Election Fever Mounts: A Goat

An election candidate has apologised for joking that he "could be caught with my pants down behind a goat with Ed Miliband at the other end".

Labour's Clive Lewis, who is standing in Norwich South, made the comment in an interview with the New Statesman.

He had been asked if he was taking victory in 

the marginal seat for granted.

He said he was "sincerely sorry" if anyone had been offended by the comment.

Mr Lewis, who worked for BBC Look East as a reporter, had told the magazine: "I mean, in the multiverse there's still three universes in a hundred where there's a Green MP in Norwich, so anything could happen.

"I could be caught with my pants down behind a goat with Ed Miliband at the other end - well, hopefully that won't happen." ...

Regarding his New Statesman interview, Mr Lewis said: "On occasion we all have the ability to get carried away with language and colourful metaphors.

"If anyone was genuinely offended then I'm sincerely sorry for that."

BBC News.

New Statesman: The Great White Male Issue

They dominate the upper echelons of our society, imposing, unconsciously or otherwise, their values and preferences on the rest of the population. With their colourful textile phalluses hanging round their necks, they make up an overwhelming majority in government, in boardrooms and also in the media.

They are, of course, white, middle-class, heterosexual men, usually middle-aged. And every component of that description has historically played a part in making this tribe a group that punches far, far above its weight. I have struggled to find a name for this identity that will trip off the tongue, or that doesn’t clutter the page with unpronounceable acronyms such as WMCMAHM. “The White Blob” was a strong contender but in the end I opted to call him Default Man. I like the word “default”, for not only does it mean “the result of not making an active choice”, but two of its synonyms are “failure to pay” and “evasion”, which seems incredibly appropriate, considering the group I wish to talk about...

Grayson Perry, guest editor of this week's New Statesman.

Yay!

That'll give me something sensational to read in the launderette later...

Warning: May also contain Damian Barr, Stephen Fry, Owen Jones, and Matthew Parris.

Gay Marriage: Thank You Saint Peter!

New Statesman.

How kind of the famously modest Mr Peter Tatchell to take credit for single-handedly giving us gay marriage.

Thought For The Day: Rupert Everett

“Today the world has gone full circle. Gay people seem to be doing all the decent things the straights used to do – getting married, having babies and recycling. I feel like an old grandmother, sitting in my rocking chair, writing to you, dear Russell, during a break from my knitting. The past is all twinkling lights in the woods on a snowy night. Was it revolution? Or were we just crashing up and down on a much deeper wave, as history ploughed on regardless? Did everything change in ’67 with the new law? Was Stonewall the defining moment? Were we as free as we felt in the Seventies? Are we as free as we think we are now?”

From Rupert Everett's article on how far we've come from Wilde's day.
In the new New Statesman - guest-edited by Russell Brand.
In the shops now, but not online til Monday for some reason.

PS And here you can watch a bunfight between Mr Russell Brand and Mr Jeremy Paxman on last night's Newsnight.
Some have told me they detected a distinct homoerotic undertone.
Whatever, pseudo-radical wankers across perfidious Albion appear to have taken this as a stirring (not) call to arms.

Thought For The Day: Brian Eno

Perhaps surprisingly, he does not tweet (“I really cannot imagine what I would want to say or hear on Twitter”). How does he feel about social media as a political tool, people having their two-penn’orth over Thatcher’s funeral on Facebook, then moving on when they’ve let off steam?
“In one sense I think that humans are evolving very quickly to be amazingly good at multitasking,” he says. “The downside is that people think that merely being involved in a conversation is the same as doing something about it. That is an illusion and it’s an illusion that governments are very happy to foster. They’re rubbing their hands – everyone thinks they’re ‘engaged’ and it doesn’t make any bloody difference. You have been seen to be commenting but you have not done anything. In a way it is better to let the steam build up.”

The ever fascinating Brian Eno interviewed by the New Statesman. 

The best/worst LGBT example of what Eno's talking about is probably allout.org - an endless series of online petitions, which calls itself "a movement".
A movement of the index finger?

