February 27th - March 5th 2006
Sunday Nightlife
Saturday Hu he?
Friday Rear-gunning
Thursday Viola
Wednesday Kiss kiss (kiss)
Tuesday Ken's spat
Monday RSS!
Sunday 5th March 2006
Nightlife, Winter 2006
(click for pix)
Saturday 4th March 2006
The Ming Emperor has trounced two candidates who we gather were both called Hu, or at least had names which began with Hu.
It is true that nobody had heard of either Hu and right up to polling day anxious voters could be heard asking "Who Hu?".
No matter. It is now boo-hoo for one Hu, and boo-hoo for the other Hu too.
- The Telegraph's Andrew Gimson announces the result of the Liberal Democrats' leadership contest
Friday 3rd March 2006
Most of you were probably so busy giggling over the news that Ashley Cole is suing the News of the World and the Sun over allegations that unnamed footballers had been involved in gay shenanigans ("Cole: I'm not a rear-gunner") that you failed to notice that last week also saw the launch of England's new, intriguingly-named, away strip.
One can't help wondering: does it have a special mobile-phone pocket?
Thursday 2nd March 2006
Yes readers, I was indeed standing right behind Mike at Amateur Strip Night as he made his frantic notes in preparation for today's troubled divagation (not that you'd know that from his original entry, ahem).
Previous sightings of the "scrawny sixtysomething tranny from Latvia" (aka "Catweazle crossed with Shylock...") here.
Wednesday 1st March 2006
Vauxhall, Winter 2006
Here's a photograph you'll just have to imagine.
It was taken on Sunday, at Horse Meat Disco, towards the end of the evening. A motley group of friends and acquaintances have arrayed themselves, in various stages of insobriety, along the banquette at the back of the bar.
I have staggered away to watch This Guy playing pool. Given that there's a handy ledge behind me, I quietly take out my camera, put it on the ledge, point it towards my friends on the opposite wall and snap off an unsteady shot or two.
Next morning, I examine the photographs. They're mostly incomprehensible but one picture shows, reading left to right: an anonymous couple embracing at the bar, my best friend sitting on the lap of a large attractive black guy, another friend snogging a companion he claimed was Just a Friend, and, far right, yet another friend lip-locked with a Minor Pop Star.
I guess you had to be there.
Tuesday 28th February 2006
Right, that's quite enough about 'historian' David Irving and his egocentric nuttery; let's hear more about his twin brother John, chairman of the Wiltshire Racial Equality Council, who is, reputedly, Britain's only Muslim pig-farmer.
Alternatively, let's look more closely at the nonsense surrounding Ken Livingtone's "Nazi slur".
You'll be familiar with the outlines of the story: Livingstone has a long-standing feud with the Evening Standard (not unconnected with its habit of describing itself as The Paper That Speaks for London, something of a challenge to London's democratically elected Mayor).
On 8th February last year, shortly before 9pm, a photographer and a reporter from the Evening Standard accost Ken Livingstone as he emerges from a reception at City Hall.
The journalist, Oliver Finegold, pursues the mayor as he walks away and in the course of the brief exchange that follows records Ken complaining that Finegold is behaving "just like a concentration camp guard".
Finegold, who happens to be Jewish, considers himself offended by this remark. Another paper runs the story, apologies are demanded - and refused.
The (no-pun-intended) Standards Board for England receives complaints from, amongst others, the Commission for Racial Equality and the Board of Jewish Deputies.The latter body stresses that it is not accusing Mr Livingstone of anti-Semitism, adding - somewhat opaquely - that "it is morally inaccurate to compare [Livingstone's] treatment to the events of the holocaust".
In the subsequent hearing before the Adjudication Panel for England, Livingstone claims to have been exercising his freedom of speech as an individual (much play is made of the fact the mayor was wearing his overcoat during the reported interchange), going on to say that he's been rude to journalists for 25 years and will continue to be so.
The Adjudication Panel clears Livingstone of the charge of misconduct but finds him guilty of bringing his office into disrepute, ruling that he has behaved in an "unnecessarily insensitive" manner and suspending him (on full pay) for four weeks.
