Is imperialism a new passion for the left?

Foreign Office Minister Harriett Baldwin told Parliament that the legislation was "something that was put into the manifesto of the party that was successful at the last election and, while we may disagree with the direction of travel here in the United Kingdom, we decided in these circumstances not to intervene."

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has the power to order the governor with withhold his assent but he decided the matter was one for the Bermudians to decide.

And it was this decision by the UK government to respect a decision by the Bermuda government that sent the Opposition Labour Party and The Greens into their neo-imperialist frenzy.

Labour shadow Foreign Office minister Helen Goodman said the Bermuda decision "turns same sex couples into second class citizens".

She said, "For that to happen anywhere in the world would be shameful. For it to happen in a British territory, for the legislation signed by a British governor and permitted by a British foreign secretary make us complicit in something which this House (of Commons) has repeatedly voted against."

Labour MP Davis Lammy who has Guyanese (African) parents announced, "The first slaves were brought to Bermuda in 1620, oppressed, segregated, discriminated against ... and that is why leaders like Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Barack Obama have not just fought for race rights, but they have fought for rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people."

Mr Lammy's argument that the British government should block, via the governor's veto, the decision of the Bermuda government might have been somewhat stronger if the population of Bermuda was majority Caucasian but at least three-fifths are wholly or partially descended from African slaves who were forcibly brought to the islands prior to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833. And the governing Progressive Labor Party there draws its strongest support from these descendents of slaves.

Was Mr Lammy suggesting that a mainly black population of Bermuda was not capable or qualified to make their own decisions? The apartheid regime in South Africa and the white regime in Rhodesia didn't get anywhere in the world by trying to argue that position.

Mr Lammy continued, "This country (the UK) has been one of the world leaders on this subject – so if this is not the issue on which to refuse assent I don't know what is."

Even more predictably, the Green Party spokesperson Carline Lucas called it an "absolute scandal" that Britain was not willing to enforce LGBT ideals on another nation.

One perhaps unintended consequence of the new law is the possible effect that it has on cruise companies such as Cunard and P&O which register their ships in Bermuda – no longer will they be allowed to offer same-sex marriages on board. Cruise ships operating out of Bermuda heavily advertise gay only cruises especially for American gays although the cruise lines have said that only three same-sex marriages were performed at sea during the window of opportunity.

In a statement, P&O said that they had been "wholly supportive" of the Bermuda's Supreme Court's decision to allow same-sex marriage but were "disappointed" by the government's move. A joint statement from P&O and Cunard said, "We would still love to welcome couples aboard as planned. While we are unable to hold the legal ceremony we can still offer a commitment ceremony to celebrate their partnership or a renewal of vows ceremony."