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Well Darlings,

It's been a strange kind of week, I think. We've had Charles Clarke's scathing attack on Tony Blair - something which many senior Labour figures believe may bring forward the date of the Prime Minister's handover to Gordon Brown. Downing Street, swiftly backed up by the Labour Party chairman Lord Soley, has unsuccessfully tried to dismiss Mr Clarke's criticism of Mr Blair's loss of "purpose and direction" as merely being "sour grapes". I say "unsuccessfully" because it appears to me that there is an overwhelming number of people who share the opinions of Charles Clarke, and who now believe that his attack on Tony Blair might easily be the fatal blow that will end the premiership.

Thinking back over the past nine years I find it somewhat comes as a relief that our Tony has lost his purpose and direction. It seems to me that when he had a purpose and direction that the people agreed with he was rarely able to deliver. But when it was not in accord with the people then he certainly did manage to deliver, didn't he? Against all the odds, and the wishes of the majority of the nations in the world, we became embroiled in a war. A war that to my mind has solved nothing at all. Iraqi frogs farting in the long grass were definitely to be preferred over what we have in that country today.

Yes, we have an issue with terrorists - and rightly so. The world quite simply cannot just sit back and suffer terrorism. But one day historians will question the credibility of how this issue we have with terrorism came to be twisted into a war on Iraq when the enemy we fear is all too often to be found living in our midst and not sat in the sand thousands of miles away. There, under the blazing sun, only sit the farting frogs - those who the more we try to destroy them, the more allies they amount.

Apartheid in South Africa wasn't solved by war, invasion, bombing raids, devastation and a mass killing of its people. It was done by a mixture of incentives, sanctions, and giving good example. It was a long and slow process, but it worked. Likewise, something similar worked with the terrible situation we had in Northern Ireland. Where would we be today had we adopted the policy of "bomb the hell out of them" in either of those two places? And we could have done.

But I fear our Tony is not alone in being without purpose or direction. It is probably wrong of us to single him out. Global warming and all that might mean, no longer to be seen as only a possibility, is now slapping us across the face with gusto. None the more for that, the leaders of the world continue to reaffirm their determination to deal with it, and do very little else even though it may be the wish of the majority of their people. And about a year ago there was a lot of positive talk as Britain and other members of the G8 group of countries promised to boost aid to the poverty-stricken African nations. That too was the wish of the people - a planet-full of people. But sadly today we hear of Geldof and Bono accusing those nations of "welching" on the deal.

Those promises, in both cases, have all too often resulted only in the manipulation of figures. In the latter case, whilst it may be said that some debt has been written off, much of what the people expected - those three billion who watched the Live 8 concerts on TV, and the estimated 1.5 million who attended them, and the more than 30 million who signed up to the text and web petition - just has not materialised.

Not to be seen as a failure - a lot of good has come from Live 8 - the end result can only be seen as a vituperative indictment on those governments involved whose distinct lack of purpose and direction has failed us. "I must, I can, and I will," has become to mean "I should, I could, but I won't - and I'll just hope nobody notices." Spin has become the universal way of governing. What you hear is not what you get. From our local councils right up to our national governments, and now extending to conglomerates of governments, we find that officialdom is not performing to the satisfaction or the expectations of the people. Where will it all end? I don't know. But I know it will end - history has proved that to us time and time again. There will be tears.

Officialdom today, with little sense of purpose or direction, has come to believe its job is simply to make rules for others to follow. It matters not what rules, so long as they restrict the people then they must be good and worthy of a lot of self-congratulation. And if they can make money out their people with a new rule then bonus - they go to the top of the class. I have little doubt that some pompous twit once managed to justify to some other pompous twits the rule where flags flown out of windows, or at an angle, are technically illegal without formal planning permission from the local authority. We're told that since a law was passed in 1992 flags may only be flown without local planning consent if they fly from a vertical pole, and a breach of this regulation could result in a fine of up to £2,500 being imposed. It's an amount of money that must be a temptation to collect for many a council, and it would only take one to go for it, to break the ice, for the punitive action to snowball.

