EARLY participants in what is usually called the Protestant Reformation did not set out to be reformers.
He also pointed to a proposal in the House "to make sure government agencies don't turn cell phones of Americans into tracking devices" as another target for NSA reformers.
Standing next to a photograph of Gladstone, he said: "The radical Liberals were pretty successful … The old Tory elite kind of lost out to those radical reformers, thankfully, which is why we became a successful country.
The Liberal Democrats, having been the engine of progress in this whole field for so long, may face challengers for their crown as prime reformers.
But this time, reformers are growing more confident of also convincing the Senate to back the legislation after strong support in recent days from the White House, intelligence agency leaders and a US federal appeals court – even as major civil libertarian groups have decried the bill as insufficient reform.
Amid fears in No 10 that David Cameron may struggle to win the support of a majority of his MPs, reformers are pointing out that Thatcher set herself apart from Tory traditionalists who described the bill legalising homosexuality as a "dirty measure".
It was the unelected, despotic Saudi regime that, terrified by the implications of the Arab spring, opposed pro-democracy movements in Egypt and elsewhere, and energetically assisted in the brutal suppression of Shia Muslim reformers in Bahrain.
In a further victory for liberal reformers, the general assembly of the Church of Scotland voted on Thursday to propose the historic change after agreeing last weekend to approve the appointment of gay ministers in civil partnerships.
Her announcement was immediately welcomed by campaign finance reformers.
But the reformers' hopes were shattered when, in 2004, the minister of the interior, Prince Nayef, arrested many signatories.
The reformers' hope is that Osborne might see political advantage in going faster down their route.
