New Archbishop hops straight into innuendo and ignorance on LGBT health

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted Matthew 5:4

Though not necessarily from Archbishop Philip Tartaglia, the newly appointed Catholic Archbishop for the Diocese of Glasgow.

I first encountered acute pancreatitis, the disease which struck down David Cairns MP, during my running days, when it struck down one of the men I knew from the long distance road racing circuit. You see on of the less common causes is repeated marathon running and back in the early 90s that was even more of a craze for people. That particular man was in his mid thirties and left a wife and two young children behind when he too died of the disease. He was in very good health you would assume judging by the times he was able to run. Yet his body also succumbed at a young age.

The new Archbishop in his statement says:

"If what I have heard is true about the relationship between physical and mental health of gay men, if it is true, then society has been very quiet about it.

"Recently in Scotland there was a gay Catholic MP who died at the age of 44 or so and nobody said anything and why his body should just shut down at that age, obviously he could have had a disease which would have killed anyone, but you seem to hear so many stories about this kind of thing.

"But society won't address it."

So firstly yes Your Eminence it is a disease that could have killed anyone. So well done on upsetting that man's family, also other sufferers of acute pancreatitis and a great many other people who have family that die young. Medicine is great, but not 100% guaranteed to help up all live to Cardinal retirement age.

As for the mental health problems in gay men. Yes there is a higher prevalence of it. But it is societal issues that cause it. It is churches denying that there are young gay men and women in their midst which leave each individual to struggle on alone until they realise differently. It is the pressure from society, from peers at school, in the workplace, on the sports field to fit in with the heterosexual experience that is freely talked about, when your own experience is often hushed up by society.

So to make his first proclamation again attacking the gay community including those within his church he has carried on adding to that anxiety, mental anguish and worry of many of his flock. Well done.

Maybe we should ask him and other church leaders to help address that.

Maybe the wrong coloured paint from Stuart Rodger

 I did start to try and write this last night but couldn't get around to completing it until now

It is a pity that Stuart Rodger* felt he had to resort to such a cheap stunt a throwing an egg full of blue paint to try and get a message across to Nick Clegg. He is a bright and intelligent young man. Yes in his brief time in the Lib Dems I did get to know him and debate with him, both at that time and since he left.

He has the intelligence to frame an argument against what the Lib Dems did. I know me and him had that debate on Facebook in private messages. I'm all for people entering into the debate, if they can only offer an alternative. Apparently as the egg was hurled though Stuart shouted "No Shock Doctrine for Britain" in relation to Naomi Klein's book.

As an economics graduate Klein's theory that neo-cons and neo-liberals rode on the back on manufactured crisis to maintain laissez-faire economic success strikes me as ranking up there with all manner of conspiracy theories, as where is the null hypothesis. If Klein in correct the UK economic growth wouldn't have been stable for so long in the 50s. Ok it was on the back on a crisis, yet she fails to call World War II a monetarist created 'crisis'. How an intelligent politics student at one of Scotland's top universities can fall for that one sided evidence without looking at the historical context objectively is beyond me.

However, liberalism to me has always been about more economic liberalism. In my debates with Stuart since he left the party that seemed to be his only focus. He forgot that the Lib Dems were and are a party that will stand up for universal individual freedom, something that as he appears in Glasgow Sheriff's Court today he may well be thankful for. Indeed as Tim Montgomerie has written today on ConservativeHome, it is Nick and the Lib Dems who are taking the Conservatives away from some of their election pledges.

So maybe it was the wrong colour paint at the wrong leader, not that Stuart with his narrow obsession of what he thought it meant to be liberal would see that.

Read also

Mark Valladares Rhapshody in Blue (paint) ....
Caron's EXCLUSIVE Pictures of the Greater Spotted Rennie

* Some of the media are asking if he is a member of the party. He came to us from Labour but left again shortly after the 2010 General Election, burning his membership card.

Tory Bear Pop Psychiatry Gone Political

First he said he was able to spot paedophiles by sight.

