Cameron is Davidson's Prime Minister not her boss

Ruth Davidson, new leader of the Scottish Conservatives

The BBC in talking about the new leader of Scottish Conservatives in a different way to some of the tabloids, for more on that see Scottish Liberal. What they have picked up on is that Ruth Davidson under the new structure of the Conservative Party is a colleague of David Cameron with a final say on what goes on in Scotland.

You see the thing is that the Scottish Conservatives like Scottish Labour are both going to be lead by a leader of the party overall in Scotland and not have a leader of their MSPs as previously. Or to put it in a Lib Dem sort of way some sort of federalism. I'm not sure if the same rules are being brought into the Conservatives and Labour parties in Wales but it has happened in Scotland. Surely this move can't be solely down to the fact that any party that wasn't the SNP did poorly in the Scottish Parliament elections in May.

The Liberal Democrats have always operated on a federal format with leaders and policy making for Scotland and Wales devolved to those national conferences and party members. Of course unlike the Tories and Labour that policy making is further devolved to the conference reps themselves who get to vote on the policies. Conservatives and Labour are merely handing over the decision making and policy differences to the leaderships, heaven forbid if they started to once again trust the members of their party to actually make any real decisions that actually affect the real people they see around them all the time without being told just what they need from the Westminster 'experts'.

However, it is a step that Scottish politics will it seems now be decided by the Scottish parties (in whatever way they allow this to happen). It may put a bit of a kibosh to the SNP talking about the Westminster parties when all of them can clearly point to policies that differ from Westminster to talk into account Scottish needs and situations.

It's not Friday...but here is a little of Hergé's Tintin

I've been kind of busy this week helping Michael and Andrew to move. Therefore my blogging has taken a back seat.

However, as a thank you from them I did go to see The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn in 3D, here is a trailer, just ignore the dates it is available in the UK now.



Keeping a liitle bit on the theme here is how Steven Speilberg and Peter Jackson, for it is they, got to come together on this project and just what they have done behind the scenes to make the cartoon books come to life as cartoons.



Here are some of the stars and writers being tested on their Tintin knowledge. Thankfully Jamie Bell (Tintin) seems to know a decent amount.

Beware of Greeks playing roulette with their whole economy

The breaking news is that George Papandreou seems to have played Roulette with his nations debts but many in his own party and the rest of the government have prevented him from staking it all on a referendum. Earlier today four of his own cabinet opposed the measure and the Prime Minister will be seeing Greek President Karolos Papoulias to offer his resignation.

The crisis came to a head today after the EU withdrew its bailout offer of a rescue package unless Greece decided immediately whether they were in or out of the Eurozone. Earlier the main opposition leader Antonis Samaras of the New Democracy party called for a coalition goverment to safeguard the EU deal, which wrote off 50% of the debts owed by Greece in return for sharper austerity measures. Some of Papendreou's MPs refused to back his call for a referendum calling instead for a national government or an early election. His slim majority was only 4 in the 300 seat parliament.

So where does this leave us?

Clearly the Greek political leaders are trying to shore up their economy as best they can. Realising that the EU deal may be the best option that they can get at this point. However, the people are still angry about the need for greater austerity measures to enable them to pay back the new deal. However, it looks likely that they will leave the Euro to allow greater flexibility over their own economy to enable them to pay back their debts. But the level of austerity in Greece is likely to last for many years.

One thing that appears to have come from the past week since the Greek package was agreed is that the entire world seems to be at a point where if someone fails to take positive economic action there will be panic. The fact is that in or out of the Eurozone, whether in Europe or not, every economy is getting so entwined with each other that any nervousness or fear of default could be on the point of bringing down a lot more than simple the economy of one relatively minor country. Also if Greece were to leave the Eurozone, there is the question of the lack of mechanism for them to do so, and also the question of whether they would also have to leave the EU. In doing so this may well lead to further issues.

The fact is that when David Cameron says we're all in this together he means not just across the UK, but across Europe and further afield.

Whether a new Greek government can bring about stability quickly is the matter that world leaders at the G20  in Cannes will be watching closely. As the latest events in Greece were happening as the EU deal was being discussed in Cannes.

Note As this is a breaking news story issues may well move on while I am away from my computer this afternoon.

A blog post for every metre of a steeplechase

As some of you will now while at Kingston I ran the 3000m steeplechase. This blogpost marks the 3000th blogspot on this blog. So I'm taking 1 blog post out of each of sections of 300 blogs that chronologically make up the time line of this blog.

From 1-300 2 July 2005- 8 March 2006 My Day in the Media Scrum the tale of my rather unusual task one day in the Dunfermline and West Fife by election, but the day that saw the start of Charles Kennedy's rehabilitation as a public figure as he campaigned for the man who is now leader of the party in Scotland.

