Brits Fear "American-Style" Health Care

The Los Angeles Times looks at the health care debate going on in the UK.

Britain is now embroiled in a healthcare argument of its own, prompted by a proposed shake-up of the NHS. And the phrase on everyone's lips is "American-style," which may not be as catchy as the "death panels" that Palin attributed to socialized medicine but which, over here, inspires pretty much the same kind of terror. Ask a Briton to describe "American-style" healthcare, and you'll hear a catalog of horrors that include grossly expensive and unnecessary medical procedures and a privatized system that favors the rich. For a people accustomed to free healthcare for all, regardless of income, the fact that millions of their cousins across the Atlantic have no insurance and can't afford decent treatment is a farce as well as a tragedy. But critics here warn that a similarly bleak future may await Britain if a government plan to put more power in the hands of doctors and introduce more competition into the NHS succeeds — privatization by stealth, they say.

Coldplay - Every Teardrop

Your favorite band to hate is back. Naturally, there's already a controversy about the song which interestingly (to me) contains "elements" of Peter Allen's classic I Go To Rio.

What The British Really Mean

On the left, what they say. In the center, what they really mean. On the right, what Europeans hear.

(Via - Andrew Sullivan)

BRITAIN: Fake Gay Election Leaflets Sent To Muslim Neighborhood

Voters in a Muslim neighborhood in Leicester, England have been sent election leaflets claiming to be from the Liberal Democrats in which the party pledges that it will "force schools to teach that homosexuality is normal." A spokesman for the Liberal Democrats says the leaflets are not from them.

The spokesman added: “Some of this leaflet is completely true and we are very proud of our record in championing gay rights. However, this a fake leaflet maliciously designed to incite hatred. It is disgusting attempt to provoke hate during the last days of a political campaign. It has no place in politics and it has no place in society.”

Earlier this year flyers appeared in London declaring that it was a "gay-free zone" and that people should "fear Allah." Those responsible for the flyers have not yet been identified, although one arrest was made last month. Some gay activists suspect that the fake Liberal Democrats leaflets are a similar attempt by Britain's neo-Nazis to sow discord between the Muslim and gay communities.

I'm With The Kid

(Source)

Married

BRITAIN: Court Rejects Catholic Bid For Exemption From Gay Adoption Laws

A British appeals tribunal has rejected the demand of the Catholic Church that they be exempted from laws banning discrimination against gay adoptive parents. As we've seen happen in several U.S. cities, church adoption officials say they'd rather close their doors and let children go without families than abide by the law.

Leeds-based Catholic Care have said they will have no choice but to end their work finding homes for children if they are forced to comply with the new equality regulations which prohibit discrimination against same-sex couples wanting to adopt. The case went to the High Court last year before being referred to the Charity Commission, who would not back Catholic Care’s position. And the Charity Commission’s stance was upheld today by a first-tier tribunal which dismissed the appeal.

Can You Hear Me Now?

Buzzfeed reports that Britain's Creative Coffins will make you the eco-friendly, cardboard coffin on your choice. Hit the link for dozens of options. Dr. Who!

Maggie Gallagher: Britain's War Against Christians Is Coming To America

"In Great Britain, Christians are now effectively second-class citizens, judged 'unfit' to care for foster children. If they are unfit to foster children, logically they are also unfit to adopt, and possibly as one British lawyer suggested to the press, unfit to parent their own children, too. Could it happen over here? Yes. We see the first steps of the muscular liberalism process at work already in the state of Illinois, in its probe of evangelical, Lutheran and Catholic foster-care agencies for discrimination against gay couples in foster care.

"For the ACLU and the gay rights community, suddenly the right to live as we choose isn't good enough. Any foster-care agency that does not place children with gay couples now must be discriminated against by the government in the name of anti-discrimination. The ACLU claims that legally requiring foster-care agencies to be inclusive would expand resources to help 16,000 kids currently in the Illinois foster-care system. This is just Orwellian doubletalk. The new 'inclusive' policy would exclude three religious foster-care agencies from recruiting parents. This cannot possibly expand resources available to needy kids." - NOM founder Maggie Gallagher, writing for Yahoo! News.

