Thank you Mr Dodds for the encouragement

Yesterday in the House of Commons debate on the Queen's Speech Nigel Dodds said:

"He is certainly proof that if we work at and fight for an issue that we believe in, we will get there in the end, especially if the cause is right."

Now the comment was directed at Sir William Cash and in relation to the EU referendum that has been promised in Queen's speech, but as an LGBT campaigner in Northern Ireland I take this as encouragement. Because also later when responding to his colleague Sammy Wilson he said:

"My hon. Friend raises an important issue, which is one of those that arise out of the Belfast agreement. As he knows, equality provisions under section 75..."

Although he did continue "work against giving our armed forces veterans the same status as those in the rest of the United Kingdom." the fact is that a DUP MP has acknowledged the Northern Ireland Act/Belfast Agreement and knows about section 75 is something.

But back to that first comment in relation to William Cash. The wave of rightness is on the side of those supporting Equal Marriage. Yesterday Greenland became the latest state to legislate for it in a unanimous vote. Since the referendum result in Ireland was announced Austrialian Prime Minister Tonny Abbott said he wouldn't stand in the way of a conscience vote. Also Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is about to fast-track the civil union legislation that has been stalled for a number of months.

Only Germany of the list of Western countries that Peter Lynas listed on Nolan as not having marriage equality the other day has not announced any plans to move forward on this issue since the referendum. Although there have been calls from the opposition Green/Alliance 90 leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt for Germany to move on this, Angela Merkel is remaining adamant it is not the goal of her CDU/CSU party (the only one in Germany opposed) in this Government.

Therefore the LGBT community should take encouragement that even Nigel Dodds that "if we work at and fight for an issue that we believe in, we will get there in the end".

He came from a land down under

Many of you will not recognise the name Greg Ham but once one of, if not the, most famous flute riffs in pop music strikes out you will immediately know the song.



For it was Ham whose flute underpins all of Men at Works big global smash Down Under probably the only song in history to reference a vegemite sandwich, men chundering, a VW combie. As well as flute he played, saxaphone, percussion (see the bottle playing at the start of the video for Down Under) and keyboards.

Ham was found dead at his Melbourne home today at the age of 58, after a friend had tried to get hold of him for a week with no reply.

First Welsh Born Prime Minister

At last the 'Land of Our Father's' wait for a Welsh born Prime Minister are over. Although I see a few people including the BBC had taken the line that Julia Gillard was the first Welsh born Prime Minister since David Lloyd George, the famous Welsh speaking Prime Minister was actually born in Manchester where his father like many Welsh men was working at that time, in the case of William George as a teacher.

Ms Gillard was born in Barry, Glamorgan in 1961 and her parents migrated to Australia on the £10 immigration ticket as they were advised that their five-year old daughter who suffered bronchopneumonia would get on better in a warmer climate.

But earlier today (during the night UK time) she replaced Kevin Rudd as leader of the Labor Party and Prime Minister of Australia. A turn-around on a carbon trading scheme and a wrangle over a controversial mining tax had led to a vote ousting Rudd on Wednesday night. She was returned unopposed like a certain other Labour leader, but unlike Gordon Brown she knows she will have to take the governing party to the polls in October. She is also the first woman to hold the office in Australia and the first foreign born PM there since Billy Hughes in 1923.

She served as Shadow Minister for Population and Immigration from 2001-3 and Shadow Minister for Health from 2003-6 before becoming the Deputy leader of the opposition on a ticket with Rudd in 2006, again an election she won unopposed as Jenny Mackline the outgoing leader's deputy stood down in that contest when Rudd beat Kim Beazley in the contest.

The 'Unluck' for Irish Sport May Continue

The luck of the Irish appears in somewhat short supply for the quadrennial events that are happening in 2010.

First we had the hand of Gaul which lead to the late goal that denied Ireland from going to Johannesburg for FIFA's World Cup. While the Swedish Referee Martin Hannson who failed to see Thierry Henry palming the ball twice to get it to his team mate William Gallas from that winning 'goal' will be on a South African bound flight.

Now the Irish women's Bobsleigh team who are in Vancouver waiting and expecting to compete in the 2 woman event are now waiting to hear what the IOC decide on their fate. There are twenty women's pairs competing at the Olympics and Ireland duo, Aoife Hoey and Claire Bergin, are ranked 20th in the World, but the Australian team, Astrid Loch-Wilkinson and Cecilia McIntosh, went to the Court of Arbitration in Sport (Cas) to point out that the governing body, International Bobsleigh & Tobogganing Federation (FIBT), failed to properly apply its regional qualification system by omitting a team from Oceania.

Yesterday Cas said FIBT had wrongly applied the criteria by saying that Ireland rather than Australia had qualified. However, they also 'strongly recommended' the inclusion of the Irish bob. That decision however now is in the hands (pardon the pun) of the International Olympic Committee and the local organisers Vanoc.

The Statement from Cas reads:

"The Cas panel found the clear wording of the qualification system implemented by the FIBT reflected the intention of representation by one men's bob team and one women's bob team from non-represented continents and could not be interpreted otherwise than as formulated.

"Accordingly, the application of the AOC (Australian Olympic Committee) was granted and the FIBT was ordered to allocate a continental representation quota place to the AOC for participation of the pilot Astrid Loch-Wilkinson in the two-man women's bob event in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

"Nevertheless, considering the situation of the Irish athletes, who expected legitimately to be entitled to participate in the Olympic Winter Games 2010 after their entry had been validated by the FIBT and the IOC, the Cas Panel has recommended to the IOC and Vanoc the inclusion of a 21st team in the women's bobsleigh event which is scheduled for 23 February 2010."