Nigel Gordon

I have been involved in many campaigns over the years and one thing that keeps getting asked of me is 'how can one person make a difference'. Something like this shows how. One person standing up for what is right can get noticed. It is not what they do that is important it is the attention they bring to the matter. This boy has brought the attention of the world to this issue, the image of his action is turning up everywhere.

For any of you who can access the BBC IPlayer - that is you are inside the UK or have a VPN available that will give you a UK location, there is a remarkable reading of Oscar Wilde's 'De Profundis' on the BBC Radio 4 website. I have read this piece, the last thing that Wilde wrote, a number of times and have always found it a very moving piece of writing. However, hearing it spoken had a much bigger impact on me. I would recommend anybody who can listen to it to listen to it. It may be one hundred years old but what it says today is just a true as what it said one hundred years ago. That is particularly true in what is says about prisoners. You can find it here if you can get access: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07v00pm

The last part is too true. Of my circle of friends who were gay (though we thought ourselves as queer back then) teenagers in the early 1960s I do not know one who has not either attempted suicide, got a drink and/or drug problem or a sequence of disastrous relationships. Most have had all four. The legacy of self-loathing still hangs over our community. One of the most important things that writers of gay fiction can do is show the reader that we are who we are and we are proud to be who we are. We must give our younger generation the pride and self-worth that many of us still do not have.

A wonderful story, well told and informative. I particularly admired the way that the story is structured. It is so easy with this type of structure for the 'gimmick' to become more important than the story. BiJanus has show his skill in using the 'gimmick', in this case letters to the sister, to push the story forward. As a result we get a story that is told in two different timeframes at the same time. To do this successfully takes great skill. BiJanus has that skill and had done it successfully.

This was one of the stories I first read when I first arrived at Awesome Dude as a reader. It impressed me then. It impresses me even more now as a writer. It is well crafted, well thought out and very enjoyable. A good story well told and one I am happy to see in the Dude's Picks.

Not having attended Pride for about 8 years I just spent the day as a volunteer helping to man the TRADE Sexual Health marquee at Leicester Pride. My job was to ask men to fill out a survey - the survey was for men who have sex with men. About half the men who were asked informed us that they were straight, they were either their to support gay friends or just because the enjoyed attending Pride. When I had finished my stint at the stand, I walked to look at what else was on. Found that the local authority had a stand for it Fostering and Adoption service. They were making the point that being gay does not stop you fostering or adopting. All I can say is things have changed a lot since the last Pride I attended.

For a believer in a monotheistic religion it is a requirement of that religion that all other gods must be false. Any belief in another god threatens your belief in your god, therefore, it must be destroyed.

Just read that Nigel Farage ex-leader of UKIP is going to speak at a Trump rally. If you lot thought Trump was a bigot wait till you hear this one!!

About 30.6 parsec.

Actually, there is no timetable. Referendum in the UK have no legal force, they are considered consultative only, so there is no requirement in law for there results to be put into force in a specific time frame. There is of course a political imperative behind implementing a referendum decision. It would be political suicide for a politician to be seen to ignore it. However, there are major practical considerations that will delay any invocation of Article 50. For a start we need 300 trade negotiators and at the moment we have 20. At the moment the civil servants who have been appointed to the department in charge of Brexit are having to hold meetings in Starbuck's as there is no meeting room available for them. Also the two years timetable from the invocation of Article 50 is not set in stone. It can be extended if all the parties agree. My best guess, given what I am getting from contacts in Westminster, is that we are probably looking at Article 50 being triggered about Easter next year. However, if the courts decide that the government can't use the Royal Prerogative we are more likely to be looking at sometime in 2018 or even later. The PM has stated she has wants to have the agreement of the First Minister of the Scottish Assembly before triggering Article 50. As Scotland voted to Remain that agreement might be hard to get. There is a final consideration in that many feel that the UK would get a better deal from the EU after the French, German and Dutch elections. That would push things into 2018. I suspect everybody might find it useful to drag out the current legal challanges.

I'm glad to say that I got 10/10 on both of them. Would have been in a mess if I hadn't as I have used all these in my writing from time to time.

