Merry Yule

That time of year is fast approaching! Amazing how life changes and we are settling into a new routine! As has become usual we have our friends with us for New Year but for Christmas we will be visiting our neighbours and joining in there celebration.
The decorating should be finished but hey ho we are getting into the chilling effect and not getting stressed! Well perhaps I am a little but Frank is his usual comatose but seems to get things done anyway!
So to you all a Happy Yule and All The Very Best for 2011!

Fire down below

Just in time for the winter weather drawing in the Hunter Slimline 5 is installed although we wait the delivery of a canopy to finish it off. As previously reported Richard and John did the work recreating a stone mantel, fire surround and hearth. All now conforming to modern day regulations!

Hopeful that this is the last major work we need to do for a while we are trying to get into some kind of a routine. As expected this roller-coaster has come off the rails a few times since we moved in October but once Frank has regular employment this should help. Ironically I have applied for a co-coordinators post with the 2011 census agency covering the local area. Census day, 27th March 2011, needs preparing and post census day work so the employment is from February until the end of May. The online recruitment process is interesting, so even is the job is not successful at least I've been through a new experience!

Fire!

Fear not I have no garden fires again although we are gathering a great deal of rubbish to burn! Here is the news of our local sweep and installer of our Hunter fire!

Richard has been a local volunteer fireman for 23 years but of recently has found keeping his commitment and business of chimney sweeping going has been a problem so something had to change! We are glad he chose his business! Our Hunter fire is well established now with the new hearth surround and mantelpiece that he created. Our store of logs increasing withe another couple of trees to chop, sorry prune that should give a supply for 2011!

Family just got bigger

Anne and George have increased their family stock by the addition of a beautiful Great Dane! The dog is massive and will certainly be a presence in the Robinson household. Very placid until it spied the doorstop in the shape of a cat!
I think we know our expectations and ould never take on such a huge responsibility but we know that our friends can!
Progress in the house is painfully slow with the fire still not finished although it is the plastering todo so we are using the fire. Experimentation rather than using is the name of the game! We should be sorted the beginning of next week but have begun to strip the walls so decorating is the name of the game! A neverending story I fear!
My visit to Bradford Royal Infirmary went without problems, traveling on 4 buses and the train! I hope the results prove that the journey was worthwhile

First cut is the deepest

George Osborne set out the story that he is hoping to see unfold - the deficit tamed then eliminated, welfare reformed, waste cut but spending on the NHS, schools, big transport infrastructure projects and overseas aid all protected.
Those who work in the public sector will get paid less and have to pay more for their pension - if, of course, they keep their jobs. And, since we are "all in it together", we will all have to work longer before being entitled to a state pension.
It is not the government, however, which writes the whole of this story.
The next chapter is likely to examine the consequences of unprecedented cuts in welfare spending. The headline saving - £18bn in total - is, remember, the equivalent of 18 million households losing £1,000 each. A significant number of people who now depend on housing benefit, council tax benefit, tax credits and what used to be called "sickness" benefit will receive significantly less or stop receiving benefits altogether.
Turn a page or two and we'll find out which jobs and services councils have to cut to save around a quarter of their budgets.
Keep flicking forward and we'll see how long the relief felt in schools and hospitals lasts given what is still the tightest settlement for them in many, many years.
None of this will determine how this saga ends - that will depend on whether the economy grows enough to absorb the cuts and the consequent job losses or whether it stalls, leaving people to dwell on what many will, undoubtedly, see as the unfairness of it all.
The chancellor's speech suggested a title for the work he began today - "Back from the Brink". He knows that if he's got this wrong he will be accused of pushing Britain "Over the Precipice".

Run Alan run

Towards a man I hear! Well done to Alan on his magnificent result in the Great North Run last month! Coming in at a brilliant time of 2 hrs 54 minutes and 34 seconds Alan was 35431st over the finishing line and with the many thousands taking part this was a real achievement! Now for next year - fancy company? Uncle Bill perhaps?As you see him here fondling the winner's medal alongside a friend Alan's life who looks on in envy - so perhaps more runners in 2011! Tablets Matron!

Norber erratics

The Norbic erratics were just a name until yesterday when Russ and I wandered up to them in brilliant October sunshine! I have to say for my third walk out of the village it was a challenge and showed how out of shape I am! I know I keep saying this, but we are really fortunate to have such a place to live! Now for the education bit:-
The underlying rocks are of Paleozoic age. The oldest rocks are sandstones, gritstones and slates of Ordovician and Silurian age. These formations form the rock surface in the valley. They are well exposed in Crummack Dale to the north of the village where they are strongly folded along east-west axes. The rocks are relatively impervious and restrict the flow of groundwater.

