The EDL will be marching through Exeter this Saturday. They have cited the University's various studies and links to the Islamic and Arabic world and reason to protest their racist mantra in Exeter.
Exeter Together is an organisation which celebrates and embraces the diversity within Exeter. More than 800 people have now signed their support to Exeter Together's cause and this group will also be marching on Saturday.
The Exeter Together march will assemble in Belomnt Park at 10.30 and will begin its march at 11.00. It will then progress through the city centre to arrive in Bedford Square for a peaceful celebration rally at around 12.00.
The following roads will be subject to temporary closures as the Exeter Together march passes through:
Blackboy Road
Old Tiverton Road
Western Way
Sidwell Street
York Road
Summerland Street
Cheeke Street
Paris Street
High Street
These roads will be closed for as little time as possible, hopefully a max of 10 minutes. Sidwell Street and High Street will be subject to loner delays.
Its not to late to join Exeter Together. Visit www.exetertogether.wordpress.com or just come along to Belmont Park at 10.30 on Saturday.
I'm a very tolerant person, I would say that I'm a liberal. As such I have no issues or prejudices with immigrants, gays etc. so I do sometimes find it hard to deal with situations, conversations or people when such prejudices arise.
Living in Devon I have come to learn that people here are really quite conservative in their outlook. Despite the fact that in recent years the ethnic diversity of the South West has increased massively, the mindset of many people seems to have been stranded in the 60s. It is perhaps true of course that racism has changed since then but only in so far as the target; years ago it was people of African descent (yes I know "we all came from Africa") but now mistrust, dislike or even hatred is directed mostly and Arabic groups, namely the Muslim community.
I have no issue whatsoever with the growth of the Muslim faith and culture in Britain. I take issue with extremists and terrorists but it pains me that the need to clarify the difference is even existent. But alas it is true that the evil deeds of the few have caused many to suspect and fear a mostly innocent community.
It arose in conversation recently that Muslims are apparently trying to impose their beliefs and customs on non-Muslims, I strongly challenge this suggestion. I do not feel that anyone is obligating me to praise Allah or that my wife (not married) should be covered in public. I believe that most Muslims are happy for non-Muslims to live as they please so long as they are afforded the same courtesy. It is true though that many of the same people who claim to be oppressed by Muslims will, in the same breath, seek to condemn Islamic traditions, and as such they themselves are then oppressing Muslims.
Another recent example is that someone cited as complaint that if we, as non-Muslims, were to visit an Islamic country then we would be somewhat obliged to conform to their standards of dress. I then thought to myself "do you oppose to Muslim women wearing the veil?" a question to which, if I had asked it, the respondent would have said yes. I considered then that this person was not content to have imposed on them the Islamic standard of dress but at the same time they would openly impose European standards of dress on Muslims.
I think perhaps that I should leave this here for fear that I might upset or anger too many people, particularly those who's views I have cited, and this is something that I most definitely don't want to do. I just needed to vent my thoughts as I don't want to have to argue this with the people concerned.
I'm not religious but the Bible taught us to love thy neighbour, but failing that I'd hope we could at least tolerate them.
Maybe I was wrong. It seems
that David Cameron failed in achieving his ambition of war after losing a vote
in the Commons on the matter by just 13 votes. Now though morals are torn;
nobody knows whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.
There are plenty of people who
have argued against intervention into Syria and their reasoning has mostly been
justified and understandable. They don’t want another war.
As Ed Miliband has made quite
clear, the “shadow” of Iraq is still looming large in the consciousness of the
UK and that is a fair point. The invasion of Iraq a decade ago was at best a
botched job and at worst an unmitigated legal, political and humanitarian
disaster and it is now clear that lessons have been learnt in the intervening
ten years.
Technically, the Prime
Minister has the power, under Royal Prerogative, to deploy UK forces wherever
and whenever he sees necessary, but to do so would be nothing short of
political suicide. Military action without a Parliamentary mandate has not been
taken since the sinking of the Belgrano at the start of the Falklands War in
1982 and the controversy of that incident has still not passed so one can only
imagine the fury that would inevitably follow if Cameron went ahead with a
Syrian deployment irrespective of Parliament’s objections.
Cameron has suffered great
political damage, in terms of credibility, following his defeat on this issue.
