Overtly gay Tory blogger Iain Dale has reached the final stage of parliamentary selection for Bracknell, telling PinkNews: 'I hope any PinkNews readers who live in Bracknell will come to the open primary on October 17 to select their new candidate.
You don't even have to be a Conservative to attend.'
Isn't it charming how homosexuals rally like-minded chaps to their cause?
Overtly gay. Nice. Anyone who has ever met me will have a good laugh at that one. I wonder if Peter McKay, the editor of Ephraim Hardcastle ever describes himself as "overtly straight". Just imagine if I was Jewish and the same words had been used.
Overtly jewish Tory blogger Iain Dale... Isn't it charming how Jews rally like-minded chaps to their cause?Get my drift? And of course the payoff line is something out of the Nick Griffin handbook. As Stephen Glenn points out, I do not rally anyone to my cause. I don't even ask for support - I just encourage people to attend. Normally I would think it's just not worth bothering with, and accept that in politics you have to take the rough with the smooth. But I'm afraid I have had it with the Daily Mail and their particular brand of hate. In my view, this breaches section 12 of the Press Complaints Commission code of conduct. So I have sent in a formal complaint. Perhaps readers might like to do the same.
I wish to complain about an article about me in the Ephraim Hardcastle column of the Daily Mail today. I believe it breaches Section 12 of the PCC code.
The story refers to my application for the Conservative candidacy for the parliamentary seat of Bracknell and in my opinion breaches section 12 of the Code of Practice on discrimination, which states that "i) The press must avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual's race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation or to any physical or mental illness or disability".
The paragraph in the Ephraim Hardcastle diary column rests specifically on the fact that I am gay. It describes me as “overtly gay”, which to anyone that knows me is ridiculous. It is designed to be pejorative. The article concludes: "Isn't it charming how homosexuals rally like-minded chaps to their cause?". This is clearly pejorative, snide, unkind and sneering - and in breach of the code of practice. It is designed to hurt, and designed to make readers of the column think less of me as a political candidate. My sexual orientation is irrelevant to my decision to stand as a candidate in Bracknell.
I hope you will investigate and ask the Mail to apologise.
I'm not holding my breath, but if I just ignore it, it will encourage the Mail to think that they can print it and get away with it. I really thought that we had got away from this sort of thing and it's very sad that we haven't. Attack me for my beliefs and actions, by all means, but for this? The only thing which will make the Mail sit up and think again before it does it again is for there to be a backlash. If you want to tell the Mail what you think, I'd encourage you to email the column's editor peter.mckay@dailymail.co.uk or email the editor Paul Dacre. Be rational - don't abuse them. Just calmly explain why you believe this column is wrong.
If by standing up to the Daily Mail, and drawing attention to this issue, it hijacks me in Bracknell, then that will be a bitter blow to have to take, but if I sat back and just accepted this sort of thing, what sort of person would that make me? And worst of all, if I did say nothing, it would just encourage them to do it again to someone else in the future. I simply cannot do that.
I will live in hope that the local media in Bracknell will approach the issue of a candidate's sexuality in a mature and adult way, and give it a massive shrug of the shoulders.
225 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 225 of 225Meanwhile, Iain Dale's evil but straight twin brother is up to allsorts and the Mail don't even mention it!
http://galleries.payserve.com/1/30756/28317/images/9.jpg
(Not safe for work at all)
God help us!
You're a bit slow.
Simply report the offending article to the police, and they'll have a word with the offender. Then let things take their course.
It's very clear that the writer of said piece is attempting to hold you to ridicule in the eyes of homophobes. This is now a criminal offence, particularly when it's done in connection with your public work, though I suspect that the writer is so old-fashioned he's unaware of this and the piece was clearly not "lawyered".
The writer is somone who is regularly ridiculed on Private Eye as being very much behind the times.
Iain, I hate your politics but I support you 100 per cent here. The Mail are scum. Good on you.
