Matthew Parris: How Did We Get Here?

Parody is now extinct. Boris Johnson has killed the distinction between reality and satire. Remember the Tory who as a wannabe MP called Labour’s repeal of Section 28 “appalling”, who joked about “tank-topped bum-boys”, who sneakily rowed back from homophobia by asking “what’s not to like?” about gays who leave the field of available women clear for straight men? He is now urging gay men to vote Leave because, he says, some Eastern European countries have legislation that represses them.

“It was us,” he burbles on a new Out & Proud video, “the British people, that created [an] environment of happiness and contentment for LGBT people.” It may well have been us. It ruddy well wasn’t him. But now, even into gay saunas creeps the smell of his damp tweed.

Look, this is a joke but this is not a joke. Somebody has to call a halt to the gathering pretence that if only you’re sufficiently comical in politics you can laugh everything off. Somebody has to remind us that it’s not enough for those who seek to govern us simply to be: they have to do. Incompetence is not funny. Policy vacuum is not funny. Administrative sloth is not funny. Breaking promises is not funny. A careless disregard for the truth is not funny. Advising old mates planning to beat somebody up is not funny. Abortions and gagging orders are not funny. Creeping ambition in a jester’s cap is not funny. Vacuity posing as merriment, cynicism posing as savviness, a wink and smile covering for betrayal . . . these things are not funny.

So I present you with a mystery. How did we get here, with Boris Johnson? ...

Matthew Parris' Times column.

LOL! etc.

Europe: Can You Tell I'm Reading This?

Boris seems to share a scriptwriter with Out & Proud's Adam Lake.

Out & Proud launched last night in London's Chinatown, which teeters on the edge of irony.

PS Why gay people like me shouldn't listen to Boris Johnson and his calls for us to vote to leave the EU, boring Independent retort highlighting the shocking revelation that neither Boris nor the Conservative Party have very good records on supporting LGBT rights.

Mac: Hahaha!

The Daily Mail's hopelessly shit cartoonist, Mac.

Remember this classic? 

Papers are a bit boring gay-wise today, sorry - Fagburn might go on strike til the fantasist bully Tom Watson resigns.

Daily Express: Bingo!

A politician has expressed an opinion on something.

BUT WE KNOW HE IS SECRETLY PLANNING TO MAKE GAY MARRIAGE COMPULSORY FOR EVERYONE!!!

In other Express End Times News; UFOs, More EU pointy-headed bureaucrats, the Falklands, ISIS, Muslims, Statins, cancer, house prices, the weather...

PS A lively and illuminating philosophical debate in the comments section ensues.

Conclusion: Homosexuals are wrong coz Bible.

Daily Mail: Now Eurocrats Ban Families!

Daily Mail.

Something of a classic of its kind.
Only in the last few lines do we learn;

A spokesman for the London office of the European Commission said: 'This is nonsense. "Brussels" has no legal powers to intervene in which books are available in UK schools, it is a matter for the UK and for schools.
'The European Parliament committee report - which anyway represents just the committee's view - does not suggest banning books.
'And even in areas where it does call for EU level action and where that is legally possible, that can only be done if the Commission makes a proposal - it hasn't - and if the European Parliament as a whole and a large majority of member states then adopt it.'

You couldn't make it up etc etc...

ILGA-Europe: Je Ne Sais Quoi

"The European Commission has spent £124,000 on a five day conference for 200 homosexual, bisexual, transgender and "intersex" activists," thunders The Sunday Telegraph predictably.
It's a lot of money, but I doubt it deviates far from the financial norm for such things, so why single it out - apart from out of homophobia?
The Telegraph describes the conference matter-of-factly, but in Colonel Blimp mode.
They still use the quaint word "homosexual", and put "intersex" in baffled quotation marks.
Bless.
They're talking about the annual conference of ILGA-Europe – the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.
Fagburn finds it hard to criticise ILGA-Europe's work, but only because I'm not sure what ILGA-Europe actually does.
Organise jollies like the above?
There's a section on their website explaining 'What We Do', but it left me none the wiser.
Anyone?