After he had fought with such strong words, backed by some initial action at
the UN, he must surely have thought that he had accurately gauged the mood of
the public and of his party, clearly, he had not. It is always damaging for a
Prime Minister to lose an important vote in the Commons but, as the BBC’s Nick
Robinson has said, it is without modern precedent that a PM has lost control of
his foreign policy.
However, considering that it
seems Cameron had misread the national mood, it has to be asked if he will
actually suffer or benefit from this turn of events. After all, if Cameron
believed that the public had wanted to intervene then if he had won in the
Commons and had intervened then that would have been a political success. But
now that it seems the public mood is against intervention it could be seen as a
political success that Cameron showed restraint and has not intervened.
Meanwhile, the US’ own
position seems a little less sure after the UK committed to not intervene. John
Kerry gave a speech on Friday in which he states that US intelligence reports show
that the chemical weapons attack was definitely carried out by the Assad regime
and that it killed 1429 people. These numbers are 1100 more than the initial
figure presented by the Syrian Rebels and are strongly challenged by the Syrian
and Russian Governments.
Now that his claims are being
questioned and his allies are rapidly leaving his side Obama seems to be losing
his own determination for action in Syria. The US President says that there is “No
decision yet” this is completely in contrast to the words of him and his team
earlier in the week when US forces were said to be “Ready to go”.
And as the great game of
Politics is being played across the World the very reason for it all appears to
have gotten lost. People are dying in Syria. Civilians are being killed, mostly
in the crossfire but probably by both sides. Regardless of who is killing who
and with what one thing is clear; Bashar al-Assad is overseeing a bloody civil
war in which tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions have
been displaced.
All this could end if the
present regime stepped aside, but I say, if that is not going to happen then
regime change is justified. That will be the only way to prevent further
civilian casualties and that is what must be achieved. The death of those who
support neither side and just wish to live their lives safe from harm must be
protected and if we are the ones who must protect them then I say that we must.
I would urge the UK Parliament
to reconsider. I for one feel deeply uncomfortable knowing that my Government
is currently doing nothing to prevent the death of innocent people. I know that
not everyone shares my view that we are the ones who should do something. But
if not us, then who?
I’ll leave you with these final thoughts. If we were caught in civil war and it was our children who were
homeless, our young brothers who had to fight highly trained and well-equipped
armies, our mothers and grandmothers who had been killed with chemical weapons
wouldn't we want help? Wouldn't want to be protected? Wouldn't we want to be saved?
At the time of writing the UK, US and French Governments are poised to intervene in Syria's bloody Civil War after it was alleged that the Assad Regime used chemical weapons against its own people.
The momentum now seems unstoppable; parliament's have been recalled, troops have been readied and UN resolutions have been tabled.
All roads, it seems, lead to War.
Presently talk is of doing everything and anything necessary to avoid the killing of civilians. But I don't buy that. In Libya we took a similar route but we soon started striking strategic and symbolic targets rather than ones solely of interest for purposes of life preservation. In that case we got lucky and the Gadaffi Regime was quickly toppled but I fear that the Assad Regime may prove to be a tougher nut to crack.
Firstly, it is now almost universally accepted that pro-Assad forces have used chemical weapons. This demonstrates that the the Syrian armed forces have the firepower and determination unlike anything else that the West has fought this Century. I think it unlikely that, if war does come, the Assad Regime would use chemical weapons against a coalition force but they have proved that they can.
Second, Assad has some fairly tough allies. Both Russia and Iran have stated their objections towards any foreign military intervention into Syria. Again, it seems unlikely that either of these two nations would openly confront Western forces if and when they do intervene, but nonetheless they will most definitely find ways of hindering any efforts made.
Thirdly, this will never end with the prevention of civilian casualties, simply because that is an open-ended, ambiguous and plainly unachievable goal. As I see it the only way that the US and its allies will be satisfied with the situation is when they have toppled Assad and installed a democratically elected, Western-Sympathetic leader. In short, I believe this will end only with regime change.
I don't want another war. But equally, I don't want to leave the Syrian people in fear of their leader. And so it is that I conclude with my support for intervention into Syria. Talk has failed, sanctions have failed. Maybe a few Cruise Missiles will do the job.
I do not condone war but in this case it seems that we cannot stand by as chemical weapons are used to suppress people who simply desire democracy.