Massive limestone rock formations of Lower Carboniferous age rest above the older Ordovician and Silurian formations. The contact between them is unconformable whereby the Carboniferous limestone strata are more or less horizontal relative to the strongly folded older formations the surface of which had been eroded to form an ancient rolling landscape. The limestone formations appear as scarp slopes along the valley sides and karstic pavements in the uplands. They are well drained via joints and bedding planes, which enlarge as infiltrating precipitation slowly dissolves the limestones ultimately resulting in the formation of the caves and potholes in the surrounding area. The infiltrating precipitation collects as groundwater in the limestone formation and flows through the joints and bedding planes. The discharge of this groundwater emerges as springs locally at the contact of the limestone with the underlying relatively impervious Ordovician and Silurian rocks. One such spring at Norber was the source of water supply to the village until recently.

Limestones, sandstones, and shales of the Yoredale Series and then the Millstone Grit rest above the Lower Carboniferous “Great Scar Limestones.” These rock strata are exposed on the upper slopes and summit of Ingleborough to the north and Penyghent to the northeast.

Austwick Calling

Well at last we have left Scotland and the move to Austwick is completed! Now we have to try and fit two houses into one although we have managed to unload sell and generally redistribute our possessions!
Funny that after nearly 31 years in a place I left feeling little regret! George and Anne "removals" arrived very early after leaving the village in the early hours and it only look an hour and half to get the van back on the road again! Derek called in to disconnect the alarm system on his way to install another post burglary alarm and found himself in the midst of moving stuff! Thanks for the help! Perhaps the ploy was to get us gone quicker! The neighbours were kind with lovely cards and gifts for our new home, as it does feel exactly that!
So expecting to walk into a fantastic place only to find the new stove had not been installed owing to a personal bereavement of the sweep, rooms full of furniture and the lounge with dust covers instead of carpet! But hey ho we coped! The local neighbours rallied around and the Luton Truck was soon empty and ready for returning to the fire firm in Skipton.
Amidst the chaos there was only one thing to do! We retreated to the Game Cock Inn for an excellent dinner and libation.
Frank had three leaving parties one which I attended was really appreciative of his work over eight years and I know there was genuine regret at him leaving but happiness for us in a new phase of being!

Near that time -FMP

Closure of Fife’s only service in the voluntary sector for those infected and affected by HIV

After over twelve years of service in Fife’s LGBT communities and for men who have sex with men, the core funding from Fife NHS for the project is to end at the end of September.

Reflecting on the work Marie Macrae representing unpaid volunteers past and present said “it is sad that the project is to close but lack of core funding and increasingly diminishing resources for charities to access other routes of funds, together with changing aspect to care, treatment and support for people diagnosed with HIV, has made this decision inevitable. I would like to thank all those involved in the work of the project over the years and hope that services that operate in Fife will be mindful of the needs of our service users, their carers, friends, partners and lovers”.

Alec Deary, the service co-ordinator added “over time the Fife Men Project has not only offered support, information, condom distribution and public awareness raising opportunities but also has influenced policies in a number of directions. I remember the times when intolerance and prejudice was endemic in places where understanding and support should have been given as a right to members of Fife’s LGBT communities and those infected and affect by HIV. By working in such a climate the challenges were great but so were the enlightened individuals who worked so hard to make changes, well before legislation and policy developments in medical, social care and human rights.

In many ways the Fife Men Project was instigating change from it’s inception by the then Fife Health Promotion Department of the NHS.

While providing specifically targeted services for the LGBT community the project played a part in partnership working with Fife Constabulary, where after the research for “Homophobia Can Kill” third party reporting was established, together with training and policy development for Fife Constabulary. In more recent time the project looked at levels of suicide in the gay and bisexual communities supported by “Choose Life”.

Every year public awareness was raised for World AIDS Day with red ribbons distributed in the Kingdom with a particular focus on schools to support educational effectiveness on the issue and the red ribbon flag flown from public buildings.

In all activities the project kept to strict codes of confidentiality for workers, volunteers and service users. HIV remains to be a ever-present issue in both medical and social terms, which we hope we have given an effective lead in establishing means of addressing over our years of operation.

We would like to sincerely thank all of those people who supported us over the years of the life of the Project and know they will continue to care for and about people as life moves on.

The project ceased operation on 30th September with the loss of employment for the Administrator.

Moving on

I suspect many of you will know this already!

It’s happening!

After two years discussing, preparing and planning the move from Fife to North Yorkshire is virtually here. Frank leaves the Fife Men Project and FIRST at the end of the month and we move over that weekend although most of East March Street has been transported over the last two years.

We don’t underestimate how much of a challenge the move from Fife will be, as someone recently said, “but you are in with the woodwork and everyone knows Alec & Frank”, a little of an exaggeration but in some ways accurate!

Austwick is a beautiful place to discover and we hope that many of you will come and share our place where we have already made our mark, especially with Rod and Doogie helping at the village Street Market every May Bank Holiday! Check it out www.austwick.org

Avid bloggers will know by following www.sisterdm.blogspot.com just how much of a decision to move and leave our family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances this has been but decision made, now we must accept the consequences!