Transphobia: 15 Points

1. The media has a long history of humiliating and undermining trans people

2. Transphobia cuts across left/liberal and conservative media

3. Most commentators (grudgingly) accept the right of individual adults to transition

4. Commentators disproportionately “monster” trans individuals
 
5. Editors and commissioners can no longer use the "complexity" of transgender issues as a gatekeeping tactic

6. The refusal of trans language, culture and history is ideological

7. The focus on the cost of gender reassignment to the NHS is ideological

8. Commentators “monster” efforts of trans community to organise

9.The battleground has moved to the lives of children

10. Liberal/libertarian constructions of “freedom of speech” preserve this status quo

11. Going to the PCC is understood to be pointless

12. The structures of online journalism should be considered in any analysis

13. The "outrage fatigue" generated by this model is particularly dangerous

14. This situation is self-perpetuating

15. Compromise is neither desirable nor possible

An excellent article for the New Statesman by Juliet Jacques.  
Please click here to read her analysis and explanation of these points.


PS The above photo is the one used to illustrate the article in the NS, and captioned; 'April Ashley, who was "outed" by the Sunday People in 1961, poses with her MBE in December 2012.'

New Statesman: Core Issues

The current issue of New Statesman has this full page ad for some Christian "Pray the gay away" conversion therapy twaddle.
Have to say I'm shocked and appalled, but then the Staggers - Britain's best-selling left-of-centre magazine - does have an amazingly amoral policy on accepting adverts - pick up a copy and see how many you can count from those lovely, cuddly arms manufacturers. 
FFS!

PS Thanks to C4EM and Mike Roberts. x

Radio: Turned Off By Aunty

The BBC is a broadcasting bastion of equality and diversity, willing to put community needs before commercial success – or so it self-deceives. Not so long ago, the Asian Network and BBC6Music radio channels were saved from cost-cutting measures by campaigners who accused the ‘corporate media barons’ of betraying their audiences. Now the Beeb has come up with another such scheme that completely undermines its ethics and lets down local licence fee-payers. Only this time, there’s actually no money to be saved...
As part of a cost-saving, streamlining measure, LGBT Citizen Manchester, Jewish Citizen Manchester and Irish Citizen Manchester are to be replaced with a three-hour syndicated show called All Around England. Despite LGBT Citizen and Jewish Citizen Manchester being the only dedicated representations of either minority across BBC Radio, and Citizen Irish now the longest-running Irish-specific show (at 27 years, no less) on BBC radio, the programmes will not be rescheduled for broadcast anywhere else on either BBC Manchester or the national network...

When barely a week goes by without a media debate on gay marriage, and in the year that London hosts World Pride, the axing of Citizen LGBT seems a particularly bizarre move, if only in terms of topicality. The success of commercial LGBT radio stations such as Gaydar may act as a disincentive to launch a programme on the national network (the last such show, Out this Week, which won a Gold Sony Award in 1995, was axed four years later and has not been replaced since). But the audience demographics of commercial and local LGBT radio are quite different, with local listeners tending to be over the age of 45. Considering that Myers’s report on local radio concluded that, currently ‘the biggest loser is the older demographic’, this only seems to support the case for protecting Citizen LGBT.

New Statesman blog.
Save Citizen Manchester LGBT! Facebook page.
Listen to the latest show on BBC iPlayer.

Marriage: It's Getting Old Now

The New Statesman and Cheryl Cole are the latest folk to bless us with their opinions on the gay great gay marriage debate.
I'm paraphrasing slightly, but they both think it's as nice as kittens.

John Pilger: Obama, Gay Marriage & Manning

Never forget that Bradley Manning, and not gay marriage, is the issue

Barack Obama’s sudden “conversion” to the cause of same-sex marriage barely disguises the prime motives of a president as reactionary and violent as George W Bush.

