1606 days ago
As I warned Cambridge don, Dr Gopal, one day you will cease to be seen as a revolutionary and new revolutionaries will come along and devour you like a dinosaur. Comrade Sadiq Khan, Mayor of Stab City, rather proves my point today as he tweets about the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York. Of course, Mayor Khan is already active in erasing old history, pushing to pull down statues and rename streets. If you can do that, it will be even simpler for this simple man to make up a new history.
1713 days ago
As you may know I am a great admirer of the free speech campaigner and pioneer of the gay rights movement Peter Tatchell. But when it comes to fighting the coronavirus I am not sure that his handy tip (below) is one that the Prime Minister will be advocating any time soon.
2230 days ago
I have noted in an earlier piece why I am delighted, if a bit surprised, that Ashers bakery in Belfast has won its court case, allowing it not to be forced to bake cakes carrying political messages with which it disagrees, in the case in support of gay marriage. As the great Peter Tatchell showed, backing the Christian bakers does not make you a bigot just someone who believes in key civil liberties.
2234 days ago
As I have noted before, the LGBTI and civil liberties campaigner Peter Tatchell is a national treasure. I don't always agree with him but today he again showed why he is a man of absolute principle. The case is Ashers, a baker in God’s chosen lands of Ulster, which refused to bake a cake for a same sex wedding. A lower court ruled that it was wrong to do so but at the Supreme Court today the bigoted bakers won their case. Step forward Tatch, a man who helped found the Pride march in London and who has been at the forefront of the gay equality movement for decades, in their defence, Tatch says:
2241 days ago
I have written numerous times of my tremendous admiration for the pioneering campaigner for gay rights, in the days before it became LGBTI rights, and as one of our greatest living defenders of civil liberties, Peter Tacthell. Overlooking the fact that he is actually Australian, Tatch has become a national treasure. And it is in that context I find his tweeting demanding a second referendum on Brexit so sad. The fact is that he his scaring folks with untruths as you can see below.
3007 days ago
My 15 year old daughter from Islington says she is "disgusted" that her Dad would like Donald Trump to defeat Crooked Hillary this Autumn. I try to explain in this podcast why she is wrong. I neglect to mention Trump's admirable pro gay rights record and the fact that he is pro choice but such is the hysterical coverage from the liberal media in Britain that facts do not count any more. I fear that in N1 my daughter is being captured by the establishment. I am sticking with the insurgency.
3474 days ago
Ulster cake makers Ashers were today penalised and ordered to pay £500 compensation to gay rights campaigner Gareth Lee becuase they discriminated against him by refusing to produce a cake proclaiming support for gay marriage. Ashers is run by devout Christians who claim this is a matter of conscience.
I tend to think that Ashers is run by bigots but they risk their own capital running a shop and so should be free to sell to whom they want. Other cake shops will produce cakes celebrating gay marriage so it is not as if Mr Lee could not use his pink pounds to get a cake anywhere.
I would hope that enough folks would choose to boycott shops run by bigots
3644 days ago
I started tweeting about two and a half years ago and the number of folks following me as grown pretty much from day one – which growth has accelerated in recent weeks on the back of Quindell I suspect. Apparently I am in the top 1.2 million most followed folks on earth. Big deal.
I read the other day that more than half the twitter accounts created in 2013 are already inactive. You can buy thousands of twitter accounts for just a few dollars. Okay you are tweeting to people who don’t exist but in Willy waving contests some folks think it matters.
I am open about my twitter account. Occasionally there is some banker with folks on twitter. I have enjoyed baiting Peter Tatchell, who I admire greatly, but who can be a prize loon
3967 days ago
I was with someone last night who lives in one of the more liberated Arab countries (in the Gulf) and who is involved in making short films. They relayed how a film out soon will make a few comments about radical Islam. The maker has left the country in question never to return. The alternative is prison or worse. That is free speech in the Arab world in 2014.
The one Middle Eastern country many in the West like to demonise is Israel. Its former PM Ariel Sharon died today aged 85. Sitting in Bristol, I can say that for standing by and allowing the Christian militia in Beirut to slaughter Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila camps in the early 1980s this man was a war criminal. He was a monster. And his actions (inactions) were bad news for Israel. He was a disgrace and he will, I am sure, rot in hell.
In his early life he was a war hero as Israel fought to retain one small strip of land where Jews could be safe from persecution but where folks could also say what they want, vote out their leaders, not get stoned to death or string up from a crane for being gay or opposing the regime, etc. But for his crimes in later life he was a monster and there can be no excuses made. Sharon will rot in hell.
I say this as an unswerving supporter of Israel. And the odd thing is that were I sitting in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem today I could say exactly the same thing. I could write it and post it on the internet. Such opinions will appear in sections of the Israeli press. In Israel free speech exists. Even if it means criticism of the State or its leaders. That makes that country unique in the Middle East. Yet so many opt to demonise Israel and laud the other regimes of the region that behave so differently in every respect.
4054 days ago
God knows why I was watching the BBC but I was and found myself watching a trailer for a show on one of its channels that no-one ever watches but which the grateful taxpayer funds anyway. Gosh I hate the BBC and the bias that flows through its every vein.
The trailer opened with footage of the gay pride parade in Tel Aviv and then showed footage of soldiers holding hands and other demonstrations of how it is perfectly accepted to be openly gay and Israeli. The commentator asked “how can this happen?” How in the Middle East can we find such tolerance?
What planet is this toe-rag living on? The answer is
4139 days ago
And so the royal baby is born and I wonder do I really care? Do I understand the hysteria? I have to admit that I just cannot make up my mind on the monarchy although I respect the Old Queen greatly. But more on Peter Tatchell later.
As a meritocrat I can see no earthly reason why I should believe in monarchy. It is an anachronism. However when I consider who we would have had as a head of state had there been no monarch I quickly get out the bunting and start singing God Save The Queen. President Heath? President Kinnock? President Wicked Witch? I will stick with the current set up thank you.
If I am in any doubt as to where I stand I simply look at the terrible deluded and embittered lefties wheeled out by the BBC and The Guardian to celebrate the Royal Birth by saying we should abolish the monarchy. If Polly Toynbee
4391 days ago
Post the defeat of Romney it was inevitable that “modernisers” within the Tories would draw the conclusion that the way to win in 2015 is to be more socially liberal. And so today George Osborne insists that the “nice” Conservative Party will put gay marriage at the centre of its next election manifesto. Oh saints preserve me. I think I am emigrating.
As a social liberal I actually support gay marriage as well as legalising drugs and a whole raft of other measures which would horrify traditional Tories. If gays want to sign up for marriage with a one in three chance of an acrimonious divorce to follow why not allow them that right? But do I really regard it as a key issue? Does anyone outside certain metropolitan circles (where they are never going to vote Tory anyway) regard it as a key issue, one that should be central to a manifesto? I doubt it.
