AMONG all the venom shrieked at the House of Lords by gay activists and high dudgeon among the gay-friendly Labour MPs whose overwhelming vote to legalise homosexual sex for 16-year-olds was thrown out by peers, there was an outstanding quote by the one-time would-be politician and pulpit-storming gay rights zealot, Peter Tatchell.

Summing up both the mood of the thwarted back-benchers demanding a swift replay of the vote and of fellow campaigners who advocate sex with schoolboys, Mr Tatchell said: "The House of Commons needs to change the unelected House of Lords.

"They have no democratic mandate to go against the wishes of two-thirds of MPs." Mr Tatchell makes a good point. It is only a pity he did not finish it off by going the whole hog with this logic.

Had he done so, he might have gone on to wonder what democratic mandate the House of Commons had to go against the wishes of three-quarters of voters in the first place - as, according to the latest public survey, that's how many are against lowering the age of homosexual consent still further.

It was the MPs' arrogant defiance of public opinion and moral values - and the example set by party leaders Tony Blair, William Hague and Paddy Ashdown in support of this insolent snub to their democratic duty - that the "undemocratic" Lords put right by listening to the people.

And if the government persists with this planned legislation, whether out of bloody-mindedness or fear of the European Court of Human Rights ruling our unequal age of consent is unlawful, it ought at least to stop spouting about family values as legalised sodomy for 16-year-olds is not part of them.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.