Somebody get Graham Norton on the phone! - Our trans-Atlantic correspondent sends us news of the prominent Tory's coming out. It's the talk of the town in London. Conservative Party leaders have taken the frontpage news with aplomb, a fact taken as a sign of changing times in the U.K., an auger of things to come. Commenting on the hulabaloo, a former Tory MP discusses the old code of silence under which gays previously served the party.

Adam wonders if he will "ever see the day when the Republican Party would embrace one of their own after such an announcement ..." Of course, the GOP has always had its own homos, some of whom are out and some who are not. Note to Adam: The official reaction may be more muted here than in Britain, but the big tent approach isn't rejected by all Republican leaders. Dubya probably couldn't quite summon up the welcoming attitude of Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith -- I can see Ari Fleischer with his stock "a person's sexual orientation is a private matter" comment -- but we're getting there.