21 June - 17 July 2002
A string of rip-roaring stories exposing more sinister sides of the Church in Scotland left Scotland on Sunday's opposition limply lining the trays of cat litters. The latest was Stephen Fraser's exposure of the Catholic Church blitzing the Scottish Executive with e-mails defending Catholic schools. It looked to me like a deliberate attempt to skew a consultation exercise on the future of education in Scotland. Now forgive me if I'm wrong, but who was it who accused the gay community of 'hijacking' the consultation process prior to the repeal of Clause 28 in Scotland when we had the opportunity to put our case to the Executive? Editorials from the Daily Record labelled us an "international gay network", Keep the Clause accused us of destroying the democratic process and who was it that called us "disgraceful" again? Why, the homophobic leader of the Scottish Catholics, the late Cardinal Winning!
Scotland on Sunday's standards seriously slipped after a feeble front-page story from Kizzy Taylor that bore all the hallmarks of religious propaganda; riddled with lies and distortion over a book by Paul Magrs that might've taken its place beside similar books on heterosexual first love; Strange Boy. Although this story of a 10-year-old's sexual discovery was written for youngsters, socially conservative adults outnumbered its intended readership by about ten to one! Librarians, wanting to "take advantage" of the abolition of Clause 28 in Scotland were apparently "urged" to stock the book! A letter to Scotland on Sunday from Tim Owen, a spokesman for the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals put them right. Despite the way the paper had tried to twist the story, Owen claimed to have already made it clear it was entirely a matter for individual schools whether or not the book was stocked. And, since the Institute did not recommend books to librarians, nobody was duped, peddled, pushed or otherwise "urged"! Owen had also made it clear, far from placing the book at the top of librarians' list of new additions, trained librarians would only take a decision to stock the book after consulting teaching staff in their schools. This was conveniently edited out of the story. What possible "advantage" could anyone take of the abolition of Clause 28 anyway? Judicial opinion has already established it's unenforceable in law. The only thing to overcome would be the prejudices of librarians themselves, and given the amount of books dedicated to sexual issues of any kind in Scottish libraries, it's this, not Clause 28, that remains the obstacle. Well done, then, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals for challenging those dangerous prejudices. Lorna Martin in The Herald hopped up and down, insisting the move was "certain to reignite the debate over Section 28". In your dreams, sweetheart! With Cardinal Winning six-foot under and a new editor at the Daily Record with his feet in this century, I doubt it! Religionists and social conservatives were lining up in Scotland on Sunday's article to declare the book "almost pornographic". At the same time it was, of course, apparently "championed" by "gay rights activists". Tino Ferri, of the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers, mumbled something about "this kind of nonsense"; evoking a tired cliché from the Thatcher era to describe the book's inclusion as "political correctness gone mad". Mr Ferri's number is a handy one to keep if when you're compiling a string of sexually negative quotes. On the subject of questioning pupils on their sexual habits he once registered his disapproval by suggesting sexual matters had no place in schools at all. Described in Scotland on Sunday as an "educational charity", the well-funded organisation of militant religionists, the Christian Institute, reminded everyone "it is possible for a 14-year-old boy to abuse a 10-year-old". (Like Biggles encouraged children to break into airports and fly planes, I suppose)! The report went on to suggest 87% of the Scottish public voted in a "private referendum" to keep Clause 28, which, it was wrongly assumed, would have prevented such books finding their way into schools. Let me remind you - before these religionists rewrite history completely - this glorified opinion poll, funded by a religious militant to the tune of around half a million quid, used old electoral records that prevented many people, including many young people from registering a vote at all. Only around 30% of Scots voted. Organisers received over 11,000 empty envelopes and the same number in spoilt votes. Thousands just tore it up or threw it away. A staggering 70% of Scotland gave this tawdry group a mighty thumbs down. Come election time, and the only Party to support Clause 28's retention, the Tories, won just one seat.
Avoiding any mention of the risks normally attached to heterosexual sex, including, of course HIV, one of the letters sent to Scotland on Sunday in support of their article referred to the "homosexual lobby" and our avoidance of any mention of "the real, inherent risk of homosexual behaviour... I doubt that the 14-year-old in Strange Boy gives the 10-year-old HIV. And if he did, I can assure you your homosexual lobby would want the book banned". Y'r arse! A cursory glance through book catalogues of gay-owned companies will reveal a number of intelligent and well-written books on the subject of HIV and AIDS. Meanwhile the deeply unpopular editor-in-chief of Scotsman Publications, Andrew Neil, faced an overwhelming vote of no confidence after recent staff cuts. He should just do the decent thing and go.
