#Ministerial Code

[mapgubbins]

Written Parliamentary Questions vs the FOI Act: are Labour ministers ignoring the Ministerial Code?

Post: 21 March 2025

New blog post on my website:

Written Parliamentary Questions vs the FOI Act: are Labour ministers ignoring the Ministerial Code?

[eaglesnick]

This is a wonderful planet, and it is being completely destroyed by people who have too much money and power and no empathy. -Alice Walker

Spot the difference.

“Tory MP apologises for failing to report extra earnings on time.” Guardian: 19/10/15)

Tory MP failed to notice receiving £400,00 in outside earnings. (Financial Times: 04/02/16)

Boris Johnson apologises to Commons for failing to declare £52,000 earnings on time." sky news: 06/12/18)

“A Conservative MP has not been formally disciplined despite breaching rules on declaring interests after being lent £150,000 by a businessman for a rental property and then writing to a financial watchdog to praise the same person."  (Guardian: 21/11/22)

“Nadhim Zahawi is under scrutiny over a multi-million pound tax dispute. The Conservative chairman says he made a “careless and not deliberate” error according to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), but he is now facing calls to resign."  (4 news: 25/01/23)

“Rishi Sunak "inadvertently" broke the code of conduct for MPs by not correctly declaring his wife's financial interest in a childminding company set to benefit from government support” sky news: 24/08/23).

Did you spot the difference. No? Of course not, there isn’t any. All of the above failures to declare financial interests or income were all slips of memory and totally unintentional.

It must be really nice to have so much money that you cannot remember how much you have or where you last stashed it. 

[tamilethnicity]

Angela Rayner bombshell as Tories claim she 'asked staff to help her move house'

Angela Rayner allegedly asked staff in her private office to move her into a Whitehall property by “transporting furniture” according to a formal complaint. She also reportedly asked the officials to assist with “cleaning the accommodation”. The complaint about the Labour minister’s conduct came from the Tory MP and shadow minister Paul Holmes. He submitted the report to the director of propriety…

[ozzgin]

Keeping the theme of literary yandere characters, I return with this Kafkaesque bizarrerie of a bureaucratic madman. content: gender neutral reader, kidnapping, absurdism

Yandere!Office Worker is a prim and proper young man. He's eloquent, well-mannered, and intelligent, albeit a little stiff in his ways. One can tell he enjoys rules and structure, perhaps to the point of absurdity - otherwise he wouldn't be such a great servant of the bureaucratic machine. Indeed, everything must go according to the established code of conduct; yet, the author of these instructions remains to be determined.

Yandere!Office Worker is convinced you must become his partner at once! Consequently, you wake up in a basement, though it's not the typical basement one would imagine when thinking about basements. The wallpaper is fresh and elegant, the little window bordering the ceiling allows for plenty of natural light, and the furniture is clean, luxurious, with a faint sterile smell to it. Of course, he cleans everything thoroughly every morning at exactly 7:45am, with the exception of your bed, as he does not wish to disturb your slumber.

Yandere!Office Worker listens to your horrified pleas with profound interest in his eyes. You're a tad annoyed by his sympathy. "Hey," you warn him, "you're literally the one who kidnapped me. Don't pretend you're not involved!" He gasps, his pale, slender hand clutching at his chest. Well, pretending to clutch, that is: he wouldn't want to wrinkle his buttoned shirt.

Yandere!Office Worker vehemently denies any kind of wrongdoing. No, no, you were not kidnapped. It's a misunderstanding! He has the paperwork, you see. Everything happened according to the law. If you do insist, he can call the Tribunal. They'll tell you it all happened officially and correctly. "What's this Tribunal you speak of," you ask with a skeptical frown. "Let me call them myself," you demand, "since you can't be trusted."

Yandere!Office Worker hands you the telephone with pompous theatrics. "You're in luck," he says, "they're only open on Thursdays and Tuesdays, but only if it's sunny." You rip the device from his fingers and dial the number. His own phone begins to ring. "Yes," he answers solemnly, "how may we help you?" You stare, bewildered, at the scene unfolding before you. "Are you mocking me? What's the meaning of this," you begin to shout, but he quickly places a finger over your lips. "Not right now, Darling, I have an important work call."

Yandere!Office Worker is a damned lunatic. You march towards the door and urge him to let you go. You have coworkers, friends, and family waiting for you outside. Your partner! This idea seems to upset him greatly, because he stomps his foot into the carpeted floor and gesticulates: "Because he lifted his skirts like this, this giddy goose," he cries out, "you chatted him up, dug your nose into the pretty words like a well-fed pig!" He grabs your hands with desperate urgency. "Won't you understand already? I'm your husband, I ought to know you better than all these strangers you speak of."

