While the American chattering classes have been mainly absorbed with the spectacle of the GOP’s creaky and self-exculpatory “reinvention” efforts, there were major breakthroughs in the legalization of same-sex marriage in both France and in the UK.
The key vote in the British House of Commons was held today, with a marriage equality measure supported by the leaders of all three major parties passing by a 400-175 vote. But if there were a British version of the Hastert Rule requiring majority support from within the governing party, there could have been trouble, since David Cameron’s Tories split 139-132 against their prime minister’s initiative.