I rushed to the Scottish Daily Mail to see what fuel they were using to burn the book and found that harridan, Linda Watson-Brown faking an orgasm of tolerance in her column headed: Wretched Book Robs Children of their Childhoods. "As a liberal, and as a parent, I am not concerned with the idea that homosexuality is being portrayed as 'normal'... I speak as someone who supported the repeal of Section 28... I do not believe homosexuality can be 'promoted' and, similarly, I do not believe children can be 'turned' gay by reading one book..." Such liberal credentials were swiftly swept aside. She was, in fact, "horrified" by the book, Strange Boy. "The language used is pornographic; it reminded me of some of the vile material used to numb children to accept sexual abuse", insisted the zealous anti-porn campaigner who read, not a youngsters sexual awakening, but "a paedophile's dream". Her opinion was couched in mantelpiece Victoriana. The boy's sexuality was described as "precious", to be challenged only when children "choose otherwise". Well, at 10-years-old, the boy had chosen! With the second highest pregnancy rate in the civilised world, can Scotland afford such complacency in tackling sexuality? Insisting that this was not about "the return of Victorian values", Linda Watson-Brown's egalitarian claims and regular appearance in the Scottish Daily Mail jarred somewhat. Her opinions echoed those surrounding the historic formation of the National Vigilance Association, a hotchpotch of religionists and feminists, whose quest to purify the world of 'vice' was integrated with their quest for equality for women. They ended up successfully achieving the raising of the age of consent to 16 and with the Labouchere Amendment, criminalized homosexuality in 1885. Watson-Brown has only read this book through the jaundiced eyes of her own experiences. She is attracted to examples of abuse, directly or indirectly as a result of pornography, like a moth to a flame. In other words, she uses porn! One of the very first gay books I ever read was a translation of Eric Jourdan's, Les Mauvais Anges. Enchanted by the story of Gerard and Pierre, tumbling about in the long grass on the banks of the Loire at Amboise, it left a deep impression on me. Trying to re-capture those delicate memories so many years later, I re-read the book, only to discover it was, in fact, the story of two 15-year-olds, one of whom commits suicide after killing his boy-lover during sado-masochistic sex! Like trying to re-ignite the sexual frisson ignited by art books full of naked bodies in the school library, it didn't work. I had grown up. I now see things differently. Let's leave young readers to form their own opinions, eh, Linda? After all, it's their imagination, not yours! Trust me, few will ever see the vile and abusive pornography you find.
The Scottish media has, in the past, been guilty of promoting only one side of sexual debates. Liberal columnists either looked the other way or were not prepared to formulate a critical response to the majority of column inches devoted to conservative/religionist opinions on sexual issues. But, with now over 500 hits a day to the Scottish Media Monitor website, perhaps there is room for an extension to the sexual debate and no longer any excuse for the Scottish media to sit on their fat arses, blindly reproducing press releases from religionists. The latest fix from the Scottish Daily Mail, who "pointed out forcibly" a misleading headline on its front page, was: "GIRLS TO GET THE MORNING AFTER PILL AT SCHOOL". Far from being a 'morning-after' pill, emergency contraception can be taken up to 72 hours after contraception failure or unprotected sexual intercourse. Not till the religionists had had their say did two broadsheet columnists come up with any response. But whom did we get? Anna Raeburn? Peter Tatchell? Camilla Paglia? Germaine Greer? Nope! We got Joyce McMillan, an erstwhile theatre reviewer in The Scotsman and Melanie Reid, a book reviewer for The Herald when they banned a review of my Scottish sexual polemic, Sexual Fascism! Give them their due; it was all good stuff. Joyce McMillan in The Scotsman wrote: "Across the broadsheet press, anti-abortion campaigners won copious coverage for their view that the new policy would simply make abortion 'too easy', and result in increased carelessness about contraception and casual sex, with horrific consequences for public morality and health. Behind all this anger and scaremongering, of course, there lurks the authoritarian and deeply patronising view that there are those - the young, the lower orders, perhaps women in general - who are incapable of real moral sentiments, and therefore have to be bullied by their betters into doing the 'right' thing". In The Herald, Melanie Reid wrote: "But who cares about the health of women, and especially their mental health? In the headlines that greeted the 'easier abortions' story we can detect a deeper truth. Condemning abortion as easy just shows how utterly out of touch pro-lifers are with real women's feelings. Humane and well-meaning as many of them are, they express sentiments grossly insensitive to any woman unlucky enough to be carrying an unwanted child". Graham Grant's 'report' in the Scottish Daily Mail was a rant on a consultation exercise on proposals for allowing school nurses to prescribe an emergency contraception pill to pupils without parental consent. (Oh, Lord, hold the front page)! The