So to practical details:

 The telephone land line for Kirkcaldy has been discontinued – replaced by 01524251354. Mobile numbers for Alec (07721663421) and Frank (07909963479) remain the same and are operational.

 Alec’s email becomes even easier to remember adeary@austwick.org and his blog will continue on the address above. Frank has yet to decide to have an email address with the local community broadband but most certainly will not be blogging or anywhere near technology!

 Finally just in case you did not know our address is:

Highfield
Austwick
Near Clapham
Via Lancaster
North Yorkshire
LA2 8BD

A fond farewell to you all and hope to see you in our new home

Alec and Frank

The Workies

Near completion smiles all around although Derek somewhat on a slant! I expect it was the four return visits to Fife that did it!
So the master plan is that Frank finishes work at FIRST & Fife Men at the end of September and we will be fully moved by the weekend beginning October. This gives us chance to settle into something of a routine before Christmas and we hope another New Year celebration with close friends. We hope to that visitors will be welcome and unlike this weekend (29th August) when Rod and Doogie gave a surprise visit only to find we were in Fife we certainly will be about!

Mission Completed

Well, we hope so as the bathroom conversion has not been without trauma! At first going well that a number of mishaps and problems that tainted the project. However we are well on the way to recovery and with the big move on the horizon looking foward to settling into our new home!
Initially the work went well with local folk knowcking the toilet and bathroom into one area, then Scotia Joinery coming down from Fife to do a lot of the infrastructure on the walls and tiling, plus a wonderful piece of work creating the half all tongue and groove areas, taking the cupboard wall away and creating a new area as can be seen on the picture! The plumbing went well until the shower screen shattered and things went down hill from then. However as usual we dusted outselves down (literally) and started again! Derek's electrical work proceeded without a hitch and he was quite taken by the ceiling radio which he did have reservations about! We won't talk about broken down vans, speeding fines, chipped sink, bent pipes and claw hammer feet! Perhaps I will when I have recovered especially from the cost being over budget by some large amount!

Conversion

Well it's underway folks and the Scots invading Austwick again! That will the teach the local trades folk trying to rip off the Northern Queens!
So Derek and his mates (as in straight male friends - nothing to do with rubber outfits) strayed down last Friday with Derek electric as usual, John a team substitute (more of him later) the on Saturday the Scotia Joinery crowd Mark and Paul, who have forgotten to go back to Fife! They will most probably be working here until Friday when Derek and John are back for the final electric and plumbing work!
It's a marathon but already is looking brilliant!
Now to John - so the big boys went out to play on Saturday and John had my Dad's left Dark rum before the GCI! The doubles flowed because English measures just don't hit the right places! John switched to Glenmorangie and servived to tell the tale but onlu just! Sunday I had to go with him to Skipton for some plumbers gear and of course took the bendy hill roads just to see him go various shades of green!
Says he will never drink again! Biggest laugh is now the layed breakfast table found itself on the floor in the dining room! John came in from GCI and poured a final nightcap then duly collapsed on the dinning room table sending everything flying! Wonderful!

Demolition

Well as you can see the next phase of the conversion at Highfield has begun! Big time and wondering if the project has all its component parts together as I have been here since 30th June without transport!
ROy offered us his van while he was away so we have the furniture down from Kirkcaldy and the basics left up there! Started the bathroom and twin room (which will be a double room) shower and in the midst of it all! OMG is an understatement!

Gay Pride 2010

Hope everyone had a nice time at the Gay Pride march yesterday. It must have been quite a laugh, with Boris "What a character" Johnson. That's the same Boris who supported the anti-gay legislation Section 28, and, this year, scrapped the annual Gay Pride mayoral reception at City Hall. However, he did go to the trouble of wearing a snazzy pink stetson to the 2008 Gay Pride march.
Theresa May was previously engaged at a parade for troops in her constituency. Or maybe she was sitting in a corner, musing on how she managed to snag the equality brief with a record on LGBT rights that includes voting against the repeal of Section 28 and against gay adoption. Maybe a part of her was rather relieved not to be at the Pride march, thereby avoiding being engaged in "challenging" conversations about all that.
Coalition leaders weren't there either, sending along Nick Herbert, the openly gay policing minister, and Lynne Featherstone, May's Lib Dem equalities minister. Apparently, it is the first time a top cabinet minister has not attended a Gay Pride march in five years. But that's fine, too, because David Cameron had lots of prominent gay people around to Downing Street to mark the start of Gay Pride fortnight. Then again, is this really fine or should the gay community be feeling just a little bit patronised with this "just do the showbiz stuff and perhaps they won't notice we're not really doing much else" coalition attitude?
Only the blackest of hearts could be actively opposed to the government love-in with the gay community. I'm sure we all prefer it to what happened the last time the Conservatives were in power: votes against lowering the age of consent, many MPs terrified to admit they were gay, and Section 28, which barred schools from acknowledging homosexuality.
So we all agree the love-in is better. However, has the coalition actually earned it? Here are some of the issues the coalition has talked about so far: men with convictions for sex with someone over the age of 16 having their criminal records expunged; transgender equality; homophobic bullying in schools; pushes to get other nations to support gay civil rights. Impressive stuff, unless it turns out to be a lot of hot air, not to mention a shameless degree of goal hanging.
Indeed, whatever the coalition sets out to achieve, the fact remains that Labour already did most of the heavy lifting. The coalition is currently benefiting from a situation where all the really controversial legislation has been pushed through.
With the Tory climate being what it was, does anyone truly believe that, had they remained in power, they would have spent the last 13 years, among other things, repealing Section 28, introducing civil partnerships, legalising gay adoption, lifting the ban on homosexuality in the armed forces or reducing the age of consent?
This is now all hypothetical. Indeed, Labour achieved so much that all the coalition has to do now is embellish existing legislation and try not to mess it up. Talk about easy street.
Maybe this is what those prominent gay sorts should have been musing on as they partook of tea and biscuits at No 10. Forward thinking and letting go of a tainted past is all very well. However, perhaps they could be just a little more appreciative of what Labour achieved, maybe, considering Tory history, a bit less in a craven rush to have their tummies tickled by Cameron.
Currently, the gay community is the Gallaghers to Cameron's Blair – a convenient tool to make him and his colleagues look "with it". Once the honeymoon is over, and the pink stetsons have disappeared, it will be interesting to see whether the coalition ends up with an LGBT record to match Labour's.