Pet Shop Boys Score New Ballet

Six-time Grammy winning Pet Shop Boys have scored a film, written a musical, and sold over 100 million records. Now they've written the music to a new ballet.

LONDON: Cancel East End Pride?

Some British gay activists are calling for the cancellation of next month's Pride parade in London's East End because it might inflame anti-gay sentiments among the Muslim community. The parade was organized in response to "Fear Allah. Gay-free zone" stickers that began appearing around the East End earlier this year. Critics of the parade accuse its organizers of having ties to skinhead groups which were thought by some to have planted the stickers to create tension between Muslims and gays.

An open letter signed by Out East chair Thierry Schaffauser and Terry Stewart of the Hackney Community Engagement Board claims that the Pride march may “divide our communities” or be used “to oppress other marginalised groups”. Out East organises Hackney Pride and the letter has also been signed by Denis Fernando of Unite Against Fascism and the Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils. It says: “We believe that the most appropriate response to the stickers is to liaise with Muslim communities and others to create bridges and communicate with each other. We want both homophobia and Islamophobia addressed as a collective problem and not feed one against the other, we do not recognise these as distinct categories. We will refuse any attempt to divide our communities or take the risk that an LGBTQ event is used to oppress other marginalised groups, in particular LGBTQ Muslims who will be the most affected by this rising antagonism.” In response, the organisers of East End Gay Pride said in a statement: “We can 100 per cent confirm that the EDL [English Defence League] or the SWP [Socialist Workers Party] have absolutely nothing to do with this event in any way, shape or form.

Pink News reports that an 18-year old man was arrested last month with some of the stickers in his possession, but he was released without charges because it was unclear whether the stickers violated the Public Order Act on hate speech. The Muslim Council of Britain and local Muslim groups have denounced the stickers.

HomoQuotable - David Starkey

"It seems to me that what we are doing is producing a tyrannous new morality that is every bit as oppressive as the old. The way to [handle this] is not to ban them, not to fine them. It is for them simply to put up what seems to me to be a quite proper notice in a small privately run hotel which says we are Christians and this is what we believe. Otherwise, we are as I said, we are producing a new tyranny." - Openly gay British historian, atheist, and television commentator David Starkey, speaking against the recent fining of Christian bed-and-breakfast owners because they wouldn't rent to gays.

Starkey words are being repeated today on American Christianist sites, where he is being described as a "gay activist."

BRITAIN: Gay Cricket Star Steve Davies Talks To CNN About Coming Out

Tony Perkins: Gay Rights Cost Christians Their Freedom To Be Bigots

"In perhaps the greatest irony, this couple was trying to give children what homosexuals cannot--a loving mother and father. But Europe is so enslaved to 'tolerance' that it's willing to leave children homeless to make a point. Meanwhile, believers across the U.K. are stunned. 'Christianity isn't dying,' wrote one. 'It's being eradicated.' And if Americans think the same thing can't happen here, they're mistaken. Every special 'right' or concession we make to the homosexual community, Christians pay for in freedom. That's a major reason why Catholic Charities had to end its adoption program in Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. They never wanted to be in the position of choosing between their faith and their freedom." - Family Research Council spokesbigot Tony Perkins, who says that last week's British court ruling against anti-gay foster parents is a harbinger of what's to come for America.

BRITAIN: High Court Upholds Banning Of Anti-Gay Foster Parents

In a case that has already seen heavy coverage in the American right-wing press, a British high court has backed a local city council decision to ban foster parents who vow to condemn homosexuality to their children. The case involves Eunice and Owen Johns, who say their right to be foster parents is being denied because of their religious views.

Lord Justice Munby and Mr Justice Beatson ruled that laws protecting people from discrimination because of their sexual orientation "should take precedence" over the right not to be discriminated against on religious grounds. The Johns are considering an appeal. Derby City Council said previously its first duty was to the children in its care, some of whom were very vulnerable. Speaking outside the court in London, Mrs Johns said: "All we wanted was to offer a loving home to a child in need. We have a good track record as foster parents. "We have been excluded because we have moral opinions based on our faith and we feel sidelined because we are Christians with normal, mainstream, Christian views on sexual ethics. We are prepared to love and accept any child. All we were not willing to do was to tell a small child that the practice of homosexuality was a good thing."