story was given The Treatment. While women dealt with the pain, the men did most of the screaming. The usual invites went out. The Catholic Church was there. Peter Kearney swapped the communal wine for Buckfast and shrieked: "We are creating a generation of young people effectively addicted to chemicals. What we are saying to them is, 'Don't worry about your behaviour - even if you do have unprotected sex, just come into school the next day and pop a pill'. Parents will be mortified it is even being suggested". Families are always the prescribed battleground for such moral debates. Family and Youth Concern predictably entered the arena adding nothing to the debate by suggesting: "These plans are giving pupils a licence to engage in sexual activity". And Christian Action Research and Education, (CARE), a militant religious organisation that have infiltrated the Scottish Executive to the highest ranks, added: "It undermines the family and is a huge backward step". In the face of one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in Europe, the Mail craftily suggested that Scottish health boards wanted ministers to relax rules on dispensing emergency contraception pills "because other methods, such as additional sex education in schools, seem to be failing". The Mail could never bring itself to recognise that it is lack of a full and proper sex education that has failed, not too much of it! The Sun propagated the same myth after it was announced pupils in England and Wales would have school clinics dealing with a wide range of subjects kids felt too embarrassed to talk about at home. "Has anyone considered that our liberal attitudes are the cause?" it's editorial asked. The Sun's Richard Littlejohn wrote of a languorous "wall-to-wall sex education" insisting: "Sex lectures are in your face 24/7". Are they? One of The Herald's religious columnists, Ron Ferguson asked: "Condoms given out at school - or strewn casually around the living-room like a Turner prize-winning scene - send out a pretty clear message: 'Have sex. It will be okay if you use one of these'." No it doesn't. Like keeping Milk of Magnesia doesn't tell you its OK to pig out. It says: Use these or suffer the consequences! Nuala Scarisbrick, trustee of the pro-life charity Life told the Daily Telegraph: "We have had 30 years of value-free, contraceptive-rich sex education in our schools and ours is still the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Europe". And the lower rates of teenage pregnancy achieved by more progressive sex education programmes abroad? Family Values campaigners should get out more. The Daily Telegraph editorial had exactly the answer: "Instead of spending their few free hours cooped up inside, learning to fit condoms on bananas, children should be bustled outside to play and get dirty. The way forward is dirty hands, clean minds". 'Fatima' Katie Grant, used her regular platform in The Scotsman to rustle up some Parent Power: "If you are a parent, do you consider yourself to be the main guardian of your child's physical and mental health?" Mrs Grant's sinister language would've enraged any decent parent whose daughter might've turned privately to a trained nurse for help. She warned coldly: "It will be their secret". Her insistence that pills would be given out like sweets and children risked their lives by taking them was just the sort of irresponsible rubbish I expected would gush from her sanctimonious pen. The rights of the child - enshrined in law - providing them with access to sexual health services were brushed aside. Colette Douglas Home in the Scottish Daily Mail insisted: "Parents are concerned and supportive, not punitive". With today's teenagers twice as likely to contract a sexually transmitted infection than their parents, I can't say I'm impressed. Actually, school clinics in England and Wales - where pilot projects had proved very successful - were only able to give out emergency contraception pills, condoms and regular contraceptive pills if parents, governors and teachers agreed for them to do so. Despite so many studies in Britain and Europe proving that giving youngsters access to more sex education did not make them experiment more was also ignored as Life waved in the air some research by economist Dr David Paton of Nottingham University who insisted that giving under-age girls access to the pill appeared to increase conceptions. There was a good deal of breast-beating from the Scottish Daily Mail when First Minister Jack McConnell proved himself, once again, either too weak or unwilling to stand up to militant religionists and backed down. The Mail found a "source close to the First Minister" that told them: "Jack believes these schemes are stupid and irresponsible". His health minister, Cathy Jamieson, backed him. The Mail's editorial crowed: "He has listened to the concerns of parents, churches and family groups..." The Scottish Parliament was also praised by the Mail's editorial for being seen "to listen to the real voice of the people of Scotland, rather than to politically-correct pressure groups". Scottish editor Tim Jotischky wouldn't know who the real people of Scotland were if they collectively sat on his face! Only three Scottish health boards had even considered going along with the plan anyway, despite more liberal policies south of the border. Never mind, Scottish girls will still be able to obtain emergency contraception pills over the counter in pharmacies. If