Street Market

Having gone to Austwick on May 6th after of course voting in the general election, events took a hand in me being there until 6th June with Frank travelling by train on 26th May! However we geared up for the annual street market for which we made £242.85 less than the previous year but we found people were reluctant to spend! We recycled some of the bedroom furniture so now have the campest garage possible with rather a lot of draw spaces!
Rod and Doogie joined us for the Bank Holiday weekend (the English one that is) and were a great support again, treating us to lovely times in the GCI and night lanterns as you can see!
The next big project is underway with George and Anne laying garden paths and doing various outside jobs for us - they have been a wonderful asset too! The very big job which I am looking forward to with dread is the bathroom conversion! Watch this space!

Antony Grey - trail gay right blazer

Gay rights activist and author Antony Grey has died aged 82.Born Anthony Edgar Gartside Wright, had been ill for several years with leukaemia and died at King Edward VII Hospital in London on Friday April 30th.
As secretary of the Homosexual Law Reform Society in the 1960s, he was one of the founding fathers of the gay law reform struggle in Britain. Although a true pioneer, he sadly remains a largely unsung hero of the movement for LGBT equality.
More than 20 years before Stonewall and OutRage!, he was spearheading the campaign to end the criminalisation of homosexuality, which remained totally illegal and punishable by life imprisonment until 1967.
Antony was a superbly professional organiser who successfully won over and marshalled together sufficient MPs and Lords to secure gay law reform.While MPs like Leo Abse got the publicity and credit for decriminalisation, it was Antony's astute, meticulous behind-the-scenes lobbying that was the key to securing the passage of the ground-breaking 1967 Sexual offences Act. His crucial role was never properly acknowledged or recognised.
Antony was immensely frustrated by the way the MPs and Lords sponsoring the decriminalisation Bill watered down his draft legislation, resulting in the passage of a liberalisation law that was not nearly as liberal and progressive as he had wanted and proposed.
Undeterred, he continued lobbying for further gay law reform for a further two decades, mostly through the Homosexual Law Reform Society and its successor, the Sexual Law Reform Society.
When he first attended Gay Liberation Front meetings in the early 1970s he was often treated quite shabbily. I was involved in GLF and remember some radical firebrands unfairly branding him as an "Uncle Tom". In fact, he was much more radical than his critics claimed. He was a supportive of GLF and later of OutRage! I don't believe in the honours system but it is absolutely outrageous and despicable that he was never offered even an OBE, let alone the knighthood that his work for homosexual equality merited.
Successive Labour and Conservative governments deserve severe condemnation for failing to honour this truly great social reformer. I salute Antony Grey and his trail-blazing contribution to LGBT equality and human rights. We all walk in his shadow.

Decision time

It seems to me that any member of our LGBT communities that could consider voting for a movement that oppresses us, historically and presently, must have a destuctive streak! Gordons terrible blunder in Rochdale certainly was destructive and he know's that. But last nights debate felt like the debate the country had been waiting for - when the choices facing voters came to life. The prime minister pleaded with the country not to entrust government with his rivals, warning about the effect of Tory plans to cut spending now and about what he called the immorality of their proposals to cut inheritance tax while limiting tax credits.

David Cameron simply refused to engage with Mr Brown, scarcely glancing in his direction and dismissing his attacks as desperate stuff from a dseperate man. He attacked Labour's record but turned his real fire on Nick Clegg - on his party's policies on immigration, the euro and welfare reform.

