Yes, it is becoming more and more difficult to try to understand what Cameron and his advisers think what passes for their strategy will accomplice.
Clegg seemed to be prepared to sacrifice the LibDems to avoid the possibility of a re-run election which would have returned a more Euro sceptical government ,but why is Cameron alienating the Conservative’s core supporters?
The theory of needing to win the Centre (as defined by our political class) has become dogma but this depends on assuming you don’t lose more of your core support than you gain from the so-called centre.
Guardian reading supporters of fashionable causes will never vote Conservative regardless of whether Conservative policy is pro or anti homosexual marriage.
Could Cameron be replaced without triggering an election before the Conservatives are ready for it?
Is Cameron really a Euro Federalist and just wants to destroy the Conservative party?

Bit fraught ... late night meetings, and early start. Sorry about that!

It's fascinating.

I think what happened is that Cameron saw this as a nice little progressive liberal project, which he could point to as him doing something on principle and which would piss off a few of the Turnip Taliban - a measure of success in Dave's view.

Very few were pressing for it, there have been civil partnerships for a time, a significant minority was against it, most people couldn't care less.

As the project has continued there have been more and more difficulties and compromises and kludges, to the extent that the original objectives, to the extent they existed, are completely muddied. However, Dave has sunk so much capital into it that he can't let go.

The effect on people who couldn't care less is to make them ask what the hell he's playing at when there have to be more important matters, and ask whether he's altogether in touch with reality.

I've seen the same thing happen with disaster IT projects. They start with the feasibility, risks and rewards and return on investment being glossed over because some manager wants it. One problem appears after another and the fixes each cause another load of problems. It rapidly becomes a mess of firefighting, but it goes on a long time because the manager can't admit he's wrong and so much money has been wasted already.

Other explanations:

He's lost it and this is displacement activity.

He hasn't lost it and this is a smokescreen for something.

Just a thought. This gay marriage thingy could be part of EU Diversity as a similar but less fraught discussion is going on in France at the moment, so unlikely to be a coincidence. There has even been a mention on France 2 that Cameron has passed a law for gay marriage.

Perhaps, to keep in with the Colleagues, he does not have any choice on this.

Just wondering.

Yes, It would make sense if this was an EU project and being introduced one province at a time.
Just bad luck on Cameron’s part to be picked to lead...what is the question Napoleon was supposed to ask before promoting a general?

If the coalition loses its majority it could trigger an election this is why it has not happened.

They get together and examine the results of the latest 'focus group' and figure that they can scale that up to the general population. Truth to be told, the disconnect is growing at such a rate that if AH were standing for election then he would get voted in just to be rid of them. They stand for whatever they are convinced is popular this week. "These are my principles - if you don't like them ... well... I have others".

I'm living in hope of a backlash. Not holding my breath though.

'Is there a Case for Same-Sex Marriage' by R.S Harris has been recommended as essential reading.

http://www.anglican-main...says-new-in-depth-study/

Never was a book so needed in times such as this.

THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL

Equal Marriage is being wilfully and recklessly steamrollered through government today, Gays will not be content with marriage as they were never content with simply being tolerated from 1969 when homosexuality was first decriminalised. Even then voices predicted that inevitably homosexuals would eat up more and more territory until it dominated society completely. And so it has happened. The gay lobby, Stonewall, and our government who are firmly controlled by homosexual and lesbian MPs and friends, like Cameron, are insisting that instead of gays assimilating and being equal to us, it is we who must conform to their standards of truth and morality. The definition of marriage will now be dictated by them.

The problem with focus groups is they can only work in a society that considers individuals have a right to hold opinions that differ from what is considered “acceptable”.
We have created a situation where people feel they must conform. Remember if you accept opinions can be politically correct it follows there are opinions that are incorrect and therefore people will be reluctant to own up to. That does not mean they won’t vote in “incorrect” ways.

Agreed. In 1982 Thatcher was as unlikely to win re-election (according to the chattering classes) as Cameron is today.

The perceived wisdom is that the Falklands war saved her bacon but I'm not so sure. Nevertheless, maybe Cameron needs just such a seismic event to win in 2015.

Early in/out referendum anyone?