Mayor who tried to ban gay pride praises Taliban ‘family values’

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The Doncaster mayor who tried to ban funding for gay Pride marches has caused shock by claiming people should look to the Taliban as a good example of family values.

Peter Davies, an English Democrat who was elected in June, claimed that under the Taliban, Afghanistan had an “ordered system of family life”.

Referring to recent child abuse scandals in the town, he added: “The one thing that can be said about the Taliban is that they do have an ordered society of some sort and that they don’t have hundreds of cases of children under threat of abuse from violent parents as we do in Doncaster.”

Although the mayor has been praised by some for his crusade against ‘political correctness’, his latest pronouncements have drawn rather less support.

Rosie Winterton, Labour MP for Doncaster Central, pointed out that the regime refuses to let girls go to school and punishes women who overstep dress or sexual rules with execution.

Defending the remarks, Davies said: “The point I was making was that even a regime as hideous as the Taliban at least appears to have some sort of decent sort of family affairs.

‘”In fact, probably… they have an ordered society.

“We in this country have created mayhem through lax social policies of disregard for marriage and the family and we have created mayhem in society.”

Although Davies’ decision to cut funding for Doncaster Pride was heavily publicised, he was forced to back down after admitting in a radio interview he had no idea how much revenue the event generated for the town

At the time, he said: “I don’t think councils should be spending money on them [gays and lesbians] parading through town advertising their sexuality.”

He later said his “main concern” was “value for money” in public spending.

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