It was, perhaps, the greatest of all compliments to the Liberal Democrat leader, who once again tried to tap into public frustration with the performance of both big parties. The polls called this debate for Mr Cameron. He has a week to do the one thing that has eluded him these past four years - in his own phrase, to "seal the deal". However battles can still be fought, mistakes made and the struggle won!

Holiday time

Well not for some Marie, our Matron of Dishonour was supposed to be in Cyprus for a family holiday that had previously become unstuck with the demise of Globspan! So no holiday but a break away to join me in Austwick! I figured if Marie has lingered in Dunfermline sooner rather than later she would have ended in the constituancy office working hard for the Labour cause!
Yesterday after a visit to Settle for the Tuesday Market we sent to Colne and guess where? As you can see it was not a wasted journey! We are now proud owners of a new fairy, one which resides at the family plot, thanks to Marie!

Mad Granny in the attic

The Gay Liberation Front is the mad granny in the attic to every major LGBT activist development since the 1970s in the UK. Without her blood, few of our current venerable organisations would exist. We don't talk about her much, a lot of her descendants feel vaguely embarrassed by her, but there are some bloody good stories to tell of her mad youth and she has a lot of children to feel proud of.

GLF was born in New York on June 27th 1969 and brought to London the following October by Bob Mellors and Aubrey Walters. It wasn't the first gay organisation in Britain. Others, such as the Homosexual Law Reform Society, had achieved partial decriminalisation for gay men and Arena 3 discreetly supported gay women. But the Gay Liberation Front wasn't, like them, reformist. GLF was revolutionary, part of the late 60s flowering of the counter-culture, full of students, hippies, artists and activists. It was born of a riot against a police raid on a bar, the Stonewall Inn. In London, its weekly meetings were the riot, the place to be for anyone lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender who wanted to change the world and change their lives. GLF organised the first and the best gay demonstrations; they invented gay nuns, Gay Days, gay communes; they made demands instead of requests; and they improvised the first London Gay Pride, marching along Oxford Street in radical drag with the police running after them in confusion.

GLF signalled the start of the end of shame for being gay. People from GLF went on to found the first gay newspaper, Gay Times. Pride descends in a direct line, of course. It may hold fancy high-ticket receptions in the Paramount these days for the New Tories, but Pride was born out of anarchy and anger and, well, pride.

GLF were the first to understand the central importance of schools sex education, to demand the right to show affection in public and to claim equality before the law. But the most important thing about GLF was that equality wasn't enough. Their aim was not to imitate anyone else's lifestyle, but to discover their own. In a 21st Century of civil partnerships, gays in the government and Equality as an industry, GLF still has relevant questions to ask. "Equal? Equal to what?"

There are two things that money can't buy in the Pink Pound consumerism of the 21st Century; ideals and self-respect. GLF had both in spades, and modern LGBT people, immersed in reformism and respectability, have much that we could learn from its wild, brief flowering forty years ago. This year, we celebrate our mad granny, who bequeathed us so much. It's a heritage worth exploring and the GLF Manifesto demands still remain relevant.

Ro's open letter

Father Ross K Bell
Tinkerbell Towers
5/4 Colonsay Close
Edinburgh
EH5 1BT

Dear Sir

I grew up in Fife struggling with my sexuality because there were so few support services or positive messages for me as a young gay man. It was in the age of Thatcher and her hate ridden policies, such as Section 28 of the Local Gov’t Act.

Therefore, as a gay man I am horrified when I hear young, and not so young, Lesbian, Gay Bisexual Transgendered and Queer folks suggest they may vote Tory.

Only the Labour party has a major commitment to supporting LGBTQ Communities and a proven track record of UK wide delivery. This gives a message of hope to young people who are growing up gay in the more isolated areas of Scotland.

Labour came to power in 1997 promising to change the law and change attitudes to towards the LGBTQ communitIES. Outdated prejudice for too long held back gay couples from enjoying the same rights as their straight counterparts and prejudice and misinformation made life hard for young people understanding their own sexuality and that of their friends.

The Government has made tackling bullying in schools a key priority, including homophobic bullying. They abolished “section 28” which inhibited teachers explaining homosexuality and protecting children from homophobic bullying. “The Safe to learn” package of guidance also includes specialist advice on cyberbullying, homophobic bullying and bullying involving children with special educational needs and disabilities and it makes clear to schools their duty to have strong anti-bullying policies and what tools the law gives them to deliver on this. Schools are required to have a clear and firm policy on tackling bullying – which includes homophobic and other bullying. This guidance was extended to cover preventing and responding to sexist, sexual and transphobic bullying.

In 2001, the national strategy for sexual health and HIV was a major milestone which placed sexual health and HIV firmly on the national agenda and set out an ambitious 10-year programme to tackle sexual ill-health and modernise sexual health services in England, we in Scotland need to follow.

The Labour Gov't have developed new ways of delivering cross cutting advise and support on sexual health including bringing social workers, youth workers, and others together to help provide advice and support.