Now the omnipotent Tory Bear is able to diagnose from London just what is wrong with Steven Purcell* who stepped down as leader of Glasgow City Council today. If I wasn't hearing that he was hospitalised this evening at the same time that Tory Bear decided to be post his trash it probably wouldn't have got my attention.

His claim that Purcell being "happy as larry on Friday morning yet mysteriously cleared his diary by the afternoon and went into crisis meetings before bringing out the "stress" press release last night." is pop psychiatry of the worst kind.

A mental break down can happen in many ways. You can slowly slide into slowly, seeing the warning lights, or it can come upon suddenly like a car breaking down at 70 on the motorway. Hence the appropriateness of the name.

Harry Cole didn't graduate from Edinburgh in psychiatry but in Politics and Economics I believe (I am prepared to be corrected). Therefore he is merely playing politics with a Labour politician's mental health. Nice to see the Tories playing the ball not the man.

Tory Bear is also saying his is sniffing around for a story. You wonder what story a man who ended his five year marriage to admit that he was gay could possibly less survivable than that news in 2006. If Tory is being homophobic in his digging maybe he should apply for a job with the Daily Fail he seems ideally suited for that rag.

Even Alex Salmond put aside party differences to say:

"We would pay tribute to the contribution he has made to Glasgow, particularly the partnership that the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council have been involved in to secure the Commonwealth Games, and to plan for a fantastic legacy from the games for Glasgow and the whole of Scotland."

As Steven is seeking help for his illness on medical advise I would like to wish him a full recovery.

* By the way I notice that for all his alleged research Mr Cole hasn't managed to give Steven the correct spelling of his name.

Tories Reject GARL

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) are once again not best pleased with the Scottish Tories (or the SNP for that matter). They have decided to side with the SNP in not reinstating the £170m funding for the Glasgow Airport Rail Link back into the 2010-11 budget at the Finance Committee in Holyrood yesterday.

The CBI have in recent weeks been attacking the SNPs budget proposals as not being in the best interests of encouraging much needed growth in the Scottish economy and the decision of the Tories on the Committee to side with the SNP on this issue raise their hackles further. The rail link would have provided 1,300 jobs been a boost to Scotland's second cities business sector and was also an integral part of the 2014 Commonwealth Games plans.

Iain McMillan the Scottish director of the CBI said:

"We always knew the Scottish Tories would be the swing vote on the question of whether GARL should be reinstated.

"We are very, very disappointed the Conservatives did not see fit in the committee to vote with Labour.

"We are very disappointed that the Scottish Tory party does not appear to share our view that the Scottish Government should root out waste in these austere times in order to release money to allow strategic transport projects like GARL to go ahead."

So the Tories are like the SNP unable to finding achievable savings to stimulate the economy and pay for much needed projects. Instead they are content with a while range of measures in the budget that are not an effective use of the money that Holyrood has to spend, with £9m of funding estimated to see through the Referendum Bill to a vote in the Parliament, we have an SNP Government, backed implicitly by the Tories, arguing for Labour in Westminster to make cost savings so as not to cut money available to Scotland, while at the same time they are not prepared to prioritise their own funding issues.

It looks like next months budget round could again be a sticky time for the SNP.

Fact Checking Nick Griffin's Claim

Much as I liked to see Jeff squirm at the fact that a casting vote may lie with a BNP member for Glasgow in the next Scottish Parliament I thought he really should have done fact checking before taking the word of Nick Griffin for granted.

Jeff refers to this article in the Times so lets look at the facts.

Griffin said:

"We [BNP] were 4.4 per cent in Glasgow North East in the European elections."

Fact:

Minor niggle, I know, but the BNP's 545 out of 12705 votes in Glasgow North East is actually only 4.29%. That is one very poor round up a whole tenth of a percent higher than they could claim (i.e 4.3%).

Griffin then said:

"In Glasgow there is a [Holyrood] seat to be taken with probably about 6.5 per cent of the vote and we believe that is a do-able thing."

