on to defend Section 28: "Children do need, when they are growing up, to have principles and ideals put before them...The overwhelming majority of parents do not want their children taught about homosexuality in schools as something which is just the same as heterosexuality". She also detailed the "health issues" associated with gay sex: "They (homosexuals) can pick up all sorts of diseases ... their life expectancy is considerably shorter than that of heterosexuals".
Having earlier been overheard complaining that she was "afraid to walk the streets of Oxford" because of "beggars" - "they're all on drugs, you know" - she toned down her comments on homelessness slightly in the actual interview - "I wish I had an easy answer for you" - yet still admitted she thought many of the homeless were "very pathetic" and didn't know "why they don't go into a hostel, or why they don't seek work". "A lot of them don't want to go into proper accommodation", she continued, "In London, anyway, there are a lot of places they could go, but they choose to sleep on the street". Despite being contested on this point, she insisted, "They could find a permanent address. They must go somewhere". She went on in the same vein: "Quite a lot of people on the streets, I am told, have mental illnesses ... I personally think it was a great mistake to close the mental hospitals and have a lot of people living in the community".
She was more sympathetic towards asylum seekers however. Choosing her words carefully, she said "Britain has always taken in genuine asylum seekers, and they have contributed hugely to our country", but she added, "We must tell the others that they must go home".
1st Jun 2001