Thursday 8 July 2010

Brian Coleman and Pride 2010 (or not as the case may be)

One of my favourite Tory blogs (no, I really mean it) is the blog by Roger Evans, Leader of the Tory group on the GLA. As Tories go, Roger is a good guy. As well as having an excellent name, he writes a great blog, which is well written, interesting and informative. He's always courteous and polite (a lesson to us all!) and when he gets it wrong, he admits it.

I was intrigued by his latest post about Pride 2010 - http://city-hall.blogspot.com/2010/07/pride-2010.html - Roger says all the right things and includes some nice pictures. I was pondering how much the Tory party changed, when I suddenly realised that  nowhere amongst the pictures was anything about Londons highest profile openly Gay assembly member Brian Coleman. Was this an oversight on Rogers part? did he not want to be seen out with our Brian, or did Brian snub the event? I did a google search for images of our beloved GLA member at Pride and drew a blank. Given the large numbers of his constituents who attend Pride, I was rather surprised to not find any pictures at all.

Now maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I then noticed that the picture at the top of Rogers blog (reproduced here) was a Fire Engine decked out with what appears to me to be an FBU PRIDE banner. Given that the FBU can't stand Brian Coleman, is Roger sending us a coded message? Was Brian afraid to show himself as the FBU were making a promenant show of support for Pride?

If anyone can confirm Brians attendance, I'd love to hear from them. I'd be more than happy to post a few pictures, to show our GLA member supporting Pride. If he didn't go, I'd be intrigued to know why. Most of all I'd be intrigued to hear from Roger as to whether I've drawn far too much into his pictures. Given his comment, I can't help but feel that he's giving Brian a friendly dig - what do you think?
 
The Conservative contingent was around 40 strong and included a couple of MPs and my Assembly colleague Andrew Boff, pictured along with myself and Graham Archer who contributes some superb material to Conservative Home.It is important for the Party to be seen here and I hope we can persuade more people to join us next year - we may even hire an open topped bus.

* Update - Roger Evans, quite rightly, points out that the poster on the Fire Engine is not an FBU but a LFB banner. I suppose it's quite revealing that this is the only thing he takes issue with

2 comments:

Mrs Angry said...

Well, I saw the Gay Pride march a couple of years ago, going down Regents Street, headed by an uncomfortable looking Mayor Boris. Saw lots of lovely firemen, but no Brian. But really, Rog, do you think that our Brian is capable of walking anywhere? Perhaps he was following behind in a taxi.
I can exclusively reveal, btw, that to Mrs Angry's expert eye, and somewhat to her surprise, it appeared that - wait for it - BORIS JOHNSON IS NO LONGER A NATURAL BLONDE. Looked suspiciously and unnaturally yellow to me. I must add that I sincerely hope never to be in such a position that I might be able to confirm whether or not this is the case, from a more personal inspection. And now I am feeling rather unwell and apologise for lowering the tone of this esteemed blog.

Broadway Blogger said...

My fave story about Festivals last weekend is this one from the East Barnet Festival. The POLICE yet again spoilt the afternoon for loads of families by calling up traffic wardens.

http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/8259894.Festival_goers_angered_by_parking_ticket_blitz/

Quite shocking how the Local Police in Barnet treat the local people.

I am frankly disgusted and I hope Barnet Council cancel all these tickets in a goodwill gesture.

Brian Coleman is an irrelevance to most people in Barnet to be fair. It is things like this which effect ordinary people and leave a bad taste in the mouth.