'In the week Barack Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, he ordered bombing attacks on Yemen, killing a reported 63 people, 28 of them children. When recently Obama announced that he supported same-sex marriage, Nato planes had not long blown 14 Afghan civilians to bits. In both cases, the mass murder was barely news. What mattered were the cynical vacuities of a political celebrity, the product of a zeitgeist driven by the forces of consum­erism and the media, with the aim of diverting the struggle for social and economic justice.
'The award of the Nobel Prize to the first black American president because he “offered hope” was both absurd and an authentic expression of the lifestyle liberalism that controls much political debate in the west. Same-sex marriage is one such distraction. No “issue” diverts attention as successfully as this: not the free vote in parliament on lowering the age of gay consent promoted by that noted libertarian and war criminal, Tony Blair; not the cracks in “glass ceilings” that contribute nothing to women’s liberation and merely amplify the demands of bourgeois privilege.
'Legal obstacles should not prevent people from marrying each other, regardless of gender. However, this is a civil and private matter; bourgeois acceptability is not yet a human right. The rights historically associated with marriage are those of property – capitalism itself. Elevating the “right” to marriage above the right to life and justice is as profane as seeking allies among those who deny life and justice to so many, from Afghanistan to Palestine...'

John Pilger, New Statesman. 

Justin Fashanu: Bullfighting

'Coming out by selling his sexuality to the Sun was one way to meet some of the debts he accrued in trying to fix the horrific knee injury that ended his time in the First Division. It did not, as Justin later claimed, end his career, but actually revived it: he was out of League football at the time. Wanting a high-profile yet affordable player to drive up their crowds, Torquay United newly promoted to Division Three, gambled on Justin (paying him three times more than their previous highest earner) despite doubts about how his sexuality would be received and, his fitness. He performed brilliantly – ten goals in his first season despite his club being relegated – but his realisation that he could make easy money by selling stories about his private life, whatever their veracity, ended disastrously..."

Juliet Jacques - co-founder of The Justin Campaign - writing on the New Statesman blog.
She argues that; "The narrative that homophobia in football was primarily responsible for his death forms a dauntingly negative precedent."
It's a brilliant piece of bull fighting on the mythologising of Justin Fashanu and his Faustian pact with the tabloids.
I'd go further and argue his death meant he has become fetishised - a gay footballer, imagine!
I don't want to sound cruel, his was clearly a tragic life and his last years sound absolutely wretched, and yes, homophobia clearly played a part in his demise, but it's silly to overhype Justin Fashanu as some kind of great gay saint or gay martyr.

Ken Livingstone: Riddle Me This

Did you know Ken Livingstone hates The Gays?
Although in the last thirty years he's almost certainly done more for the LGBT community than any other British politician, apparently he's a fifth columnist who's despised us all along.
I found out this today from some of our tireless and long-standing allies, the Tories.
Late this afternoon the New Statesman published on its website some extracts from a forthcoming interview with Ken Livingstone.
As ever, he is frank and often funny whether talking about Boris Johnson, Margaret Thatcher or Rupert Murdoch.
But the interviewer, Jemima Khan, also brought up his "private life".
A pulled quote reads;

"We [Boris and I] both have five [children]. I can admit to all mine.
"[The public] should be allowed to know everything, except the nature of private relationships - unless there is hypocrisy, like some Tory MP denouncing homosexuality while they are indulging in it."

Pressed by Khan about his use of "Tory MP", Ken responds:

"Well, the Labour ones have all come out... As soon as Blair got in, if you came out as lesbian or gay you immediately got a job. It was wonderful... you just knew the Tory party was riddled with it like everywhere else is."

Fagburn agrees with all that.
But apparently he outed himself as a secret homophobe by using the word "riddled".
Riddlegate - as no-one calls it - seems to have begun around 5pm when Sophy Ridge tweeted one line from the piece - "Ken Livingstone on Tory MPs not being open about being gay: "The Tory party was riddled with it like everywhere else" - and a link to the NS.
Who is Sophy Ridge?
She's a political reporter on Sky News.
Oh, and she used to work for the News of the World - a now defunct tabloid not exactly known for its support for gay rights or the Labour Left.
In fact, Fagburn seems to remember them regularly attacking Livingstone over his support for gay rights.
Things blew up when this was picked up by Guido Fawkes (he gives a nod to Ridge) - a Tory blogger not exactly known for being pro-gay (his readers are often brazenly homophobic - have a look at the comments after the post).

Ken's Gay Gaffe

"With his usual tact Ken has told the New Statesman that he believes the Tory party "used to be riddled with it like everywhere else". What was this it. Gay people?
"There is never much doubt how people feel when they use the expression "riddled", but for the avoidance of that let's see what the dictionary says:

'Riddled: Fill or permeate (someone of something), esp. with something or someone), esp. with something unpleasant or undesirable.'