Boots is busy, Superdrug has promised to employ qualified counsellors in its stores. Just when I thought the Mail would send in another under-age stooge to 'expose' the scheme, along came Annie McGuire in The Herald announcing: "Morning after pill to be sold at T in The Park". Despite the uproar from religionists, the organisers of the music festival had not authorised the sale of the pill at portable pharmacies there. In the end, despite the doubling in 10 years of Scotland's alcohol deaths, the Scottish Sun celebrated the pulling of an average of 627 pints of alcohol a minute as "more than 100,000 music lovers sizzled - and got sozzled - in the T in The Park sun". It was pointed out that there were "10,000 free condoms eagerly snapped up by sex-mad fans". Quite apart from the obvious fact these were mostly taken home and stashed, there were no reported casualties from sex. The real casualties ended up being those who were either drunk or needed treatment for sunburn. Hey ho!
Since 1772, English and Welsh heterosexual couples often escaped across the border to marry at Gretna Green, taking advantage of Scotland's more relaxed marriage laws where it could take place with or without parental consent at 16. (It was 21 in England and Wales for many years). Perhaps we might witness a reversal if women flock south of the border in pursuit of less painful abortions. Some family planning centres are offering the RU486 pill, which avoids surgery. In Scotland, although women do have easier access to surgical and medical abortions than in England and Wales, they still need the signatures of not just one, but two doctors. Both the Kirk and the Catholic Churches expressed their delight at First Minister, Jack McConnell's refusal to join the Westminster plan and The Herald's editorial delivered, in its measured tone: "The concern must be, however, that extending the availability of abortions not requiring surgery will increase uptake, potentially diluting the message about safe and responsible sex". It certainly shouldn't. The pill is not necessarily completely painless anyway. The sanctity of life can still be an important message, but so is safer sex. Home Secretary, Jack Straw had already expressed his worry that religious fundamentalists might exert an undue influence on the Scottish parliament in a Cabinet committee which hammered out devolution policies in 1997/98. This was why abortion has remained a reserved power of Westminster, yet health and home affairs are devolved. (Not that Westminster handles these issues any better).
Is Scotland being run by a bunch of Christian fundamentalists? Following the story of these so-called "sordid sex education packs", discussed last month in the Scottish Media Monitor, I'm beginning to wonder! These teachers' aids - because that's all they are - have been repeatedly smeared by the Scottish Daily Mail. Breast-beating, once again on another victory for so-called Family Values over Scotland's weak First Minister, Jack McConnell, reporter Eddie Barnes bludgeoned the "chastened Executive" as "Ministers cave in over explicit sex packs for schools". Cave in? Far from being used to the extent their worth in combating Scotland's criminally high rates of teenage pregnancy could be adequately assessed, one has been long out of print! In a report that featured an illustration that has been re-printed in the Scottish Daily Mail at least three times, (a line-drawing of two lesbians and their children), Barnes was in no doubt who was victor: "The climbdown is a major victory for family groups and the Scottish Daily Mail which raised concerns about the explicit packs 12 months ago... In a row which has left ministers entirely isolated". Indeed they did, in a harrowing front-page headline blasting: "SORDID SEXUAL TIPS TO PUPILS AGED 5". (ScotsGay: Issue 39. Scottish Media Monitor website: Article: May 2001 and Feature: The Vigilantes). On the subject of these teaching aids, Jack McConnell had even been in talks with the homophobic, late Cardinal Winning! Under new proposals introduced by Education Minister, "Mrs Jamieson", (as the Mail called her), the materials would be marked with a 'health warning' advising teachers not to show them to pupils. There would eventually be two lists of teaching aids: One for teachers and one for pupils. The Christian Institute, the Kirk and Catholics were all in high spirits. "This is very good news... But we will continue to put pressure on the health boards and on local authorities to ensure these materials are removed from the curriculum", cheered militant Colin Hart from the Christian Institute. Rev Ian Murdoch, who had already gone round the churches, press-ganging old dears into signing his petition, sighed: "...This sounds like a very good thing". The Mail's editorial shook hands with the victors: "Campaigning parents and family groups are to be congratulated on their victory in forcing the Scottish Executive to ban sordid sex education packs... Two cheers are also due to ministers for finally listening to the concerns of parents... but at last they have got the message and that is good for democracy". There is no stopping a Mail editorial when it's on a roll. Section 28 reared its ugly head once more and so too the lies' surrounding Souter's private opinion poll: "The Executive has pursued an alarming agenda of state-sponsored sexual radicalism. It began when it defied the overwhelming majority of public opinion and scrapped Section 28".