The Equality Bill makes strides towards a life fairer for lesbian, gay, bisexual,transgendered and queer people by putting a new duty on public bodies which will mean public bodies need to think about the needs of everyone who uses their services or works for them. For example, a residential care home would have to consider the needs of same sex couples. It is to the Churches' and other faith communities' shame that they sidestepped being covered by this legislation.

The Labour record speaks for itself:

Introduced civil partnerships in 2004 which has to date benefited nearly 35,000 same sex couples;

Brought in a consistent age of consent (16) for both Lesbian, Gay and bisexual people and for heterosexual people.

Repealed Clause 28 of the Local Government Act 1988.

Lifted the ban on lesbians and gay men serving in the armed forces;

Outlawed discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in the workplace in 2003 and banned discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in goods, facilities, services and public functions in 2007;

Created a new offence making it unlawful to stir up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation through the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008.

Strengthened the law to protect transsexual people from discrimination The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 which made it easier for lesbian couples to access IVF and ensure that same sex couples can be both recognised as the legal parents of their children in the same way as heterosexual people.

The Tory Leader has not condemned the homophobia of Shadow Cabinet member Chris Grayling and has been less than vocal of his support of our LGBTQ communities. Even the founder of the LGBTory group, Anastasia Beaumont-Bott, has announced she cannot support the hypocrisy of the Tories and has stated she will be voting Labour.

All other members of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered and Queer communities should be following her example.

yours aye

Fr Ross K Bell

Alan King Hamilton

It is generally accepted, if an unwritten rule, that those on the bench in a court of law are to keep personal opinions to themselves. They exist purely to preside over proceedings and ensure that any trial does not descend into farce. Alan King-
Hamilton was famous for taking a somewhat different approach to his role as an Old Bailey judge. It was not uncommon for him to offer his point of view at the culmination of a trial, or even to temporarily halt proceedings to announce the score line of the current Test match. He will be remembered not only for his solid, succinct style, but also for his more maverick tendencies.
King Hamilton was the judge on some of the biggest and most famous cases at the Old Bailey in the 1960s and 70s. He also created some of the Old Bailey's most memorable moments.

In addition to frequently stopping mid-trial to talk cricket scores, in 1970 he halted a defence lawyer in his tracks by informing him that his client should have pleaded guilty. Actions that were later described in the court of appeal as "wholly improper". He also sent flowers to a female juror, and advised the jury of a five-month long trial to "get flu jabs".

He was a renowned moralist who had a tendency to impose sentences that others would consider to be somewhat harsh. In the 1976 Bank of America safe-break case, he ruled that the defendant serve 23 years behind bars to ensure that he would never benefit from his crime.

In the case of Emil Savundra fraud trial in 1968, King-Hamilton decreed an eight-year prison term but followed this up in his memoirs by describing Savundra thus: "What a man. How could one not admire his spirit?" He named him alongside Cleopatra in his perfect dinner party guest list.

In 1973, while presiding over the Janie Jones case, King-Hamilton, in no way adverse to a theatrical turn of phrase, described the defendant as "the most evil woman he had ever met", although Jones recalls his words slightly differently claiming he actually said "of all the women I've ever tried, you are the most evil. I thought one woman was really evil, but you leave that woman in the shade."

He handed her a seven-year sentence for procuring women in to prostitution, blackmail and perverting the course of justice. The length of her sentence was based partially on her crimes and partially because King-Hamilton had taken exception to her apparently flawed moral values.

Possibly his most high-profile case came in the Gay News trial. Denis Lemon, the editor, had published a poem, The Love that Dares to Speak its Name , on 3 June, 1976. The poem is the description of a Roman centurion having sex with Jesus post-crucifixion, while making claims that Jesus was more than a little promiscuous.Mary Whitehouse took the issue to court and the result was a £1,000 fine for Gay News and a £500 fine and two-year suspended sentence for its editor. King-Hamilton described his decision on whether or not to send Lemon to gaol as "touch and go".

In his final case at the Old Bailey in 1979, King-Hamilton signed off in typical style. The case had ended and the jury had reached its decision and acquitted four alleged anarchists. The charges of conspiracy to rob and various firearms offences had been quashed and King-Hamilton was, for want of a better word, furious. Fourteen arduous weeks had passed with not a single conviction, which led the outspoken judge to state that he felt the jury had been "remarkably merciful in the face of the evidence" followed by "I hope to God none of you will ever have occasion to regret it".

In his time as an Old Bailey judge, King-Hamilton divided opinion and sparked controversy. He also built a reputation as an eccentric, witty and entertaining member of the bench. He was a fan of corporal punishment, a staunch advocate of using stocks and public humiliation as methods of rehabilitation and firmly believed that the reintroduction of National Service would be the best way to steer youths away from criminal activity.

Alan King-Hamilton died on 23 March , 2010, aged 105. His wife Rosalind died in 1991 and he is survived by their two daughters. British justice it would seem is better off without the Alan King Hamilton's of the world!