"Guido has to wonder how this is going to play at the LGBT London for Ken fundraising dinner in March."

You may have noticed the "quote" from Ken is getting shorter and shorter.
According to BBC News; "Angie Bray and Mike Freer, Tory MPs in London, wrote to the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, urging him to ensure Livingstone's remarks were retracted. Bray said: "These are the sort of offensive remarks we hear all too often from Labour's candidate for mayor."
Purely in the interest of balance here are some in-no-way offensive remarks by Boris Johnson; "Slowly Labour is winning the battle it really cares about, the Kulturkampf, adjusting what can be said, and what cannot be said… Homosexuality is to be taught in schools." The Spectator, April 29th, 2000.
"If gay marriage was OK – and I was uncertain on the issue – then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men; or indeed three men and a dog." Friends, Voters, Countrymen, 2001.
A spokesperson for Ken Livingstone said; "Ken is clearly saying the advance of lesbian and gay people into politics is unequivocally a good thing.
"He has fought for equality for gay and lesbian people throughout his life, and the fact they are represented in all major political parties is a sign of the progress that has been made."
All of which is as obvious as rain - unless you're a complete idiot or a right-wing goon with an agenda.
This is the most stupid, hypocritical, irrelevant manufactured outrage Fagburn can remember since the last one.
How ironic that the last part of Ken Livingstone's New Statesman interview reads:

What is your greatest boast?
"That I am still here after 30 years of unremitting media hostility."

Johann Hari: An Apology

"Following an examination by a former editor, Andreas Whittam Smith, Johann Hari, currently suspended as a writer from The Independent, is taking four months unpaid leave of absence from the newspaper, following a two month suspension that began in July. This decision has been made in accordance with Andreas' recommendation that, subject to certain conditions, Johann should be allowed to work again at the paper.
"The report on his conduct is a private one and will not be published, as would be the case with any member of our staff.
"During the next few months Johann will concentrate on a course of journalism, including ethics, in the United States, and will not be writing, tweeting or blogging for any of the group's titles or website.
"The expectation is that on successful completion of his studies, he will return to The Independent. Johann has acknowledged and admits the central accusations made against him, that of embellishment of quotations/plagiarism, and that it was he who used the pseudonym David Rose to attack his critics. Johann has also agreed to return the Orwell Prize awarded to him in 2008."

Statement From The Independent.

A Personal Apology by Johann Hari in The Independent.

'Independent columnist apologises for plagiarism' - The Independent.

Comment on L'Affaire Hari on the New Statesman blog.

Some stupid homophobic comments on Guido Fawkes blog.

"Imperfect ourselves, we must be tender towards others and be slow to impute motives" - Some bald bloke called Gandhi.
Part of me feels quite sorry for Mr Hari - we all fuck up occasionally, and none of us are saints.
You can bet that many of the journalists gloating over this have done far worse things ethically.
His "apology" seems rather self-serving - how can you give back an award that's been taken off you?
And Hari hasn't apologised for his real crime; telling lies about Iraq in the run-up to the last war.
Ho-hum...

[On re-reading this, it's a bit wet - and I'm a bit annoyed by the circlejerkery on Twitter tonight. So to clarify; what he did was wrong, he was a serial offender, and much of it wasn't even mentioned in The Independent case. Blah blah blah etc. Good day!].

Update: Toby Young picks some gaping holes in Hari's "apology" - as does Cristina Odone.

Noam Chomsky: Life On Mars

"If there was an observer on Mars, they would probably be amazed that we have survived this long. There are two problems for our species' survival - nuclear war and environmental catastrophe - and we're hurtling towards them. Knowingly. This hypothetical Martian would probably conclude that human beings were an evolutionary error."

The NS Interview.
Everything is stupid.