Disgusting, of course, as the Mail always is. But you can hardly start crying that your sexuality is out of bounds when you just did an interview in Pink News.
You made it fair game.
Ian,
The DM is a rag - sexuality has no bearing on your running for the nomination.
Your reaction is the right one, why should they be allowed to get away with it.
You've made the point brilliantly here, Iain. I expect a suitably chastened (and worried) Daily Mail will be issuing an fulsome and, one hopes, sincere apology will follow tout de suite.
Well done you for making a stand against prejudice and for reminding the Mail that it shouldn't have such a consistently low opinion of its own readership.
(On a sunnier note, perhaps the rockhead Hardcastle is just a little bit quaint and old-fashioned and thought "overtly gay" meant "overtly happy", a la Daley Thompson, 1984 - in which case, you could take it as a compliment.
Er, upon reflection - maybe not.)
Bracknell would be lucky to have you as its MP.
Daily Mail readers (plenty of our parents I'm sure) are sensible enough to be able to sort this wheat from chaff. Ignore the lazy 'journalism', and best of luck with the campaign.
Complaining is a sign of weakness and shows that you care and worse you actually read the Daily Mail.
You should rise above this and not "Give a Fuck". People will respect you more for this. No-one like a snitch. The worse thing my boys do is not what they have done but telling tales about someone else.
I wish you all the best for Bracknell but the Turqouise Mountain chap would, like you, make an excellent addition to the Conservative MP ranks.
with best wishes
As a black man, I would have no problem if the Mail described me as such, or urged readers of The Voice to come to a primary selection and vote for me!
What would be racist is if any negative stereotypes or attitudes were attached to the article. Say, for example, an insinuation that being black would lead me to discrimination against white people. That would be offensive.
Indeed, I have encountered plenty of this sort of overt racism in my life, including on this blog!
However, if I transposed the Mail article concerning Iain and sexuality, with race, then frankly I do not find the Mail piece in any way offensive. Especially in the context of the sort of stuff I've experienced.
The only Gays that I dislike are those who seem to be demanding "extra" rights for gays eg "the council should provide a club for gays". Why?
As I've never noticed that you fall into this category in your TV appearances or Blogs you would get my support if I were in Bracknell.
And what's wrong with mentioning it in the PinkNews? I'm sure that most candidates would be pleased to get a mention in any publication that they can manage!
you did an article on this gay thing. seems overt enough to me...
And having a civil partnership is fairly overt. you are hardly in the closet now, are you?!
Seems fairly steriotypical to see a gay complaining and playing the victim. You do'nt see Obama complaining when they read "the african american president..."
you are overtly gay. get over it. it was your choice to go public.
McHacky is one of the least reconstructed elements of the "new" Mail, on paper. The reality is that it's one of the areas of the paper where its true views leak out.
You've been very brave, bearing in mind how tough and draining it is to stand for a seat in the first place, to potentially damage your run at Bracknell. But you absolutely, totally, have done the right thing.
If voters down there have any sense they'll see that, and perhaps decide that, in the light of recent disclosures, an MP with a little backbone is worth sending to SW1. Good luck!
The Mail can sadly be a very unpleasant and corrosive paper when it wants to be and it too often does.
Iain, you'd better get a thicker skin than this if you want to be an MP. This is NOTHING.
The writer in the Mail took exception to your inviting fellow homosexuals to support you in your bid for primary election. This is a quite improper use of your 'overt' sexuality'. What would have been your attitiude if a heterosexual competitor had asked for fellow heterosexuals to come and support him ( or her). Those of us who have a distaste for overt and ostentatious advocacy for homosexuality, such as 'Gay Pride Parties' at political party gatherings, 'Gay Pride Marches',and the constantly repeated references on your Blog to your own homosexuality have a right to express our view point. I note however that I appear to be in a minority amongst your contributors who generally appear to be homophiliacs - and labour party supporters to boot !
