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Public backs bakery in 'gay cake' row, says poll: Six in ten believe proposed court action over owners' refusal to bake cake is wrong

A majority of the country thinks the persecution of a bakery for refusing to make a cake advertising gay marriage is wrong, a poll found yesterday.

Six out of 10 think that it is ‘disproportionately heavy-handed’ to drag a bakery company to court because its Christian owners declined an order for the cake with a message.

Those who deplore the state-backed legal action against the bakers outnumber supporters by more than four to one, it said.

Most people also believe David Cameron was wrong to assure Parliament that his gay marriage laws would not ‘cause discrimination’ against dissidents who do not believe two people of the same sex should be able to marry.

The warning to the Prime Minister that equality laws are beginning to offend large numbers of people follows the outbreak earlier this month of the gay marriage cake scandal.

The Belfast-based Ashers Baking Company refused an order placed by a gay rights group for a decorated cake bearing the slogan ‘support gay marriage’.

The cake was also to have had pictures of two characters from Sesame Street, the name of the group, Queerspace, and the year it was founded, 1998.

The order from an activist, Gareth Lee, was accepted by shop staff.

However, the owners of the family-run company, Colin and Karen McArthur, and their son Daniel, who is manager, decided the message on the cake was contrary to their beliefs.

Mrs McArthur phoned Mr Lee to tell him the firm would not bake the cake, and to offer a refund.

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Shortly afterwards the Northern Ireland branch of the state equality watchdog, the Equality Commission, wrote to the owners saying they had broken the law by discriminating on grounds of sexual orientation and that legal proceedings were to start within a week.

The threat provoked widespread anger because the bakery company did not refuse to serve a gay customer, the behaviour which the sexual orientation regulations, passed by Tony Blair’s government in 2006, were supposedly designed to stop.

Instead the company is being dragged to court because it declined to bake a cake intended to advertise a political message which ran against the religious beliefs of the owners.

Another majority, 54 per cent, said the Prime Minister was wrong to assure Parliament that gay marriage ‘would not cause discrimination against those who believe it wrong.’ Fewer than one in five, 19 per cent, backed Mr Cameron.

The strong response suggests that the gay marriage cake affair has left the Prime Minister exposed to the charge that his same sex marriage laws have left opponents exposed to persecution.

The poll found 45 per cent think Christian businesses are being singled out for legal attack by gay activists, while 25 per cent disagreed. Some 55 per cent think the law should protect people from the compulsion to produced goods or services that violate their conscience, with 22 per cent against.

Only 30 per cent think enforcement of equality laws should always take priority over individual conscience, and 41 per cent say there should be legal room for conscience.

One senior judge, Supreme Court Deputy President Lady Hale, has said she believes there should be a ‘conscience clause’ in the law for Christians.

A think tank, the Christian Institute, is trying to raise the £30,000 required to mount a legal defence of Ashers.

Lawyers estimate the company faces a fine of £5,000, as well as legal costs if it loses in court.

Christian Institute director Colin Hart said: ‘These poll findings demonstrate huge public support for the Ashers bakery and they also demonstrate that David Cameron and the Equality Commission are completely out of touch with public opinion.

‘Gay marriage was introduced on the grounds of promoting equality. But this and other cases demonstrate that all it is doing is promoting divisions between people and fanning intolerance.

‘The Prime Minister assured the public that his gay marriage laws would not punish people who believe in the traditional definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman. As we warned, these assurances are proving worthless. Innocent people are being bullied for attempting to live by their Christian conscience.’

Mr Hart added: ‘Mr Cameron should follow the advice of Baroness Hale and introduce a conscience clause to the law to ensure that families like the McArthurs can safely conduct their lives and business unmolested by meddlesome equality police.’

The ComRes poll was taken among 2,007 people on 16 and 17 July.

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Kate Garraway flashes her shapely legs in patterned high-waisted shorts as she steps out at the theatre in London

 

As summer temperatures rise in London, so too are many hemlines.

 

Kate Garraway showed off her womanly curves in a flattering pair of high-waisted shorts, when she attended the premiere performance of Aliens Love Underpants on Sunday.

 

As she stepped into the Leicester Square Theatre for the show, the bubbly TV personality wowed in her shorts, with featured black and white stripes and large blue dots.

 

Kate, 47, wore a matching loose blouse over a black camisole top, finishing off her stylish ensemble with a pair of nude stiletto heels.

 

The Good Morning Britain presenter recently opened up exclusively to MailOnline about her hopes of conceiving a third child.

 

 

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Kate, married to Derek Draper, is already mother to Darcey, 7, and 4-year-old William.

 

But she keeps an open mind when considering the possibility of extending their family.

 

She told MailOnline: ‘I’d absolutely love it if I had a third child but I am 47 now. To be honest I think it is pure greed wanting a third child in my case – I’ve got a healthy boy and a healthy girl.

 

‘I came to motherhood quite late and you love it so much you just want to carry on and have more and more, but life is quite full looking after those two.’

 

Despite adopting a realistic stance, she admits the ticking biological clock shouldn’t deter women from starting a family later in life.

 

‘You have to think about having a family when you’re ready and when you’re in the right relationship, and that can be at different times for different people,’ she said. 'I do think though that if you’re stressed about getting older then that can make it harder to conceive.

 

‘In a way you have to be relaxed and do what’s best but when considering you options in life as a woman you may have options to carry on behaving like a teenager for twenty years. The biological clock is ticking but you can’t get too stressed out about that.’

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