However, I also think it must be made clear that we need to be sure of it is we are supporting. There are those among the rebels who seek to create a radical Islamic state and we need to be sure that this does not happen. Not because I am Islamaphobic, far from it, but because if we are to oversee or facilitate regime change then we need to ensure that the new regime is free, fair and democratically elected.
For now that is all I have to say on the matter. I fear that I have rambled and have not been at all coherent. I also suspect that I will be revisiting this topic soon.
In December I quit my job at HMV.
As much as I enjoyed my work I didn’t enjoy being treated quite so poorly when
it came to working arrangements and stability, heck, I never even signed a
contract. I soon began to regret making myself unemployed. In hindsight it is
clear that I should have lined up a new job before quitting my current one. But
hindsight is a truly wonderful thing.
It took over half a year to get a
new job, and it wasn’t for lack of trying that I was jobless for so long. I
reckon I sent over 200 applications in the period from 31st December
to 1st July and in all that time I only had interviews for three
jobs. One of which, I got. *smiley face*
In May, I applied for two jobs in
the Residential Department of Ashfords LLP in Exeter. I was called for an
initial interview for these and did a good enough job to be called back for a
follow-up. Then, I was unsuccessful. This hurt, I knew I had done well, I just
knew. So I asked what it was that had meant I hadn’t got the job. The answer:
the position was withdrawn following “commercial consideration”. That hurt
worse, knowing that I had wasted my time attending two interviews only for
there to be no vacancy anyway, and knowing that that was the only reason I didn’t
get the job. I got the usual “we’ll hold onto your details” spiel and went and
had a sulk.
Then, to my surprise on June 25th
I got an email from the HR woman who had interviewed me previously, advising me
that a new vacancy had arisen in the Accounts Department. I was delighted,
delighted to have been remembered because, as I later found out, I had been
suggested for this position before it had even been publicly advertised.
Here’s a brief timeline of the
events that followed:
Tuesday 25th – invited
to interview | Thursday 27th - initial interview | Friday 28th
– 9.15am – invited to second interview with Chief Financial Officer at 11am the
same day | Monday 1st – first day in my new job.
And so far so good. After my
first month I feel settled and competent in my new role. Having passed the awkward
training and introduction phase I already feel like part of the team,
especially now certain human irritants are no longer present.
Mum said I was boring enough to
work in Accounts, but I think she was misguided in her view. The [immediate] people
I work with are all great fun to work with, but also just great fun.
Who knew, being an Accounts
Assistant is fun. *another smiley face*
During today's Prime Minister's Questions David Cameron referred to the "Russian Regime", and immediately I thought this to be dangerous phrasing. Regime is the term used by the Press and Parliament when they speak of the "bad guy"; the Iraqi 'regime', the Libyan 'regime', the Syrian 'regime'. Indeed the phrase "Regime Change" has become so closely associated with war that Governments dare not use it.
The clear modern connotations for the word 'regime' are nearly all negative. In my mind I think of tyranny, oppression and dictatorship. Arguably, these words may be apt descriptions for Russian society but surely this is not what Cameron was meaning to infer. Even Russia's historical nemesis the United States would be more diplomatic with their wording when it is Russia to whom they refer.
Could it be that Cameron is itching for a fight with Russia? If this is the case, which I don't fully believe it is, I think it would be foolish. It is true that Russia has seen great decline in recent decades but they still command one of the World's largest military forces and Putin has his finger on the button for the second largest nuclear arsenal in existence.
I can see the case for disagreement with Russia over the ongoing events in Syria, indeed it was in this context that Cameron's comments were made, he claimed that it was naive to think that the "Russian Regime" had not been supplying Syria with weapons for many years, which in itself is a potentially incendiary remark, but I do think it unwise to even suggestively offend the "Russian Regime".
Whether or not the connotations which I have drawn were intended, it was easy for me to draw them, and I have seen that others have drawn them too. I would suggest that it was not Cameron's intention to discredit the Russian Presidency and Government but if I were in his position I would certainly have been more careful with the words I chose as I would not wish to initiate in any conflict with Russia.
On May 23rd I posted about the horrific events that took place in Woolwich. The brutal murder of an innocent soldier was met with plain disgust and condemnation from most but some, a vocal minority, were always going to take it too far and as is made clear in my earlier post it didn't take long for them to do so.
