Welcome news – Bishop loses gay employment case

The BBC reports:

A gay man has won his case for unlawful discrimination after he was refused a youth official’s job by a Church of England bishop.

The employment tribunal said John Reaney, 42, was discriminated against “on grounds of sexual orientation” by the Hereford diocesan board of finance.

I am a bit late with this, as the news came out last Wednesday. But it is very welcome news indeed. The treatment of John Reaney seemed to me to be outrageous and I am very glad that the employment tribunal has ruled against the Bishop.

Welcome news – Bishop loses gay employment case

The BBC reports:

A gay man has won his case for unlawful discrimination after he was refused a youth official’s job by a Church of England bishop.

The employment tribunal said John Reaney, 42, was discriminated against “on grounds of sexual orientation” by the Hereford diocesan board of finance.

I am a bit late with this, as the news came out last Wednesday. But it is very welcome news indeed. The treatment of John Reaney seemed to me to be outrageous and I am very glad that the employment tribunal has ruled against the Bishop.

Good heavens! Mick McManus is still alive!

This will mean nothing to anyone under about 45. But I was watching “I love television” or some such ITV confection last night and who should walk on but Mick McManus!

My wife and I said in unison: “I thought he was dead!”

But there he was, as alive as a live thing, as Baldrick would say.

I’ve just looked him up. He is 79 years old! He has outlived both Jackie Pallo and Giant Haystacks.

Note to anyone under 45: ITV used to run live wrestling (usually from Doncaster?) at 4pm on a Saturday. It was hugely popular. We had to watch it with my maternal grandparents in case one of them had a seizure during it, because they got excited about it. Mick McManus was the “Bête noire” of these largely staged pugilistic performances.

Cameron is not the transforming force he is cranked up to be – Sunday Times

Today’s Sunday Times leader states:

The political map is becoming a little clearer. David Cameron is not the transforming political force that his supporters made him out to be, or even the Tories’ Tony Blair. Mr Blair enjoyed large opinion poll leads from the day he took over as Labour leader; leads which lasted until late in his premiership.

Is Cameron the Conservatives’ Kinnock? – Rawnsley

In the Observer, Andrew Rawnsley writes:

Fearful Tories have more reason to worry this weekend that he might turn out to be their Neil Kinnock, a leader who does much to rescue and rehabilitate the party, but who can’t deliver power. Might this be David Cameron’s ultimate fate? Could he be a leader who looks electable, but is never actually elected?

Tory MPs want vote of no confidence in Cameron – "deep-seated dissatisfaction"

The Sunday Telegraph, under the headline “Tories call on David Cameron to quit” says that as many as six MPs have sent letters to the chairman of the party’s 1922 Committee of backbenchers. The report runs:

David Cameron faces calls to resign from a handful of Conservative MPs who have lodged formal requests for a vote of no confidence in his leadership.

The bid to destabilise the Tory leader comes after months of dissent over his modernising strategy, including a revolt over grammar schools, and his party’s humiliating third-place defeat in two by-elections last week.

…At least two MPs, and possibly as many as half a dozen, have written to Sir Michael Spicer, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, to call for a vote of no confidence, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

One of those who has written said: “I felt I had to register my deep-seated dissatisfaction. I am not the only one and I know there are a number of others who are thinking of writing.”

Good heavens! Mick McManus is still alive!

This will mean nothing to anyone under about 45. But I was watching “I love television” or some such ITV confection last night and who should walk on but Mick McManus!

My wife and I said in unison: “I thought he was dead!”

But there he was, as alive as a live thing, as Baldrick would say.

I’ve just looked him up. He is 79 years old! He has outlived both Jackie Pallo and Giant Haystacks.

Note to anyone under 45: ITV used to run live wrestling (usually from Doncaster?) at 4pm on a Saturday. It was hugely popular. We had to watch it with my maternal grandparents in case one of them had a seizure during it, because they got excited about it. Mick McManus was the “Bête noire” of these largely staged pugilistic performances.

Cameron is not the transforming force he is cranked up to be – Sunday Times

Today’s Sunday Times leader states:

The political map is becoming a little clearer. David Cameron is not the transforming political force that his supporters made him out to be, or even the Tories’ Tony Blair. Mr Blair enjoyed large opinion poll leads from the day he took over as Labour leader; leads which lasted until late in his premiership.

Is Cameron the Conservatives' Kinnock? – Rawnsley

In the Observer, Andrew Rawnsley writes:

Fearful Tories have more reason to worry this weekend that he might turn out to be their Neil Kinnock, a leader who does much to rescue and rehabilitate the party, but who can’t deliver power. Might this be David Cameron’s ultimate fate? Could he be a leader who looks electable, but is never actually elected?

Tory MPs want vote of no confidence in Cameron – "deep-seated dissatisfaction"

The Sunday Telegraph, under the headline “Tories call on David Cameron to quit” says that as many as six MPs have sent letters to the chairman of the party’s 1922 Committee of backbenchers. The report runs:

David Cameron faces calls to resign from a handful of Conservative MPs who have lodged formal requests for a vote of no confidence in his leadership.

The bid to destabilise the Tory leader comes after months of dissent over his modernising strategy, including a revolt over grammar schools, and his party’s humiliating third-place defeat in two by-elections last week.

…At least two MPs, and possibly as many as half a dozen, have written to Sir Michael Spicer, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, to call for a vote of no confidence, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

One of those who has written said: “I felt I had to register my deep-seated dissatisfaction. I am not the only one and I know there are a number of others who are thinking of writing.”