Leaving aside questions about whether the Adjudication Panel has the right to rob Londoners of their elected representative, or what kind of punishment it is to send someone on paid leave for a month, one needs to study the transcript of the original 'interview' to decide to what extent Livingstone is right to refuse to apologise.
Finegold: "Mr. Livingstone, Evening Standard. How did it ..."
Livingstone: "Oh, how awful for you."
F: "How did tonight go?"
L: "Have you thought of having treatment?"
F: "How did tonight go?"
L: "Have you thought of having treatment?"
F: "Was it a good party? What does it mean for you?"
L: "What did you do before? Were you a German war criminal?"
F: "No, I'm Jewish. I wasn't a German war criminal."
L: "Ah, right."
F: "I'm actually quite offended by that. So, how did tonight go?"
L: "Well you might be, but actually you are just like a concentration camp guard. You're just doing it 'cause you're paid to, aren't you?"
F: "Great. I've got you on record for that. So how did tonight go?"
L: "It's nothing to do with you because your paper is a load of scumbags."
F: "How did tonight go?"
L: "It's reactionary bigots ..."
F: "I'm a journalist. I'm doing my job."
L: "... and who supported fascism."
F: "I'm only asking for a simple comment. I'm only asking for a comment."
L: "Well, work for a paper that isn't ..."
F: "I'm only asking for a comment."
L: "... that had a record of supporting fascism."
F: "You've accused me..."
(There then follows a mysterious five-second gap during which, Livingstone alleges, Finegold told him to fuck off.)
Note that there was absolutely no need for Finegold to talk to Livingstone on the street: the mayor holds a weekly press conference which he says he has never yet left before answering "every question journalists wish to put to me".
But perhaps Finegold's question ("How did tonight go?") could not wait? Did he indeed intend to raise some burning issue which needed immediate clarification?
If that's the case we have yet to hear of it. It seems much more likely that the Standard calculated that, by collaring Ken at the end of a party (a party at which it is safe to assume alcohol would be consumed), they could get him on record as saying something controversial.
So: how controversial are Ken's remarks?
It's clearly not offensive to suggest that a journalist needs to take responsibility for his own actions rather than blaming his employer.
Nor, I suggest, is it out of order - in an informal context - to employ the metaphor of a concentration camp guard to illustrate this argument. Whilst hardly the height of good taste, it's nonetheless a rhetorical tactic employed by hundreds of people every day.
Much seems to hang on Finegold's own Jewish identity: as a Jew, does he have the right to take particular offence at this metaphor?
The clearest parallel I can think of is to imagine Finegold as a woman, with Livingstone accusing her persistent attempts to get a quote as "rape-by-microphone". Would his comments be less "morally accurate" if Finegold herself had been a rape victim?
If so, could Livingstone be expected to know that? Note that Finegold does not brandish his Jewish identity until after Livingstone has got well into his stride.
In fact, I think Finegold is well within his rights to find the metaphor offensive. His error, a not uncommon one, lies in assuming that the degree of offence taken must necessarily be compensated by the degree of apology offered.
In a society that believes in free speech - as many European Muslims have recently discovered - you can't legislate for good manners.
It's ironic that Ken Livingstone, who has an outstanding reputation for supporting ethnic minorities, should find himself wrong-footed in this debate.
But there is a greater irony: the reception after which the dialogue occurred was held to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Chris Smith coming out as Britain's first openly gay MP.
The Nazis imprisoned something between 5,000 and 15,000 homosexual men in concentration camps. Would Finegold have found it more acceptable to be compared to a concentration camp guard by a fellow potential inmate?
Monday 27th February 2006
Following a plea from troubled diva (in person, at The Swan last week) I have been experimenting with an RSS feed - not entirely straightforward with a hand-rolled product like Blogadoon but, hey, I guess you're worth it.
Let me know if it meets your needs or - more likely - if, and when, it fucks up.
Next up: Comments (not).
......previous week