From 301- 600 3 March 2006 - 9 March 2008 This period included by sabbatical from blogging however it does contain one of my utterances on the Blood Ban "Give Blood a Chance". Talking about the ritual humiliation that men who have sex with men face when the blood wagon calls at their place of work.

From 601- 900 12 March 2008 - 17 September 2008 The section actually kicks off with a story that has echoes of reports this week that Essex teachers were telling victims of homophobic bullying to act less gay. However, in Just How is he Meant to be Discreet? it was a matter of life and death for Mehdi Kazemi who was facing extradition because back to Iran where he could have faced the death penalty for being gay. Fortunately he was granted asylum in the UK on 20 May that year.

From 901-1200 17 September 2008 - 11 February 2009 Was also the period that John Prescott took up blogging, so I turned to William Shakespeare, or is that Anonymous, for inspiration as to how the various stages of blogging take on a life. I think If Will Shakespeare were a Blogger is a good reflection back now after 3000 blogposts.

From 1201-1500 11 February 2009 - 14 July 2009 There was a meme that merely asked you to list the MPs that had been your MP through your lifetime. Me being me took that further providing a pen picture of the various MPs who have been my MP. I've since updated that with one addition.

From 1501-1800 15 July 2009 - 1 December 2009 Was the period when Rupert Murdoch but up some walls, not against flan flingers but against readers. In Rupert's Wonky Newspaper Factory I managed to see a problem for the proprietor, including through the eyes of Oompa Loompas.

From 1801 - 2100 1 December 2009 - 12 February 2010 This is the shortest time period for a set of 300 posts. But it was the period that Gordon Brown after almost 13 years of Labour rule offered AV as a method of electing MPs. Thus with Labour dying breathe, Nick Clegg called it a "miserable little compromise". Here were my first thoughts on Labour's AV offer on 3 February 2010.

From 2101-2400 12 February 2010 - 7 July 2010 It is of course general election time for this candidate, this time as a campaigning blogger. There were a lot of blog posts from the stump, but I think my reaction to the result the following day gives a good place and deserves a mention here. After all I set up the blog so people could find out where I stand on key issues.

From 2401 - 2700 8 July 2010 - 24 April 2011This period features the start of my return to Northern Ireland to the dying weeks of the referendum campaign. On Valentines Day I kind of broke my non-party political commentary by stepping into the issue of civil partnerships in places of worship. Asking why the Conservatives still think they can fob off LGB couples with something different and not equal.

From 2701 - 3000 (well 2999) 24 April 2011 - 1 November 2011. The end of the AV referendum and finally free once more to say exactly what is on my mind when I want to say it. But it seems that I'm still fighting hard, especially here in Northern Ireland with regards to the blood ban. Even in light of what SaBTO said, which I called a "still discriminatory" at the time their report came out, here in Northern Ireland even that is a step too far. But I do blog elsewhere and this is my initial response to the Northern Ireland health minister's first lacklustre comments.

Why Penny Red is wrong - its not just a red poppy day

The Royal British Legion is an organisation that cares about more than just veterans of war, especially those of World War I and World War II. What is does is provide financial, social and emotional support to those who have served or who are currently serving in the British Armed Forces, and their dependants.

Therefore for Laurie Penny aka Penny Red has written something that make my blood boil over on the Stop the War Coalition website. Calling it the "hypocrisy and showbiz of red poppy day".

Now I do have family who fought and some died in the First World War, one of whose names appears on the memorial to the right. I have family who fought in World War II, the first Gulf War, the second Gulf War and who currently are serving in Afghanistan. I also have family and friends who have been stationed in Northern Ireland during the troubles, I know people who were orphaned while their parent was going about their duty within miles of where they were.

I was actually talking to a member of the Royal British Legion the other day, who is younger than my 42 years. Who pointed out to me that wearing a poppy or a badge for the RBL is not just a one day thing for those who benefit from the work. It is year round and he will wear symbols indicating his membership and support of the work year round.

Penny decides to use the lead up to Remembrance Sunday for political point scoring and even then getting her facts incorrect*. I for one wear a poppy not just on November 11th or the Sunday nearest to it. I wear it on other days of remembrance, or to the funerals of those who have served. I'm also aware of other charities for our ex-service men such as Scottish Veteran Residences and the Scottish War Blinded charities both still working with young ex-servicemen as they settle back into life.

To borrow from a phrase used about pets: Money given for a poppy is for life not just November 11th.

*She says that politicians have hypocritically "authorised the decimation of jobs, welfare and public education in order to defend Britain's military spending and nuclear arsenal and offer tax breaks for business." When the truth is of course there are cuts in defense spending and closing down on loopholes in tax breaks for business some of which appeared during the reign of her beloved party. 

Cross Posting: Not a take over, we just want equality in deed and thought

Cross posting from LGBT Lib Dems NI

There is an article in today's Irish Independent on Sunday that you just wonder how on earth did it get published. It is almost as if the opinion writer Eamon Delaney was preparing a piece just in case David Norris instead of Michael D. Higgins had been elected President.