Fact:

OK 6.5% was the vote for Patrick Harvie who was in that 7th place last time out. However the Green vote was up to 9.98% given them the biggest protest vote away from the Westminster parties on the night. 7.11% was the position on the night in June of the lowest ranked party who gained a seat in Holyrood on the list.

Fact:

The BNP were only the 7th ranked party across Glasgow on the night behind the five Holyrood parties and UKIP, hardly a good place to lift the 7th top up seat.

Fact:

Across Glasgow as a whole they only polled 3.25% which was not even their highest council area return on the night in Scotland. I had the unenviable position of witnessing that on the night in Falkirk; even there it was only 3.77%.

I'll not even bother fact checking Jeff's claim of 54 seats for the SNP. That would be fun to do, but needs a little more work. Maybe later.

The Pakistani Embarrassment

The UK Border Agency has made a major faux pas in banning 60 Pakistani's from a trade and cultural visit from Lahore to its twin city Glasgow.

The rejected visas of the 60 covered two groups a delegation of the District Government their failure to arrive meant that trades talks with local officials in Glasgow were called off, as only the deputy mayor was allowed a UK visa. All the delegation had been invited by Glasgow City Council.

The cultural element was the return of the Patiala Pipe Band, who for the last four years have added colour to the World Pipe Band championships. They were not able to perform in the preliminary competition yesterday following their refusal to travel.

Hanzala Malik, executive member for Glasgow City Council's international affairs group said:

"These business-people are phenomenally important to us when it comes to trade. For them to be refused entry after we invited them is hugely embarrassing

"We need to be trading with people to safeguard our businesses and we can't do that if our Foreign Office is saying it's unsafe to go to certain parts of the world and refusing people entry here."

Anne McLaughlin MSP pointed out that the band had encountered difficulties last year to attend the same event, but were eventually given visas, but said:

"For this to happen once was bad enough; to repeat it this year is a disgrace. I will be in touch with the Borders Agency to get this decision reversed.

"This kind of decision gives Scotland a bad name and shows up the shambles within the UK Border Agency."

The UK Border Agency is there to do a job of security but their failure to identify genuine people with important business, or of cultural significance right to a stay in our country is ridiculous. Having worked for a charity with international volunteers in the past I have stood behind passport control having whizzed through the UK gate anxiously as the letters of commendation have been viewed by passport officials.

The UK Border agency are staying tight lipped saying that:

"All applications for entry clearance are considered on their individual merits, taking into account all evidence submitted and in accordance with the
immigration rules."

So clearly if top local government officials, who one would expect had the necessary documentation, nous and ability to fill in immigration documentation cannot do so one wonders just what difficulty individuals without such assistance have.

Problem with the SNP's Trump Card

I read this morning that the SNP are to use school closures in Glasgow as their 'trump' card to attempt to win the Glasgow North East seat of the outgoing speaker Michael Martin.

As pointed out by Labour the Lib Dem/SNP coalition councils in Aberdeen and Edinburgh are also being forced to closed schools. Not because they want to but because of the shackles that have been imposed by the concordat laid down from the SNP government. Therefore in bridge playing terms if that is the SNPs trump I think it has just been doubled.

Of course the SNP other Trump card may just be to bring in their good friend Donald in and get him to promise to build new schools. In the run up to the election which will never actually take place but he owes them a favour.

Watch this space.

Rugger Club Booted Into Touch

Now in my University career I often had run ins with the Rugby Club. See as Treasurer of one of the light sports (ie small budget) there was a constant conflict with the heavy sports (including the king pins Rugby) over allocation of funding. Some of the most heated discussions in the Students Union (apart from the cultural role of Neighbours) was always the annual budget allocations. Often fighting to defend money to three of the often overlooked areas of student life boy did I usually go shoulder to shoulder with the Rugby guys.

