Funny, isn't it, that so many people want this referendum, only UKIP offers it, but still they don't get even close to elected. As MPs anyway.

They'll need to fix that before entering a coalition. Otherwise all they'll be doing is filling out the seats at the conference hall.

The UKIP band waggon is rolling. We recently filled a 350 seater hall in the village of Sedgley listening to Farage speak. I'm a UKIP member but fully expected to disagree with some of his policy statements. I found him spot on, a great speaker and even though only half of the audience were party members, he received a standing ovation. Farage is the future.
- Alan M. Etheridge, Sedgley, Dudley, UK, 20/8/2012 18:40

Given what happened with Farage's promotional flight, Alan M. Etheridge better hope that the wheels don't come off "the UKIP band waggon".

George Orwell got it wrong. He should not have called his futuristic novel 1984 - it should have been 2012.

The message is clear. Unless you subscribe fully to official equality and diversity policies and conduct your lives in like the most precious of Guardian columnists, you can forget about getting a pass grade.

In recent times, we have witnessed a string of court cases in which devout Christians who have run slap-bang into the secular orthodoxy. Wearing a cross to work, refusals to conduct same-sex civil partnership ceremonies or preside over gay adoptions and denying bed and breakfast accommodation to gay couples have all led to legal disputes. Even offering to pray for the sick can land you in hot water.

But this looks like being just the beginning of an Orwellian witch-hunt pitting the equality police against 'oldthink'. As Aidan O'Neill QC, a human rights barrister at the impeccably progressive Matrix Chambers, has warned, the legalisation of same-sex marriage will spawn a raft of new, corrosive disputes between those holding traditional beliefs about marriage, sex, gender and religion and the high priests of the equality crusaders.

Chaplains working for state organisations such as the NHS, the armed forces and schools and teachers will face disciplinary action, even the sack, if they question gay marriage.

Britain was once famed for its love of eccentrics and its tolerance of competing beliefs and ways of life. But with the Harriet Harmanisation of our official culture, all this seems to be coming to an end. The Left's 'long march through the institutions' is reaching the summit.

There was also a time when the Conservative Party could be expected to act as a voice for common-sense and as a defender of traditional values. The Tories may not have often succeeded in turning back the clock, but at least they acted as a brake on the loonier ambitions of the Left's cultural commissars.

Not now. David Cameron has acceded to gay adoption and is actively driving through the legalisation of same-sex marriage in the teeth of opposition from at least 120 of his MPs and the public.

He has not so much surrendered in the culture wars as turned his guns on his own side.

A nanny state that dictates what we drink will soon be telling us how to think
By SIMON HEFFER
PUBLISHED: 23:47, 28 November 2012 | UPDATED: 07:45, 29 November 2012

One great, long-standing British tradition has been that governments wherever possible left people alone to get on with their lives.

When Russell Brand and Richard Branson are helping shape drug policy, something's gone horribly wrong
By MELANIE PHILLIPS
PUBLISHED: 23:12, 9 December 2012 | UPDATED: 00:29, 10 December 2012

Young Britons turn their backs on binge drinking and drug taking culture of their parents' generation, figures show
Government figures show students are drinking less
Academics point to cultural shift, increasing financial constraints and tougher action to explain decline. [Not the war on drugs]
By ALEX GORE
PUBLISHED: 18:30, 9 December 2012 | UPDATED: 18:30, 9 December 2012