But the violent and unjust retaliation for the crimes in Woolwich continue. Last night a community centre in North London was burnt to the ground, a community centre owned and managed by an Islamic Somali community group. On the side of the wreckage the letters E D L were found. The graffiti was not there before the fire. The English Defence League (EDL) has denied any knowledge or collusion of the attack but that is not to say that none of their members or sympathisers are responsible.
Marches, protests and violence by the EDL and affiliates have not been limited to London. But it seems that away from the Capital the cause lacks meaning or voice. In York, a large EDL march on a Mosque concluded when the Islamic Community Leaders invited the protesters in for a cup of tea. After spending an evening drinking tea and playing football it is said that both sides agreed to peacefully coexist and parted amiable company. Meanwhile in Exeter, a rally organised by the EDL at a local war memorial in memory of the murdered Lee Rigby attracted the grand total of naught attendees, indeed the organisers of the event did not even turn up.
These examples give us, as human beings, hope. Hope for a peaceful coexistence with those who may be a different colour, or may believe different things, or be from a different place to ourselves. We can hope that those who are attacked by violent, racist fools do not retaliate. We can hope that they seek justice through the proper legal channels. We can hope that things will get better and that Terror and Violence will always loose, as they will, so long as us right-minded are in the majority.
It would seem that I am the kind of person who likes to volunteer. I help Seaton's Voice, I help Labour, and now, it would seem, I help Exmouth Town Concert Band. It would also seem that it takes someone I know to have an affiliation with an organisation in order for me to want to help them. With Seaton's Voice it was Elga, my Uncle's partner, with Labour it was, albeit loosely, father and with Exmouth Band it is Kelly.
Whenever I begin to volunteer my time to some cause I usually gain a great sense of good from it but that is just a happy side effect. I just happens to be that I enjoy devoting my time, often unasked, to aid others in their pursuits.
Working with Seaton's Voice has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever undertaken. To be involved with such a devoted and dynamic community group is a true pleasure and being able to assist them as they manage Seaton Town Hall as a community asset seems a truly just thing to do.
I've mentioned before the passion and joy that I gain from political volunteering and to me it is one of the simplest and most vital forms of voluntary service possible. I believe that it is fundamental to the success of any democracy that the electorate feel involved and connected with those whom they are asked to vote for and trust to run the country on their behalf. I know people (Mrs L.) who often see issue with what some of my political peers do, namely obstructing voters at polling stations, and whilst I myself take great care not to offend or obstruct anyone, be they political friend or foe, I can see the arguments of those who disagree with me but I stand by my point that the work that me and others like me is essential for the sake of democracy.
Don't I sound humble.
Now I have begun to do things for Exmouth Town Concert Band. Its Kelly's fault, she plays flute in the band and was recently elected to its committee as the Publicity Officer. We both saw that things could be improved for the band's sake so we have jointly set out to improve them. Kelly has set up an ETCB Twitter account and has become an Admin for their Facebook Page, she is also responsible for issuing press releases for the band's concerts and, dare I say it, they might be half their length if I was around to be consulted on their content (cue scowls when she gets home...). But then, without request nor sanction I drafted a new poster for the band, something which Kelly has admitted she would probably never have done and now she is consulting with the committee on further changes to those drafts and soon these posters will be the band's primary advertisement. Also, somewhere along the line it appears that I have volunteered to be a kind of informal band photographer, it is after all difficult o have photos of the band when the band's photographer is playing in the band. Heck, I even bought a tripod so that I can take pictures and videos of the band.
It looks like I do quite a lot, but in truth I am quite capable of doing much more, indeed I would like to. I have so much time on my hands at the moment, being unemployed, that I could quite happily spend all day volunteering.
This post is a short note to be attached to end of yesterday's post, "All it takes is a spark", which was a kind of journalistic editorial of events in Woolwich and the reprisals and remarks made in response to it.
What interested me following that post was that it became my most read post within only a matter of a few hours. Yes I only have three posts (this making four), but yesterday my daily readership record doubled from 35 to 70. It seems that when there is a big news story on then we will read basically anyone's take on the situation. Thinking about it this isn't too extraordinary, if we have an interest in something then it makes sense that we will seek to increase our intake of information regarding that interest.