Eric Johns' immature report of a male-to-female transsexual Tayside cop in the Daily Star of Scotland wrote PC Catherine McKendrick off as an "eccentric officer", "gender-bending" and "confused". Johns had to have it "confirmed" that she still had a job after "he returned to work after the painful sex change". Of course she had! Had Johns not heard of equality of opportunity? The difficult pre-op process of living and dressing as a woman meant PC McKendrick still had to go to work, even patrolling difficult areas of Dundee, a job which earned him praise from colleagues. Johns was still left giggling like a schoolgirl; declaring in astonishment that PC McKendrick "has been known to tie his hair up and wear make-up while on-duty in Dundee". This decent, hard-working serving officer of several years can look forward to a promising career; more than I could ever hope for Eric Johns.
The Herald's report by Raymond Duncan on "two Scots who run a notorious sex trade operation in Thailand" focused on the directors of the club Boyz Boyz Boyz in Pattaya. "More than a decade ago Mr May, a former financial director with builder Teague Homes (Scotland), was cleared of embezzling £219,000 from the company. It was one of five cases in the late 1980s and early 1980s that led disgruntled police officers to the belief that a homosexual conspiracy existed at that time in Edinburgh's senior legal circles. The investigation did not substantiate allegations that the gay community had influence over several court decisions". These were allegations, but all the same, I'm sure the whole of the so-called 'gay community' would rather see that term substituted for 'certain individuals' in this report.
The trial of Dundee Football Club's director, Paul Marr and a pal who were accused of head-butting player Patrizio Billio outside Dens Park was brushed aside by the media's prurient interest in sex to focus on Dundee coach, Luca Frediani's request for a sex worker before a match. "SOCCER COACH: GET ME A HOOKER", squealed the Scottish Sun on its front page. (This is the tabloid that ran a story about the words 'goolies' and 'farted' appearing on TV game show Countdown next to a picture of 21-year-old 'Melanie' from Watford showing her tits)! The front page of the Scottish Daily Mirror cried: "SEX GAME". Commercial boss, Jim Connor didn't want the story splashed over the tabloids and thought Frediani "not morally fit" to represent the club. Ironically, by not focusing on the sexual aspect of this story, Dundee's The Courier - which also banned the book Sexual Fascism from review because "it contains sex" - ended up correctly focusing on the seriousness of violence and naked aggression rather than the more trivial issue of sex.
A sperm donor service designed to help lesbians become parents, selling its services through a website, mannotincluded.com - man not included, geddit? - excited the Scottish press. The service did away with expensive fertility clinics and dispensed with the risk of fathers asserting their parenting rights at a later date. The Herald appeared unable to open the debate further than its hotline to the Catholic Church who explained: "We are completely against it". The idea of loving partnerships, well equipped for the role of parenting, never entered their equation.
BBC One's reality TV show, Castaway, which saw a group of 36 stranded on the Scottish island of Taransay last year, has paid gay contestant, Ron Copsey, £16,000 in an out-of-court settlement. He claimed programme-makers had misrepresented him, showing him as aggressive and temperamental. In one scene, it was implied that he had thrown a chair at a woman, when, in fact, he had been upset by producers who had handed him a vet's bill for putting his dog to sleep. The BBC and production company Lion TV each paid £8,000 and agreed to apologise in the High Court.
