Catching up with Brothers & Sisters on 4oD – the fantastic download service from Channel 4 – and the latest episode ends with Kevin Walker proposing to his gorgeous boyfriend Scotty Wandell.
The episode shown on E4 on Monday evening ended with the two men kissing – men kissing on an American television show was inconceivable until a few years ago.
I wonder how many people complained about this week’s episode of Brothers & Sisters… was the switchboard at Channel 4 jammed with viewers furious at being exposed to a scene of two men kissing?
If so, was it more or less than the 215 complaints received about the Heinz Deli Mayo advert which also featured two men kissing.
The half-baked bean bosses at Heinz pulled the advert after coming under pressure from 0.00035% of the population in the UK.
Please do join me in boycotting Heinz until the company’s bosses stop farting about and show some backbone rather than joining the homophobic minority in the UK – you can ring Heinz for free on 0800 528 57 57 to tell them you are boycotting their products and join the online petition too.
After a holiday and the festival, I am catching up on news – most of it continues to be rather pessimistic including the results of a survey by YouGov and commissioned by the charity Stonewall which confirmed that prejudice against gay people is still alive and kicking in the UK today.
One in five gay people were victims of homophobic aggression over the past three years ranging from beatings and sexual assault to persistent harassment and insults – the latter often from neighbours and work colleagues.
The survey of 1,700 lesbian, gay and bisexual people found that 75% had not reported the incident to the police and of those who did report it, two thirds of the victims were not offered advice or referred to support services.
Clearly there is much work to be done to improve the way the criminal justice system deals with homophobic attacks and the UK still has a long way to go before it becomes free of homophobic prejudice.
Of course if the country made the mistake of looking towards the Church of England for guidance on fair and unprejudiced treatment of minorities, you could expect to see a rise in homophobic attacks.
The impending leadership ballot for the Greens – the first to allow members to choose a single leader – is generating a lot of blog chatter and a number of online polls.
It’s a real shame that the two online polls currently running on fellow Green blogger sites only give people the option to choose a leader and a deputy leader but not co-leaders.
Jim Killock’s blog gives Greenies the chance to vote on a long list of potential leaders and deputy leaders… while Peter Cranie has narrowed down the options.
It would be great to see a strong co-leadership team develop rather than the traditional Leader and Deputy Leader route favoured by the uninspiring ‘grey’ parties.
Tescos are opening a new Express store on Bathwick Hill shortly… and is understood to be planning a superstore in the former Bath Press site on Lower Bristol Road – see Bath Chronicle.
This is less than one mile from an existing Sainsburys in one direction and less than one mile from a planned Lidl superstore in the other direction.
The new Tesco Express in Bathwick Hill is next door to an independent retailer which has been trading for years… it is likely that yet another independent retailer will go to the wall because of the increasing takeover by the Tescos of this world.
The British have an obsession with supermarkets despite the fact that one survey after another shows that local markets are up to 50% cheaper for fruit and veg than supermarket chains.
We are certainly paying a high price for the convenience of the supermarket giants…
I have been madly busy over the last few weeks and will be for a few more weeks to come – Corsham Festival is just over two weeks away and I am busy finalising everything.
It is the ninth festival that I have been involved in – the first festival in 2000 still feels like only yesterday in many respects but a lot has happened since those early days.
While that first festival was an entirely voluntary effort, we now have a team of staff and volunteers who help to make it happen – without them it wouldn’t be possible to sustain with our other commitments.
I am looking forward to this year’s festival which I think will be the best yet – I say that every year but I think it is probably true!
Catching up with the post election coverage… here are a few of interest:
Thanks to JimJay and Rupert’s Read for pointing me in the direction of the above.
Great to see that the Green Party achieved some notable successes in the local elections on 1 May, in particular, in Norwich where the Greens leapfrogged the Liberal Democrats to become the official opposition on Norwich City Council.
Our tally of local councillors increased and we retained the two London Assembly members – Jenny Jones and Darren Johnson. Sian Berry did a fantastic job in the Mayoral elections and raised the profile and credibility of the Greens both within London but nationally, particularly as she won the endorsement of two national papers – a first for a Green candidate.
Still working out which is more depressing… the election of Boris Johnson as Mayor of London or the election of more BNP councillors including the election of Richard Barnbrook to the London Assembly.
Clearly the country is turning blue… even the latest newsletter from the Liberal Democrats in Bath has changed colour from yellow to blue.
I almost mistook it for the Tories’ newsletter!
Apparently for the first time ever, a national newspaper has endorsed a Green Party candidate – the Observer has come out in favour of Sian Berry, the Green Party candidate in Thursday’s London Mayoral election.
The leader recommends that London voters give their first preference vote to Sian and their second preference vote to Ken – see Observer online.
The Independent on Sunday Review magazine also had a very complimentary profile piece – see Independent online.
Footnote: And The Independent also backed Sian too!
For more information visit Vote Green Party
Failed to get to the Green Party spring conference in Reading this weekend as I was unwell but have been catching up on the conference reports at the live conference blog: http://greendespatches.blogspot.com