At the moment there is a legal challenge going to High Court challenging the right of the government to invoke Article 50. In all probability that will go all the way to the Supreme Court - allow a year for that. If the Supreme Court finds in favour, then there will have to be a parliamentary bill to grant the authority to invoke Article 50, allow another year for that. There is a chance the the bill could get defeated. Anyway you are now in the run up to a General Election and who knows what. In the meantime there is another legal challenge being put together which is arguing that under the EU Act of 2011 there is a requirement for a referendum on the terms of any transfer of power. Everybody know that was meant to mean a transfer of power to the EU but the wording is such that it can be argued that it also covers a transfer of power from the EU. That would take place if we withdraw from the EU. So it is argued that before Article 50 can be invoked the full terms must be agreed and put to the people in a separate referendum. It looks as if this could take an age to sort out. The only problem is I'm right in the middle of one of the groups trying to put a spoke in the Bretix process and don't have any time to write.

Yes. A lot of the 'silent majority' who would have voted Remain did not vote because they presumed a Remain vote was a foregone conclusion. Figures suggest that about three in twenty who supported Remain did not vote as they thought it was a given that Remain would win. On the leave side the turn out was nearly one hundred percent of those who would vote Leave turned out to vote. You have a situation where many who would not support Trump might not vote for Hilary because they think it is clear that she is going to win. On the other side a lot of minority groups are likely to turn out for Trump. Don't be complacent, you could end up with Trump even without him having apparently enough support to win.

​It's not the silent majority you have to worry about, it the unheard minority, they are fed up with the whole bloody system and will do anything to upset the apple cart. Add them to the idiots, bigots and the insane and you find you have an unexpected majority.

No the cousin is better looking.

Comment on the BBC this morning by a former Republican campaign manager. "The Republican party does not have a campaign, it has a Twitter account with an egomaniac behind it."

Good point but in your Facebook profile you set you gender so it is known to Facebook.

As Facebook knows the gender of Mary Smith they should know better.

A scam is going on to capture your gmail login details. I have received emails on to different gmail accounts from a party identified as mawriter@gmail.com. The subject of the email is given as Fortune! The mail displays with a message that if you are unable to see the content click on a link. The link takes you to what appears to be your gmail login page with a message that your session has expired and that you should login again. DON'T DO IT. If you investigate the ip address for the page you will see that it has nothing to do with any valid Google address. The one email address that was used is one that is only published on AD, so it is highly likely that it has been scrapped by a web-bot scanning the site. If so it is likely that other authors with gmail accounts will also be targeted. Be careful.

I get the impression that the singular they is used far more in British English than in American English. At school I was taught that when you were referring to the singular in a none gender specific state you used they. There is a good article on the issue here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they There is also an article that indicates that this usage is somewhat archaic arguing you should use the he or she http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/he-or-she-versus-they I find this he or she​ usage somewhat cumbersome and prefer the singular they.

Yes, that is exactly the way that a number of would be tyrants have operated over the years. I believe the trend was set by Henry the Second when he asked "Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?" The after Becket's death denied all intention.

​I am sure there is something in the Intergalactic Convention on Co-existence of Intelligent Species which would prohibit any such course of action. Surely it comes under the section of causing or allowing to be caused dangerous pollution which might result in harm to Intelligent Species. It is the same section that has resulted in the no fly zone round this section of the galaxy and the notice boards placed around the outer extremes of the Ort cloud that read "Danger Humans"!

Yes, the bit that they did not publish was the fact that not only is it moving north but the rate of that movement is actually increasing.

I found this story on Crvboy and was drawn to it by the fact that it appeared to be the only story on the sight by the author and from the citation it appeared that the author is dead. The story is basically that of David who goes to Atlanta to find out about his brother, who has died. His being there triggers off a series of events all of which have consequences. Somethings work out for the best, others ... Well you do not know what will happen in the end. It is a good telling of an interesting story with some well written characters. It is a story I have really enjoyed reading. You can find it here: http://www.crvboy.org/stories/rc/s001/c01.html

Chris, no where in England is more than 70 miles from the sea. So yes, I do have experience of the seaside, but English seaside towns are nothing like those found on the Atlantic coast of the USA. The nearest we probably have to anything like in the States is Blackpool, which is a pale imitation. The seaside culture here is very different, with American East Coast seaside culture drawing more on Dutch and German traditions than Anglo-Saxon sources.