How dare some pompous official twit tell any person how they may or may not fly the flag of the nation of which they are a part, born into or have given allegiance to, and of which they may one day be called upon to die for, as so many have in past and present wars! It is the people who are the nation. The flag is their flag. It belongs to them - not to some bureaucrat. When our people go to war and fight under our flag they are fighting for their Queen and their country. They are not fighting for their government - governments come and go.

Our flag is not the sole property of some idiots in a remote government department - people we technically employ - no matter what they may say, think, or rule. Providing it is done with consideration and safely, how, when, and why different people choose to fly their national flag should be the business of nobody else but them! Quite obviously not everyone can have a vertical flagpole in their garden, nevertheless I believe we should all still have the right to fly both the Union flag and / or the flag of our respective country as and when we please. Should some "flag etiquette" be compromised in doing so, then a little assistance and leeway is called for - not a thumping great fine! If that is not to be the case then I say we should immediately bring all our brave boys and girls home from Iraq and send out there all those pompous official twits who believe they have sole rights over our flag and let them do the fighting! "Ducking the bullets are we Archibald? Just you make sure you keep that ruddy flag vertical, man!"

It's time a few people took a leaf out of some gay philosophy. I am what I am. In my case that means: I am gay. I am proud to be what I was created, and who I am. I am also proud to be both British and English. I am happy to be a part of my sovereign state and to it I pledge my allegiance - but that does not mean that I impart on the government of it the right to impose unnecessary restrictions on any of my rights or freedoms.

Today we have had too many unnecessary restrictions imposed on our born rights and freedoms. Today we are in dire need of a political party with the devout purpose and direction to restore all of those rights and freedoms. Such a party, with such a noble purpose and direction, would find itself easily elected to govern.

To try to take away the right of any citizen to their national flag is to try to take away some of their dignity, their national identity, and one of their accepted rights. The right to peaceable freedom of expression. I grew up in a time when the flags of all our countries came out (and not just the British ones) and happily flew together at the slightest occasion. It wasn't seen as being jingoistic or gung ho, as some will try to tell you. It was seen as being happy to be a part of something - something that mattered to us - and even with all our individual and sometimes varying flags we felt we were a united people. Those flags flew at all angles and from anything we could tie them to - and not a soul objected. So why all this stupidity today?

The law may have been passed and, in our hundreds of thousands, we may be flouting that law as we patriotically honour our national football team's efforts and wish them all good fortune by flying our nation's flag as best we can, but illegal or not the moral high ground remains with the people - the nation. Personally, I question the right of any person to govern me, or any part of my country, if they are not in favour of the people who make up my country being able to display their national identity with pride - whatever that may be. We are a nation made up of people from many and diverse backgrounds - we are diverse - and it's time that those who govern us accepted that and learned exactly what that means instead of merely trotting out the phrase with regularity to look authoritative, but not really having a clue as to what it does mean.

Gay people know all about diversity. We walk the walk. We have always celebrated our differences - our individualities - happy to acknowledge them, to accept them, and to respect them. That's to respect them, darlings - not to restrict them! We know that EVERYBODY has their rights and their freedoms that they hold dear to them. To restrict some of them, perhaps any of them, does nothing towards promoting harmony.

I have rarely seen cause to be ashamed of my nation - the many and diverse people. I have never seen cause to be ashamed of my Queen. But all too frequently I have seen cause to be ashamed of those whom we elect to govern us.

And I am what I am. What are you?

See you next week . . .

"The Bitch!" 1/07/06.

About the Author

"The Bitch!", a weekly UK News Review column, is hosted by the author and columnist Michael Knell. These articles appear on the Blackpool Gay Directory website, but are not specifically gay in content. More information on the author: http://www.michaelknell.com and on the directory: http://www.astabgay.com.