Additionally interesting was that my U.S. readership rose from 2 to 19 yesterday. I've done a bit of research and it seems that the Woolwich murder has been relatively big news in the U.S. I also gained readers in Italy and Germany.
I now face a blogging challenge. How on earth am I going to continue to produce captivating posts that will attract readers when my own life if really rather mundane. Perhaps, I could devote it to posts similar to yesterday's, that is I could make it a kind of news and reaction column. Hmm... (Thoughts on this are welcomed by way of comment below).
In no way am I seeking to undermine the horror of events in Woolwich, I simply found it interesting how people reacted to a news blog.
My continued condolences are extended to all those who have been affected by the brutal killing, particularly the victim of the attack,Drummer Lee Rigby of 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (right).
In the light of events yesterday in Woolwich it didn't take long for the army of bigots to make themselves seen. They were on Twitter, on Facebook, on the news and, more seriously, in public.
It only takes the mindless, barbaric acts of a pair of men, a metaphorical spark if you will, to rekindle racial hatred and violence, as well as unnecessary and unjust intervention from unrelated persons (perhaps I am included in that group, although I try to be impartial). It is true that the attack in London does itself seem racially and politically motivated. But in my view that is no justification for any similarly mindless retaliation.
Unfortunately, it seems that this view is not shared by some people. The BBC have reported that overnight two arrests were made for violent acts that are being seen as direct responses to the violent killing in Woolwich. One of those arrests was for "racially aggravated criminal damage" in Gillingham, another man was arrested at a mosque in Braintree for attempted arson, and, perhaps predictably, around 250 supporters of the English Defence League clashed with police at the scene in Woolwich.
In my view, all that the original attack has achieved (although I would rather wish it would not have achieved anything) is that it will be a cause of fear for many people, and unjust hatred among others. Already the armed forces have issued advice that military personnel should "conceal" their uniform when in public [EDIT: advice repealed at 10.45] and, as mentioned above, reprisals against innocent Muslims did not take long to rear their ugly racist head.
Perversely, those who have sought to defend the Muslim community from abuse have sometimes become offensive or bigoted themselves. This tweet from Nick Robinson (above), the BBC's Political Editor, infers that he received a backlash after reporting on the Six O' Clock News that the attackers were of "Muslim appearance", as he says himself he was quoting official sources so any offence caused would not have been from him in any place, but what is more notable is that when you bother to investigate those who were seemingly offended - as I have - you find that it is not the Muslim community who are up-in-arms at the remark but in fact mostly middle class, white suburban housewives or leftist liberals who will attack the mainstream media at every chance they get. [EDIT: Nick Robinson's BBC Blog "One phrase and why I'm sorry I quoted it"]
I have nothing against leftist liberals, in fact I may even class myself as one (perhaps more centralised on the spectrum than those in question here), but it is often the case that this pool of people hijack a situation in the name of the anti-establishment movement. I welcome and embrace a free and open society where anyone can question the media and have their say on current affairs, I just wish that sometimes people would consider their words and actions a little more carefully and perhaps bother to check that what they say, think or do is relevant, truthful and just.
As is common at times of despair the light of human decency and reason will reveal itself. This picture (left) shows a totally innocent and unconnected woman, named by the Daily Telagraph as Cub Scout leader Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, trying to talk-down one of the men involved in the attack, reportedly asking him "Would you like to give what you have in your hands?", referring to the knife clearly visible in the man's left hand. Ms. Loyau-Kennett says that she spoke to the man in an effort to prevent further violence. This woman acted selflessly, in the pursuit of the safety of those around her. She had no way of knowing that the man she was talking to would not attack her and she should be highly commended for her actions.
The men who savagely killed a man on the streets of London should be condemned by all, although there will unfortunately forever be some who will remain sympathetic to their cause. These men who wanted to "start a war in London" represent only themselves, they have been denounced by the very Muslim community whom they claim to fight for and as such any attack or hatred towards that community is totally unjust and should be equally condemned. The two men involved were shot by police and are both under arrest in separate hospitals, it seems clear at this time that they acted alone so there is no need for knee-jerk reprisals.
The police investigation is ongoing and my thoughts and condolences go out to the family of the victim [EDIT: Victim named as Drummer Lee Rigby of 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (right)] of this savage and barbaric attack. [EDIT: I also wish to extend my condolences to the families of the attackers, who will be facing a very difficult road of emotion and torn loyalty.]