Tories discriminate

In spite of legislative change the Tories don't seemed to understand just how much society has changed!
The comments, made by Chris Grayling last week to a leading centre-right thinktank, drew an angry response from gay groups and other parties, which said they were evidence that senior figures in David Cameron's party still tolerate prejudice.
In a recording of the meeting of the Centre for Policy Studies, obtained by the Observer, Grayling makes clear he has always believed that those who run B&Bs should be free to turn away guests.

"I think we need to allow people to have their own consciences," he said. "I personally always took the view that, if you look at the case of should a Christian hotel owner have the right to exclude a gay couple from a hotel, I took the view that if it's a question of somebody who's doing a B&B in their own home, that individual should have the right to decide who does and who doesn't come into their own home."

He draws a distinction, however, with hotels, which he says should admit gay couples. "If they are running a hotel on the high street, I really don't think that it is right in this day and age that a gay couple should walk into a hotel and be turned away because they are a gay couple, and I think that is where the dividing line comes."

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the gay rights group Stonewall, said the comments would be "very alarming to a lot of gay people who may have been thinking of voting Conservative".

He added: "The legal position is perfectly clear. If you are going to offer the public a commercial service – and B&Bs are a commercial service – then people cannot be refused that service on the grounds of sexuality. No one is obliged to run a B&B, but people who do so have to obey the law. "I don't think anyone, including the Tories, wants to go back to the days where there is a sign outside saying: 'No gays, no blacks, no Irish.'"

Labour said that Grayling's comments ran contrary to the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007, which state that no one should be refused goods or services on the grounds of their sexuality.

Grayling voted in favour of the regulations, which apply to the provision of "accommodation in a hotel, boarding house or similar establishment".

Last month, a Christian B&B owner in Cookham, Berkshire, was reported to the police for refusing to take in a gay couple as guests. Susanne Wilkinson said she had expected a man and woman, but when two men turned up she did not feel she could accommodate them because to do so was "against her convictions". The couple said they were considering suing, not for money, but "for a principle".

Chris Bryant, the Europe minister, who last weekend became the first gay MP to be married in the Commons, said from his honeymoon in Edinburgh: "Anybody who thinks that the Tory party has changed should think what it would be like to have Chris Grayling as home secretary. It is impossible to draw a distinction between bed and breakfasts and hotels. It is very clear that very senior Tories have not realised that the world has moved on."

We love Swan!

Back in Fife after a whirl-wind visit to Newcastle, Austwick and then back to Newcastle! So many highlights, seeing our friends and their family, neighbours and of course eating and drinking! However a major highlight has to be last Saturday evening at the Theatre Royal with Alan's brave stage door antics resulting in our programme from Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake being signed by the lead dancers!
So what of the event? Here is a totally bias review!
It’s hard to believe that it is 15 years since Matthew Bourne’s imaginative reworking of Swan Lake was first performed. Rightly hailed as a modern dance classic it has the rare combination of both longevity and freshness that keeps audiences coming back time and again. Our first viewing of the performance at Newcastle still has packed houses standing in appreciation and awe at the end a great welcome as mentioned to me by the cast socialising in the Adephi Bar after the show!

Even if you’ve never seen the show, you’ve probably seen the iconic male swans, with their muscular bare chests and rough feathered breeches. It’s the role you see the grown up Billy Elliot performing on stage at the end of the film. The flock of domineering male swans rather than the traditional female swan maidens is the twist for which it is most famous. But it is by no means the only quirk to this inventive show, which moves effortlessly from laugh out loud funny to heart-breaking tenderness.Keeping to Tchaikovsky's score, it opens with a sleeping prince, dwarfed in his super-king sized bed within the dramatic castle walls of Lez Brotherston’s surreal fairytale-like set. As he dreams we catch a glimpse of Jonathan Ollivier's powerful swan beyond the window – an image which is instantly striking and mysterious. Back in the waking world, the Prince (a passionate Dominic North), is stifled in tradition and repetition. He accompanies his mother (played with elegant coldness by Nina Goldman), on royal visits, waves dutifully to the crowds, while longing for affection that never comes. Much to the Queen’s distaste he is snared by a social climbing girlfriend, Madelaine Brennan, whose comic timing makes the character’s lack of etiquette a delight to watch. The result is both irreverent and hilarious, with the scene in the royal box at the ballet worth the ticket price alone. Rapped in such a world it is no wonder the Prince is despairing, but just as he can take no more the swans appear, their wild gracefulness offering a taste of freedom. It’s dramatic, funny, sexy, irreverent and, after 15 years, still bursting with energy. Also have to say the experience makes the DVD pale!
Then off to Austwick with Bill and Barrie enthused with the night before and into the Game Cock for Sunday Lunch. Monday in recovery and at Skipton Market with Tuesday a visit to Yew Tree Barn and Windermere for more shopping! Back on Wednesday to Newcastle so Barrie could have a good hair day on Thursday! Excellent Indian meal again and then back to Fife yesterday! But loving the Swan was a real memory of a genuine gay love story - shame they died but wow how they went!