I am sad to see the Daily Mail use that kind of language and I dont think Iain has done anything wrong asking if gay people want to attend and soliciting their support. I am sure it won't be the last group Iain is trying to get to support him and it sounds like he is working hard and campaiging to win, which I should say is now being undermined by the Daily Mail and their spiteful comments.
Of course you're "overtly" gay, Ian -- so am I, in the sense that I'm not going to let bullies and scumbags intimidate me into living in the "covert" closet, where I buy into their hateful and degrading smears.
Good on you for standing up to these tabloid tosspots, if I were you I'd just say there are some people in this world whose contempt should be worn as a bade of honour.
That is particularly nasty given the widespread slurs to the effect that gay people "recruit" in an abusive fashion. The comment is surely drawing on that meme, even though on its face it is about political recruitment. It is a dogwhistle, in other words. I have complained to the PCC. Good luck in the primary.
My, My, John B - how patronising! Are you an infant school teacher by any chance?
*sigh* Non-smoking staff could choose to work in a non-smoking pub if we had that choice.
A smoker landlady I know, whose staff and customers are all smokers, is fighting not to become one of the 52 pubs closing every week because of this economically and socially damaging blanket smoking ban.
As for "choosing" to be Jewish, if you feel that way, then I expect you must wonder at all the fuss about the holocaust. After all, those Jews persecuted by Hitler could have just chosen not to be Jewish and therefore not put their children's lives at risk.
Do you see now how silly your argument is? ... and as an "occasional" smoker, I don't think you are qualified to comment on what it is like to be a "cultural" smoker which was my original point.
"Overtly Gay"
I regard myself as a political geek and have seen you on all the usual political programs and news channels. Admittedly, I'm late to this blog (excellent btw), so you may have "outed yourself" here and I would not have known.
I've never picked up any blips on what, I think, is my very honed "Gaydar radar".
Daily Mail = Hateful???
That is the whole reason for the Daily Mail's existence...
It's for small minded people.
I think it's a shame that 'Dame' Anne Leslie works for them as, otherwise, she seems sound to me.
I think their occasional 'off-beat' campaigns for things like naming the racists who murdered Stephen Lawrence is used intentionally to try and mask their real agenda.
The Daily Mail panders to the worst in our society.
In my life I've voted Tory, Tory, Tory (Thatcher), Labour, Labour (Kinnock then Blair - with much regret), Lib-Dem, Lib-Dem (Kennedy).
If you were my local candidate I'd vote for you.
Your opinions seem sound to me.
The PCC are a waste of space.
If I had power, I would force papers to print a retraction using exactly the same page space / layout as the original allegation / accusation.
Does nobody else think this is a no-brainer?
that could be cos smoking harms OTHER people
And in an earlier age, people would have said that homosexuality corrupted the morals of other people, based on exactly the same unfounded prejudice that you are spouting. The junk science and outright lies that have been used to promote active discrimination against people who enjoy smoking a few grams of burning leaves is directly comparable to the bigotry that was used to vilify gays, jews and any other persona non grata that our rulers found it expedient to turn the populace against. And, I would add, far more corrosive to public health than somebody smoking a fag.
Unless you drive a zero-emission car, I recommend you shut the fuck up. Nobody, including Roy Castle, has ever died of so-called 2nd hand smoke.
Smoking also appears to make people really really stupid.
Well done, Jimmy - there speaks the voice of the 21st Century prejudicial bigot!
Are there other kinds of bigot?
There are several comments on here telling Mr Dale to 'get used to it' and suchlike. While attacks against his belief and perhaps even character are expected as part of political discourse, this isn't either, instead it attacks him on an issue entirely unrelated to this, his sexuality. I may not agree with his Conservatism, but I most definitely agree that ad hominem attacks of this kind are most unsavoury. This is scraping the barrel even for the Mail. Even if they do have something against homosexuals, you'd have thought they'd have learned to can it after that whole Gately farrago. But I suppose they're just reflecting their audience. Well done for standing up to them, Mr Dale.
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