EHRC Vs God: Nobody Knows Anything

It's difficult to know quite where the Equality and Human Rights Commission stand on the "competing freedoms" of The Gays and The Godbotherers.
Mainly because the EHRC has issued a series of contradictory statements since June.
There's a blog giving a handy overview of their vacillations by Nelson Jones on the New Statesman's website today.
There's a consultation document on the EHRC website - where they also ask what you think.
Might be an idea if they decided what they think.
Fagburn keeps vacillating himself.
Part of me doesn't really give a flying fuck if some fruitloop wants to wear some ancient death cult symbol at work.
But all you were asked to do was wear it under your uniform - what is problem?
If some homophobic bigot doesn't want to conduct civil partnership registrations?
A colleague will cover, so it's not quite the same as being turned away from a guesthouse.
And if a homophobe says he doesn't want to give a gay couple relationship counselling?
I really wouldn't want his advice in the first place.
But then again, why don't you all just SHUT UP AND DO YOUR FUCKING JOB?
The only newspaper that's taken much of an interest in all this is - surprise! - The Daily Mail.
Today they claim;
'Equality quango's two-tier law for Christians that allows crosses at work but upholds gay rights'
In case you haven't noticed, like the Express, the Mail hate the EHRC; "Equality? Human rights!? BOO!"
But this is (sort-of) what the EHRC are proposing in their consultation document above.
They are against "discrimination" where Christians have been told they can't wear (visible) crucifixes at work.
But there will be no "right" to opt-out of providing a service to homos - such as conducting a partnership ceremony, or giving counselling.
Nothing has been set in stone - it's a consultation document.
Knowing the EHRC they'll probably change their mind a few times in the next two weeks.
And the final decision will be made not by them but by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Christian nutters are loving all this palaver, of course - their religion is basically one big collective persecution complex.
Hence those stupid crosses they insist on wearing with the naked dude on.

Daily Express: In Defence Of David Starkey

The Daily Express has leapt to the defence of David "Enoch" Starkey today;
'Dark Past Of The Rudest Man on TV'
Were you disgusted by his vile racist outburst on Newsnight on Friday night?
The Express's Anna Pukas wasn't - she thought it "was Dr David Starkey, aka Dr Rude, doing what he does best: giving voice to what the rest of us keep hidden in our thoughts."
Oh dear. Speak for yourself, dear.
"This was Starkey at his most provocative."
And most racist - you forgot to say racist.
The BBC has received more than 700 complaints about Dr Racist's comments.
But bravely the Express sought to understand where his "anger" comes from.
His difficult relationship with "his domineering mother", apparently.
Why thank you, Dr Freud.
It's a wonderful and enlightening piece all round - and it would be churlish to say that Anna Pukas's idea of "research" appears to have involved little more than reading David Starkey's Wikipedia page.
Well done to the both of you.
Well done!

• 'It was like Enoch Powell meets Alan Partridge' Owen Jones in the New Statesman.

Gay Free Zone Stickers: Stuck On You

"Why did a few anti-gay stickers in East London provoke an outcry by gay groups, while far worse homophobia passed without protest?" asks Peter Tatchell on New Statesman online.
"While bigoted opinions should always be challenged, in most instances only explicit incitements to violence and damaging libels (such as false allegations of tax fraud or child abuse) should be criminalised.
"Moreover, why did the Hasnath stickers provoke howls of rage from the LGBT community, when far worse homophobia in the same area of East London stirred hardly a murmur of protest? I don't recall any campaigns by LGBT groups or anti-fascist organisations in response to the wave of horrific queer-bashing attacks in the East End. Surely this actual physical violence - which left at least one gay man permanently disabled - is much more deserving of protests than a few stickers? Where is the LGBT outcry over homophobic assaults?
"Nor can I remember any protests when the East London Mosque/London Muslim Centre hosted a series of virulently homophobic speakers, including Uthman Lateef and Abdul Karim Hattim. The latter gave lecturers in which he invited young Muslims to 'Spot the Fag'...
"Equally, there were no protests when Abdul Muhid openly incited the murder of gay people in East London and when the Crown Prosecution Service refused to bring him to trial. In my opinion, encouraging murder is many times more serious and dangerous than calling for a Gay Free Zone. Again, no protests by LGBT groups..."
Peter Tatchell concludes;
"Many LGBT campaigners are now terrified of similar false, malicious allegations of racism or Islamophobia..."
But is anyone surprised by that when it has been proven that gay racists and gay Islamophobes have been exploiting this situation?