The first paragraph tells you enough that this isn't going to be an LGBT friendly piece:

"As the cliche goes, some of my best friends are gay. I used to live in a very gay area, the West Village in New York. Indeed, enjoying their nightlife and cultural atmosphere, I was even accused of 'trading' off the fun, with my copycat denim jacket and tartan shirt, while not actually joining them."

Eamon Delaney

Wow! Wearing denim jackets and denim shirts marks you out as gay in the USA. Has anyone told the rodeo stars or is Brokeback Mountain the norm rather than the exception? Talk about cliche, it isn't the first one that is offensive so much as the thought that the writer things he can become gay!

He carries on:

"I've recently begun to get impatient with the endless trumpeting of gay 'identity', and the growing appetite for more and more rights and privileges."

The rights we have been looking for are equal rights, the privileges are merely ones that heterosexual people take for granted. We'd love to expand the right of straight men like Eamon to buy cocktails if they want, but they already can. Or to go dancing with people of the same gender, but this is how the Jewish and Muslim community already dance at weddings.

Homosexuality was only decriminalised in the Republic in 1993 and in Northern Ireland in 1982. Anti-discrimination legislation only came into being in 2004 in the Republic, 2003 in the UK. Civil Partnerships only became legal earlier this year in the Republic but since 2004 in Northern Ireland.

Mr Delaney thinks that the LGBT community, actually his word is 'gays', "want to increasingly change mainstream culture to suit them". Now replace his word gay with blacks, or jews, or any other minority in the following paragraph and see how it reads:

"I'm not being reactionary and I'm all for gay rights and an end to prejudice and discrimination, and always have, but at this stage it seems as if the tables have turned and a minority community -- the gays -- want to increasingly change mainstream culture to suit them."

See the thing is while people, see a minority as not being part of the mainstream therein lies the problem. The fact that he sees that the LGBT community are not currently considered 'mainstream' means that there is still work to be done for equality to be a natural state. The recent reports into homophobic bullying, the recent comments from people in politics both north and south showing a them and us attitude to LGBT rights shows that things are not normal and the LGBT community is not see as those by many. The fact indeed that in his article Delaney uses the word 'gay' 25 times but LGBT a total of once and that in a derogatory manner as follows:

"And there are other things about the growing gay rights movement which make outsiders impatient and uneasy. Like, when did the gays and lesbian community become the 'LGBT', an acronym that also includes Bisexual and Transgender?

"Sorry, but this is broadening the boundaries in a way that makes many of us understandably sceptical.

"Bisexual? Isn't that reminiscent of the loose Seventies sexual experimentation? How many bisexuals are there? And will the plain people of Ireland be happy with legalising rights for, and spending money on, all of this?"

Actually no! What it shows by us including the bi-sexuals and transgender shows that we know there is a struggle to be recognised as being in a sexual minority. Those who are bi-sexual face all manner of issues, especially when changing the gender of their current partner, indeed when re-entering a mixed sex relationship it was something at the time I referred to as going back in. While we also recognise that not all transgendered individuals are Lesbian, Gay or Bi, we also realise that we don't want to leave them behind. They are an even small minority that the LGBs of this world, but if the LGB community lend their voice to the Ts so that their issues are taken seriously they will be more quickly.

There are many debates within the community about why the Ts are included and how some of the LGBs don't know enough about the issues that Ts face. But there are those who recognise that with the platform of one set the needs of the other can also be heard.

What I am sceptical about is just how LGBT friendly Mr Delaney really is. He clearly doesn't seem to have moved on from the time he enjoyed their company in 'the village' in New York all those years ago. He hasn't kept up with the issues faced by the LGBT community in the island of Ireland, something that is clear from the language and lack of understanding he shows through what he writes.

Forgive the cliche, but I think he once met someone who was gay and was quite a good laugh and a very supportive individual. But he has never talked to that one gay acquaintance, nor any other gay acquaintance in depth about the issues they face in their family, their workplace, the church, out on the streets of Dublin, Belfast or Ballywhatever in rural Ireland.

Read also 
Consider the Tea Cosy offers this thoughtful response
This defense of Delaney's supposedly non-existent bisexual and transgender communities
This answering merely the nine questions that Delaney asked
Autostraddle merely calls the article stupid
This open letter from the University Times to the editor of the Sunday Independent

L, the U and Everything: A-Z of the Music I have G is for Gloria Gaynor

Seeing as my last name starts in G there is surprising a dearth of bands of singers beginning with the same letter in my record collection, I don't own any of Stephen Gately's solo stuff, I do have a little Peter Gabriel, However, on one compilation album is an anthem by an artist with not one but two Gs that just has to be the pick for this week.