"Gay Sex Is As Dangerous As joining the Army" - Tory Frontbencher

There is an almost religious determination at Conservative HQ to focus the election firmly on David Cameron, and if anyone wants to question that strategy they need only refer to the activities and comments of Mr. Cameron's putative future ministers amongst the Conservative ranks. Take Dr. Julian Lewis, the New Forest MP, for example.

In an observation to sixth formers, made at a local college in his constituency, Dr. Lewis made a comparison about gay activity that remains a little, shall we say, opaque. When the comments were first reported, I must have mis-heard, for I thought he had said something along the lines of "dead military personnel can't contract AIDS" which, whilst somewhat gratuitous, is undeniably true. Turns out that what Dr. Lewis was actually saying was that gay sex and frontline militray activity were equally dangerous activities, and that is why he didn't vote for the reduction of the age of gay consent to 16. Not quite sure how our men on the Afghanistan front-line are going to take to having their daily life-threatening missions compared to a bout of gay sex, but there we go. Dr. Lewis, of course, is one of David Cameron's shadow defence spokesmen. Which must be a real help to everyone concerned. Fortunately, Dr. Lewis' expertise is not about to be deployed in any strategic sense to the Afghan conflict - no, his remit is the far less controversial one of nuclear weapons.

The Conservatives - a nice change!

UPDATE: The Independent reports a penitent Dr. Lewis as saying that he did not intend to make the 'preposterous suggestion' that gay sex was as dangerous as fighting on the front line, but to point out that unprotected gay sex carried clear physical dangers.