• The Islamophobia/Homophobia debate continued to rage on over the weekend with more claims - 'Homophobia In Tower Hamlets: How A Small Group Of Bigots Are Trying To Stitch Up The East London Mosque' (Islamophobia Watch) - and counter-claims; 'East London Mosque under pressure over hate preachers' (Andrew Gilligan, Telegraph online)...

• There is an open letter "[Calling] on East London Mosque to Stop Providing Platform for Anti-Gay Hate"
"The East London Mosque claims to have no responsibility over those who speak there. The East London Mosque also claims to be opposed to the 'gay-free zone' campaign and homophobia. We demand that the East London Mosque live up to its stated word, take ownership of its platform and stop allowing its premises to be used to promote gay-hate campaigns...
"We celebrate East London's diverse multicultural communities and affirm the need to tackle all intolerance. Both Muslims and LGBT people - especially LGBT Muslims - know the pain of prejudice, discrimination and hate crime. We stand together with our neighbours, united against all hate. Anti-Muslim bigotry and homophobia have no place in our communities."
Salman Farsi, Communications Officer from the East London Mosque, has responded via The Guardian:
"Any speaker who is believed to have said something homophobic will not be allowed to use our premises, whether that is us organising an event or someone else. As for the condemnation of homophobia, our director has gone on the record on this."

Update: Interesting comment on PT's article on Islamophobia Watch.

Bradley Manning: The Unknown Soldier

Sophie Elmhirst's article about Bradley Manning for the New Statesman is now online.
"The spotlight has been on Julian Assange, but the 23-year-old accused of leaking US secrets to WikiLeaks, is held in solitary confinement at a US army base and faces life in prison. Can anyone save him?"
It's far and away the best thing that's ever been written about him, with much on his terrible, inhumane treatment in prison.
Sadly things have just got even worse. Bradley Manning Support Network reports ; "Private First Class Bradley Manning, in detention at United States Marine Corps Base Quantico Brig in Virginia, was forced to strip naked on the evening of March 2nd, 2011, left naked in his cell all night and forced to stand at attention for the facility’s five a.m. wake-up call, according to his legal representative, US Army Court Martial specialist, David E. Coombs..."
Fagburn wonders if they took a perverse pleasure in humiliating a gay man this way.
Act on your anger.

Newsflash: US Files 22 New Charges Against Bradley Manning

"The US Army has charged a soldier held in connection with the leak of US government documents published by the Wikileaks website with 22 extra counts.
"The new charges against Private First Class Bradley Manning include aiding the enemy, a capital offence, but prosecutors have said they will not seek the death penalty.
"The intelligence analyst is being held at a military jail in Virginia..."

From the BBC News website.
Full statement and chargesheet from US Army.
I'm trying to find out what weight, if any, the prosecutors saying they will not seek the death penalty has (Edit: "The prosecution has told Manning's lawyers that it will not recommend capital punishment, although the presiding military judge has the authority to override the prosecution's recommendation and impose the death penalty" Oh fuck!).

• Bradley Manning Support Network, UK Friends Of Bradley Manning.
Read some disturbing updates on Manning's treatment and prosecution from his defense attorney David E Coombs.
Archive of Fagburn stories about Bradley Manning. Number of stories about Manning on Pink News and Pink Paper to date: Zero.

• Who Will Save Private Braldey Manning? by Sophie Elmhirst is in this week's New Statesman. Bradley gets a coverline, but it's not available online. One person who has visited him in prison several times recently says he has appeared "catatonic"...

WikiLeaks: Gay Saint/Queer Martyr

Ironic to see the New Statesman portray Julian Assange as Saint Sebastian on this week's front cover.
The gay saint/queer martyr in the Wikileaks saga is clearly Bradley Manning.
In an interview with John Pilger, Assange says;
"I'd never heard his name before it was published in the press...
"Cracking Bradley Manning is the first step. The aim clearly is to break him and force a confession that he somehow conspired with me to harm the national security of the United States."

• WikiLeaks fulfills pledge to support accused whistle-blower Bradley Manning - Bradley Manning Support Network

Update: Bradley Manning on his conditions in prison.