[Doug]

I think if anything optimises the case for Civil Partnerships it was the report on last nights News which told the story of a Gay couple who had spent many years together and had been granted a special dispensation to take the ceremony early due to the terminal condition of one of the gentlemen in question.

There was no doubt in my mind that for those people this was the right direction, so much so I was moved by the report and the fact that there was a very deep and genuine love between them. Obviously the right of kinship was a main issue, but the overriding factor was that both these men wanted to end there relationship as a couple.

My understanding is that the next day the gentlemen in question slipped in to unconsciousness and died a short time later.