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The other side of politics I've been discussing tonight (see last entry)was The Equality Bill and the Tories. A brief discussion with @lawandsexuality through the medium of Facebook comments about where the Tories would likely go with Equality.

I really shouldn't discuss politics late at night. I always end up with ideas running through my head that stop me from sleeping. Still this is what my blog is for, surely 8-).

Earlier this week I tweeted about the "Enjoy England" advert which suggested an enjoyable way of spending an hour was to take a train journey. My tweet was "Enjoy England are seriously suggesting a train ride as a way to enjoy England...there's a group that's never been on a train...". Friends tried to suggest there are some nice scenic routes out there, and there are, but our train system is in such a shambles I wouldn't call using the service enjoyable.

Warrington, where I live, is split into two parliamentary constituencies the boundary being, pretty much, the Mersey. They are represented by "the Helens" - Jones for the North and Southworth for the South. Apparently there's going to be some major work on redirecting the Mersey as we will be switching Helens at the next election. Both Helens are in fairly safe seats - I normally get no election publicity except from the very fringe parties.

Remember me talking about how we are excluded from harassment protection in certain circumstances in the new Equality Bill? Lynne Featherstone asked Ben Summerskill of Stonewall - the representative organisation for UK "gay men and lesbians" - about this. His response:

I can certainly say on the issue of harassment we are not convinced that there is a need for protection in this area.

In the UK we have a limited number of groups fighting for Queer (or LGB(T)) rights. Stonewall (who I have publicly distanced myself from) play a very safe and cosy game but attract a lot of criticism from Queer activists. NUS LGBT Campaign and individual Student Union LGBT groups are student specific. Schools Out is teaching specific. Trade Unions are specific to their members. Queer Youth Network is youth orientated. There's something missing. Something for the activist who isn't young, isn't in a trade union or a students' union.

Yes, yes, the election results were announced on Sunday and today is Tuesday... my weekend has been a little busy and tiring.

For those that don't know (/me peers around) the BNP got the last MEP seat in the Northwest region and also got a seat in Yorkshire and the Humber region. In the Northwest it is their party leader Nick Griffin who will be going claiming to represent me.

Over the past few weeks there's been a lot of talk of MPs' expenses and just how they're being abused. There's a lovely graphic in Guido's post here showing MPs' salary and expenses compared to average salaries.

The Tory leader writing in The Guardian? Have we entered a strange new reality? No, I think Cameron is so confident that the country is ready to ditch Labour that he's trying can embrace the left leaning Guardian crowd with his call for parliamentary reform.

So, today we had three announcements: Michael Martin will resign as speaker (and stand down as MP triggering a by-election), Douglas Hogg (he of moat dredging fame) will not be re-standing as an MP and Gordon Brown has decided that MPs who broke the rules (which I believe we'll find to be virtually no-one except perhaps the phantom mortgage claimers) will not be allowed to re-stand as Labour MPs. So, we got some scalps. Are we all warm and content now? FUCK NO!