We also tended to go shoulder to shoulder with them every Wednesday and Saturday night in the main Union Bar (actually I should now call it the Guild of Students as it was named when I returned to repeat my final year in the new Kingston University). Of course Rugby players are going to be one of the, if not the, most raucous sports groups on campus. What other sort of guys, and gals, are you going to get who want to ruck and maul, risk losing teeth (more in some cases), bruised and batter face, or possible spinal injury (even despite new guidelines). They like all student sportspeople love to unwind. Most students are aware that Wednesdays and Saturdays after sports activities that the various teams will return to base to let off steam.

Therefore the fact the SRFU founding member Glasgow University Rugby Club like to unwind boisterously is no surprise. What is a surprise is the decision by the University Court to ban them from using the University's name from 1 January. Student sports clubs are also a transient beast, members come and go with the degree cycles. One of the players has said:

"It's simply not fair that we are being punished for incidents that go back six
years, when none of us was playing."

Another pointed out a possible level of victimisation going on when he said:

"What makes us worse than any other rugby club in Britain? What do they do
when they win a game? Take their tops off and sing a few songs. That's what we
do.

"Besides, the union holds Iron Stomach drinking competitions, when
people take their tops off and the staff put out buckets for being sick in - and
that's acceptable."

Now there is always the point that each passing generation of students in a club want to best the legends of the past. Heaven knows if there are still rumours going around Kingston about the Cross County team inflatable banana, which always appeared on the final stage of the final leg in relays. Possible the University of Surrey still remember the occasion they stole away and burst said banana, only for it to reappear at the next event patched up and recovered. But I guess these tales have been exaggerated in the telling or bested by succeeding generations, or at least the tales have if the actions have not.

And that is the thing. The tales are often a heck of a lot worse that the actuality. The reputation often precedes the events. Some in the club have said it is doing its best to move from being a drinking club with a bit of a Rugby problem to a Rugby club with a bit of a drinking problem. Having been in University changing rooms with a whole mob of sports and in senior Rugby and other sports changing rooms and in the bars afterwards, I'd guess that Glasgow definitely aren't the worse behaved Rugby Club in Britain. Student teams have nothing on the schenanigans of those who have jobs, money and often a greater need and enthusiasm to unwind, but the University Court is making them out to be by their actions.

Just What Does it Take...?

...to get thrown out of the SNP.

As obviously firing off a Kalashnikov rifle in a politically sensitive area of the world is not enough. Whatever may be the practice of Pakistani citizens in the summer of 2005 when Jahangir Hanif, not yet a councillor but already seeking to be elected in Scotland having stood in that May's General Election, was filmed firing the rifle at a training base in the country. Surely he would have known then just what sort of image of a politician of Pakistani descent that would convey to voters, for most people seeking public office that would be enough to put them off doing, and especially being filmed doing such an activity.

As it he is only to be suspended for 2 months from the party which includes having his page wiped clean on the Nat's website.

Robertson for Glasgow East

The Lib Dem Candidate for Glasgow East has been selected, local teacher Ian Robertson will contest the seat vacated by Labour's David Marshall.

Speaking of the forthcoming election and the choices people face on June 24th he said:

"Local people are feeling let down by Gordon Brown's Labour Government that is out of touch and has forgotten the East End. Gordon Brown's Government simply doesn't understand how the loss of vital services harms the local community.

"Equally local people are getting fed up of the empty promises by the SNP. The teflon is coming off and the SNP's honeymoon is now over.

"The Scottish Liberal Democrat campaign is already off to a flying start we already have a headquarters in Shettleston and will campaign in every part of the constituency. Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg will be visiting the area."

Charles Kennedy is Back!

No sadly Nick Clegg has not persuaded him to take up a front bench role in the Commons.

In 1982 a young Highlander graduated from Glasgow University. He also served as President of the Union. Befroe going on to be President then Leader of the Liberal Democrats. Well last night Charles Kennedy won the vote to become the new Rector of Glasgow University.

Here's hoping the new rector of Glasgow will still be giving the former student rector of Edinburgh Univerty some hard times in his day job at Westminster.