Brian Souter says society may ‘implode’ if ‘traditional marriage’ falls
Scottish entrepreneur and SNP donor Brian Souter says society is in danger of “imploding” if “traditional marriage” declines.
The businessman, who fought to save Section 28 ten years ago, was answering questions about his views on gay marriage.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, he said Scotland is in danger of becoming a “Babylonian-Greek society” where sex is “primarily a recreational activity”.
He said: “We are arguing here about what kind of society we want to live in. Are we going to be in a Babylonian-Greek-type of society, where sex is primarily a recreational activity, or are we going to stick with the Judeo-Christian tradition, where procreation is something that we want to put within a marriage context?
“Quite honestly the issue about gay relationships is a small side-product from that discussion.
“I think it was Hillary Clinton, who would consider herself a liberal, who said you need a certain percentage of stable marriage-based families for society not to implode.”
A spokesman for the Stagecoach founder said he supports the Scottish government’s consultation on gay marriage on the basis that ministers will get a free vote.
Mr Souter, who was knighted this summer, has already been nominated for gay charity Stonewall’s Bigot of the Year award. In 2000, he gave £1 million to the campaign to uphold the ban on ‘promoting’ homosexuality in schools.
In the interview, he refused to openly criticise gay marriage, but claimed that those with “traditional” views are becoming marginalised.
The Scottish government announced a consultation on gay marriage earlier this month and stressed that churches would not be forced to hold ceremonies for gay couples.
Ministers “tend towards the view that same sex marriage should be introduced”, a government spokesman said.
Last week, Mr Souter accused Google of censoring his personal website.
He said his website, briansouter.com, had “mysteriously disappeared” from Google’s top results for his name and suggested that legislation could be drawn up to curb Google’s “powers over free speech”.
Since Mr Souter’s announcement, his website has returned to the third result for his name.
Pages from websites which detailed his support for Section 28 have disappeared from Google’s top results.