This is the "me" post. Solely about me. I promise that I will try to deviate away from the topic in future posts but I just wanted to give a bit of an outline of myself.
I love politics. Often I think I love it too much, it is a bit odd. But then I simply do not understand the cultural obsession that orbits the idea of 22 men kicking a spherical piece of leather to each other, so I suppose its only fair that I too have something to observe from afar and enjoy. Since becoming unemployed I have had the chance to feed my hunger for politics by simply watching television. The BBC's Daily Politics, PMQs and BBC Parliament provide me with lots of juicy political protein on which I can gorge.
Also, with elections taking place recently I was able to once again become politically active. This an often frightening experience, I thrive on the adrenaline and sense of action that is gained from knocking on doors and disturbing stay-at-home mums, night workers and retirees. But sometimes, just sometimes, the person you disturb is glad to see you and actually wants to speak to you. They can use you to get their issues heard, whether it be disappointment with their son's mental health care or elation for the new 20mph speed limit on their street, it is always nice to hear from the people and have the opportunity and capacity to respond to them myself or by passing on their comments to their local representative.
Another passion of mine is musical theater. Now this is perhaps where most of the ambiguity regarding my sexuality has come from but I am completely heterosexual, just a tad flamboyant and, well, camp. My personal favorite musicals are Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera and Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg's Les Misérables. I have only ever seen Phantom live but would love to see Les Mis sometime soon. I also hope to go and see Miss Saigon, again by Boublil and Schönberg, when it returns to London in the near future. I have on DVD the 25th anniversary performances of both Phantom and Les Mis and also the film versions of each. I also play a lot of computer games. My favorite platform is the PC but I also play on the Xbox 360. I enjoy mostly simulation games like SimCity, The Sims, Tropico and Prison Architect but I also enjoy a bit of role-playing with games like Fable. Finally, music. Live music preferably, but do own a not insignificant number of CDs (not a download fan). Since 2005 I have been going to festivals. I have been to Beautiful Days every year since then and I wouldn't miss it for the world. I've been to Volksfest in Plymouth a few times and Bearded Theory once. I would love to go back to BT one day but at the moment cash and logistics are just stuck in the way. Alongside my love of festivals and their special blend of music I also enjoy tatty pop and the Eurovision Song Contest is my favorite TV musical spectacle of the year. So I think that's most of everything about me. I might add stuff if I've forgotten it but hopefully I'll be able to stay away from personal nonsense in this blog now. That will be nice.
Trying again
Know me? Well hello. Don't know me? Well, hello to you as well.
If you do know me then you may well know that I have blogged in the past but that I've never really stuck at for more than three of four posts. I've decided to try it again but seen as I can't remember the account details for my old blog I'm having to start from scratch. Ho Hum.
As in the past the inaugural blog post has unavoidably become about the blog post itself and I had planned for this to happen. In fact I had planned to mention that I had mentioned blogging, I had not, however, planned to mention that I had planned to mention it (Still with me? Me neither).
Still trying
Sine December I haven't had a job. I am becoming increasingly tired of the fact that I am unemployed, the days seem so long and tedious and I have almost run out of things to do. For example I have watched Les Mis on blu-ray twice today and even so there is still time to fill until I must sort dinner.
But I am still trying to find a job and hopefully, provided I didn't fluff it up at interview on Monday, I could soon be working at the same place as my lovely Kelly, super.
Trying something new
I am political. I used to strongly support the Lib Dems and so I campaigned for and with them, but then they decided to become a second Tory party and I couldn't support that. So now I will campaign for and with Labour. The people that I have met from the local party in Exeter are all lovely. That said, as were the people from the Lib Dems, it was just the party that began to stink. Hopefully, I can continue to support Labour in Exeter and can help them towards continued and further success. It was a good feeling to be on the winning side for the County Council elections recently and yes, that was one of the factors that led me to defect; a desrie to succeed.
I would love to become even more deeply involved in politics, perhaps becoming a party official or even an elected representative. So it feels good to be involved with a party of good people which I can support and which I can be confident will succeed.
Oh, one more thing
As my blog title and address suggests I am slightly camp. I just watched Les Mis twice for heaven's sake. I love eurovision, musicals and the royals but also, and rather crucially, women. I am camp but also as straight as... er... a straight thing.