Dear Departed

Such a sad week with Alan's funeral on Wednesday, son of a neighbour, also of our neighbour in Austwick Olive who died on Friday. I am waiting to hear about the funeral arrangements and hope to be able to get down, car repairs allowing. So in the meantime some thoughts:

Ready or not, someday it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours, or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to
someone else.
Your wealth, fame, and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally
disappear.
So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won't matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you
lived, at the end.
It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant
Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you
got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice
that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a
lasting loss when you're gone.
What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those
who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.
Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident. It's not a matter of
circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.

Family Visit

So talking of family visits Lillian was down in Austwick with us and my she can talk for Scotland! Did the usual rounds but got to Yew Tree Barn at Low Newton in the Lakes to have my family wedding rings made into something I can wear at Silver Forge! Also a visit to the Bingo! Twice - Morecambe and Keighley then of course Harry Ramsdens at Guisely! Thursday we went for the steak meal at - you guessed it - Game Cock Inn! Here's Lillian looking a little shocked in the cafe at the Yew Tree Barn!
So on Sunday arrived back safe but as the radiator on the car had gone we were lucky to make the journey!

New Erection

With a the family visit over, Frank, his sister Lillian we are back in Fife and may be putting back the move until September because of discussions with Fife NHS and the project! However we has a great dew days and although out and about were there when the new chimney had to be erected! Initial thoughts of "pointing" needing done but not to be!

Remember Jennifer's ear?

A long long time ago in the run-up to the election of 1992 the Westminster village worked itself up into a frenzy and even gave a name to it - "the war of Jennifer's ear". I sense that Labour are trying to recreate something similar in the row about Gordon Brown's alleged bullying which, inevitably, some are already dubbing "bullygate".

Way back then a Labour Party election broadcast which was based on the case of two little girls who had treatment for glue ear - one privately, one in the NHS. For three days, the election campaign was dominated by charge and counter-charge about whether the cases were genuine and about how the identity of one of the girls was leaked to the media. At the time Labour thought the row was good for them. Later many in the party concluded it had been at best a distraction and at worst highly damaging as people focused on how the party had behaved and not on the issue of the NHS that might have moved votes.

So it is that Peter Mandelson - who you may recall was rather heavily involved in that 1992 campaign - is now claiming that there is a "political operation" to undermine the prime minister. He has yet to say what he means by that or to provide any proof of it. There are private nudges and winks that Christine Pratt who runs the National Bullying Helpline is a Conservative supporter. She denies any involvement with the party, although Ann Widdecombe and a Tory councillor are among the patrons of her charity and that charity has been endorsed by David Cameron.

Separately there are questions - whether she has risked breaching the confidentiality of those who call her helpline. Today one of her patrons resigned in protest at her actions. There are also questions about whether she uses her charity to channel business to her and her husband's company.

Finally, under enormous pressure, she has been unclear about the details of the complaints her helpline received. All interesting and well worth pursuing - which we are. All, however, distracts from the central issue of Gordon Brown's behaviour.

This morning the prime minister's official spokesman repeatedly failed to deny the claim in Andrew Rawnsley's book that the Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell had spoken to Gordon Brown about his treatment of staff, instead simply stating that:

"The role of the Cabinet Secretary is to ensure the Civil Service supports the Prime Minister to the best effect and that the Prime Minister is getting the best out of the Civil Service". He continues to insist that this conversation did not amount to a "verbal warning".

Is Lord Mandelson suggesting that the "political operation" he claims exists involves not just Andrew Rawnsley, the Labour Party and civil service sources he quotes extensively and the Observer which serialised his book but also the National Bullying Helpline, the BBC, ITV and Sky which ran her claims last night and, presumably, the Conservative Party as well?

Sadly I reflect that this general election campaign (for the election of the UK government - just in case SNP supporter's forget) is going to be the most brutal and dirty of such activities! I hope I am wrong!

February 09 Already!

Snow has fallen snow on snow - so I was in Austwick most of January watching the temperatures decline to minus 18c! We hope the worst is over but we night just be a little optimistic!
However back in Fife and getting our act together to close down the project, sort out the home and transfer to Austwick sometime in April, we hope when the weather in Spring like rather than Siberia! The village looked very seasonal but I suspect most folk were fed up on the weather when I took this picture! At least I was able to get some jobs completed including the saga of the kitchen with walls plastered and first coat of paint applied before I headed back North!
We will be going down mid February and take Frank's sister Lillian with us, so hope to have a review from her in terms of our impending move! While we are down for a week I am giving a talk to the local fellowship group on concepts of working with loss and attachment, the fundamentals of social work practice, so keeping my presentation skills going!
As I have said a trying time getting over health issues and fully recovered plus coming to terms with the reality of the move!MAJAK meeting today so I hope that is taking shape in terms of getting some work in for us all!