You can bet that this case will somehow be injected into the DOMA battle.

BRITAIN: Cricket Star Comes Out

Britain now has its first openly gay cricket star.

England wicketkeeper Steve Davies has revealed he is gay, becoming the country's first top cricketer to come out. Davies has played eight one-day internationals and five Twenty20 matches for England and was a member of the victorious Ashes squad as back-up gloveman to Matt Prior. Welsh rugby international Gareth Thomas, former NBA player John Amaechi and the late footballer Justin Fashanu are the only other high-profile British sports stars to have come out. Davies told The Sun: "I'm comfortable with who I am and happy to say who I am in public. To speak out is a massive relief for me, but if I can just help one person to deal with their sexuality then that's all I care about.

Davies says he was inspired to come out by rugby star Gareth Thomas, who has issued a message of support.

She Wants To Break Free

On the BBC's Let's Dance For Comic Relief, controversial former model and author Katie Price dressed as Freddie Mercury in a recreation of Queen's classic 1984 drag video for I Want To Break Free. Those are her real actual boobies, by the way.

BRITAIN: Gay & Straight Couples Launch Challenge To Marriage Laws

Led by activist Peter Tatchell, on Wednesday eight British couples, four gay and four straight, will file a challenge to Britain's marriage and civil partnership laws with the European Court of Human Rights.

Peter Tatchell is coordinator of the Equal Love campaign, which seeks to end sexual orientation discrimination in both civil marriage and civil partnership law."Since November, four same-sex couples were refused marriage licenses at register offices in Greenwich, Northampton and Petersfield. Four heterosexual couples were also turned away when they applied for civil partnerships in Islington, Camden, Bristol and Aldershot," added Tatchell.

"All eight couples received letters of refusal from their register offices, which we are now using as the evidential basis to challenge in the European Court of Human Rights the UK's exclusion of gay couples from civil marriage and the prohibition of straight civil partnerships. Since there is no substantive difference in the rights and responsibilities involved in gay marriages and heterosexual civil partnerships, there is no justification for having two mutually exclusive and discriminatory systems.

The petitioners contend that Britain's "separate but equal" system violates the European Convention On Human Rights, to which the United Kingdom is a signatory.

BRITAIN: Deportation Reprieve For Uganda's Brenda Namiggade

Ugandan citizen Brenda Namiggade was already being escorted to London's Heathrow airport tonight when word came that Britain's Home Office had granted a temporary reprieve to her deportation. This comes after gay activists earlier today served UK Home Secretary Theresa May with a petition bearing over 40,000 names.

According to the BBC, some in the British government doubt that Namiggade is actually a lesbian and suspect she is using the claim to stay in the country. Namiggade has repeatedly stated that she is gay and that she fears for her life should she be returned to Uganda.

Her lawyer, Abdulrahman Jafar, said he would argue that Ms Namiggade should be allowed to remain in the UK regardless of her sexuality. "The press coverage about her activities certainly expose her to a real risk if she is to be returned to Uganda," he said. Ms Namigadde, who was held at a detention centre just outside London, has told the BBC's Network Africa programme she was "shaking" with fear at the prospect of returning to Uganda. She said she fled to the UK in 2002 after being beaten and victimised because of her sexuality. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, has said people facing persecution for their sexual orientation in Uganda should be given refugee status in other countries.

According to the head of the UK's Border Agency, an immigration judge had previously ruled Namigadde as "not homosexual."

BRITAIN: Two Men Charged Under New Anti-Gay Hatred Incitement Law

Two British men have been charged with violating a new law against inciting anti-gay hatred.

Razwan Javed, 30, and Kabir Ahmed, 27, were accused of handing out leaflets called ‘The Death Penalty?’ outside a Derby mosque. It reportedly said that gay people should be executed and the pair are also accused of pushing it through letterboxes. The pair were reportedly arrested after a tip-off from a member of the public. If convicted at a crown court, they could face up to seven years in prison or an unlimited fine. They will appear before magistrates today. This is the first time anyone has been prosecuted for inciting hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

The new law matched similar legislation against inciting racial and religious hatred.