The £8m 131st Open Championship is a golfing event that has been putting along nicely since 1892. This year it will be held at Muirfield. At this club, there are no women's changing-rooms. They don't need them. Why? Not because their modernistic approach allows mixed sex changing facilities, but because women are barred. The next two championships will be held at Royal St George's in Kent and Royal Troon in Ayshire. They too, are all-male clubs. Golf is not an all-male sport and there are some damn good women players out there who will be excluded. I have to ask, is playing golf really what this is all about? While there is nothing wrong in having single-sex clubs, should they be allowed to host major championship events? Gillian Stewart, named Woman Golfer of the Year in 1984, wrote in The Scotsman: "These courses are far too long and tough for the average lady player... I think we women could do without it... The vast majority of lady golfers are very content with their lot..." Ms Stewart then proceeds to demonstrate her contentment by heading off to Muirfield. "I have enjoyed the generous hospitality of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers at Muirfield for the past seven years by playing in a match against the club every April... Whenever I have been to Muirfield, I have been treated like a lady and made to feel most welcome by the members... It would be very wrong if they were forced into accepting women members merely to be politically correct... Is there sexism in golf? There might be, it depends how you look at it". The Sunday Telegraph's Mark Reason shrugged his shoulders and wrote: "Vive la difference". In the Scottish Daily Mail, Allan Massie wrote: "The Royal & Ancient at St Andrews, the game's controlling body, is also all-male, as is the famous Augusta National where the U.S. Masters is played each spring. It has been threatened with picketing by the National Council of Women's Organisations of America if it doesn't start admitting female members". He didn't mention how this same club used to bar blacks from membership. This is a money game. How often do you see golf clubs sniffing around for a grant? They have never had to prove inclusivity to qualify for cash. Wealth has preserved not difference, but discrimination. There are clubs who will tell you women don't want to join, but with massive obstacles put in the way, it's not surprising.
CUT IT OUT!
Agony aunt, Old Mother (Joan) Burnie in the Daily Record: "...A lot of fantasies are beyond the pale".
Simon Pia in The Scotsman on their competition: "Colleagues on another paper in Glasgow were complaining to us about the over-zealous 'porn blocks' installed in their computers. One could not even get a website on Rubens due to all the naked flesh".
Ephraim Hardcastle in the Scottish Daily Mail: "Participants in a new BBC programme, The Investigators, which invites the public to solve murder mysteries, are asked to fill in a form which asks: 'Are you Heterosexual / Homosexual / Bisexual?' Imagine if the corporation's own staff were asked to divulge such details".
Christian Artist Peter Howson in the Sunday Herald: "I go into Waterstone's every day to have a cup of coffee and the smallest section in the store is the Christian book section. The largest sections are cookery and DIY".
Tickets to the T in The Park concert for "you and your lucky mate" are up for grabs at the Daily Star of Scotland: "You will also receive a spectacular addition to your prize. You will have exclusive access to your own Portaloo within Hospitality for you and your mate to use over the course of the weekend". How nice!
Kirk Elder, columnist in The Scotsman and senior citizen from Peebles on giving blood: "Imagine my horror when I was asked to submit to an interview before my blood was deemed acceptable. Now, I am not a prude, but I blush just to think of the questions. These included... whether I had ever given oral sex to a man... I attempted to reassure the grim-faced Sister that I have not talked about sex to a man or a woman for at least 50 years, and I wasn't about to start now".
Ephraim Hardcastle's response to a 10-point list of travel recommendations from the Foreign Office to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender travellers in the Scottish Daily Mail: "Might not many self-respecting gays prefer outright homophobia to this kind of snivelling dross?" No.
Some of the - how can I put this? - less enlightened responses in The Daily Record in a debate over new laws expected to be introduced in Scotland allowing transsexuals to marry: "Transsexuals should not have the right to marry the same sex because that's being gay! How are they supposed to make a family? - Leon Graham, N Ireland. They shouldn't let these weirdos have the operation in the first place - Mark. These perverted, so-called human beings should not have the right to vote, never mind marry. It's revolting - Jazz, East Kilbride. Certainly not. It's disgusting - Linda McGroaty. Of course they shouldn't, they're freaks!"
An Oasis 'insider' quoted in the Scottish Sun at T in The Park: "Primal Scream were like a bunch of nancy boys by comparison and didn't go down very well - they were c**p". An abusive term like 'Nancy boy' is clearly okay for the Sun, but 'crap' isn't?