Yandere!Office Worker is rather convincing in his ministerial meltdown. You inspect the documents, putting each line under scrutiny. Finally, you click your tongue. The rascal has a point, after all, everything matches the paperwork. "No mistake," you confess, handing him the thick, leather-bound folder. "I suspected you'd come to your senses very soon," he beams. "Let's go upstairs, I'll make you a cup of coffee." You follow behind obediently. "I'd like-" you start, but he interrupts you. "Half a teaspoon of sugar, a little milk foam on top. Who do you think you're talking to, (Y/N)?"

[blorger]

One thing I noticed only recently is the way Percy calls his father and how it's an indication of his storyline's progress throughout the books. Percy's whole character arc is about how he's doing ambition wrong; there's this undercurrent of judgement towards Percy's desire to be an accomplished professional and i think his language reflects that.

Percy has had a very formal way of speaking since the very first book, it's one of the main indicators that we're supposed to read him as a pompous party pooper, but we don't see him address his father until book 3, when jkr starts setting up the ministry plot:

(from PoA: Percy enjoys the treatment Arthur is getting from the ministry, foreshadowing his interest in climbing up the ministerial ladder)

I find the use of the word "Father" interesting: the most notable person we see use the term in the books is Draco, who is very much posh-coded.

(from PS, one of the very first things we come to know about Draco is how he addresses his father: this is a scene from Harry and Draco's first meeting)

A not insignificant facet of Draco's personality comes from how his elevated status in society has shaped him to be arrogant and dismissive of other people. Draco speaks like a Fancy Boy, with his "Father"s (always capitalised) and his insistence on calling most people (even his friends and housemates) by their last name.

Seeing Percy start to use the type of language we've been accustomed to see from posh boy extraordinaire Draco is jarring, and it primes us to start disliking him. As Percy's brief foray into the Evil side begins (basically From GoF onwards) Percy starts ramping up in his use of "Father":

and

and

but at the culmination of his story arc, when Percy is reunited with his family during the battle of Hogwarts, Percy switches to "dad":

This, again, mirrors Draco in that he also changes the way he addresses his father when he's at his most emotional

and I find this very interesting.

[leviackermanstoes]

When life brought you back.

Dark wizards!Sebastian sallow and ominis gaunt x auror! Reader.

....

Summary: You haven't seen Sebastian Sallow and Ominis Gaunt since your paths diverged long ago. When a cryptic case comes up with the ministery that you know you can't solve yourself, there's only two people who know can help you.

Includes: uhhhhh. Canon typical violence. Seb and omi are dark wizards, Dark, yall, so keep that in mind. Everyone is aged up as this takes place almost 13 years after hogwarts legacy. Reader is a high-ranking auror. Arguing. Angst. Bad writing. Seb and reader are ex lovers.

---

It was a cold night when the letter came.

Auror F/N L/N, when you get this letter, I will be long dead. I hope you will do good.

T.L

Almost immediately after you received the letter, there was a wave of violent murders across London. 4 women and 4 men across three different cities were all killed the same way with their throats cut. All had the dark mark.

During the most rainy days of the month, you were out looking for evidence. London was so unbearably cold when it rained, but there's never a more beautiful time to be outside. you found no more than basic evidence on your time out, and as mud and leaves stuck to your boots like an unwanted companion, you sighed and cursed yourself out.

caught in fallen brown and green leaves, empty cans, and bottles in the street, The streets of London that bore potholes and worn away cobblestone were bare of magic traces and anyone at all. And so you were lost.

When the stacks of paper rolled into your office later in the week, you were screwed. Deciphering the codes and the cryptic messages and symbols one by one over nights and nights became too much even for an auror of your status.

Triangle. Squares. Circles. An oval. A zigzag shape. Line and crosses and dots and squiggles.

One symbol, in particular, of a long s shape down the middle of a triangle struck you hard. You'd seen that before. It reminds you of the dark things you've seen and the many people you've faced that brought you threads length away from death. But most of all, it reminds you of them.

You knew there was only one place you could really go. The place you dreaded, and above all else, the people who hoped you wouldn't see again.

And you were sure they felt the same.

----

Azkaban is bloody dark. And even more so cold. Your cloak of grey warmed you in the sharp chill of the air as you made your way to the guards. Not a dementor, but a young man in a black mask covering his mouth who sat like royalty behind a desk.

"Excuse me?" You placed your hand on the desk.

"What do you want?"

The air was cold, but the masked man's tone was colder. You rolled your eyes at the monotone bass in his voice and continued to speak.

"I have a request to see Prisoners 234 and 235 here from the ministery of magic." You slid the note across where the masked man grabbed it in his slender gloved hand.

"And who are you?" He turnt his head.

"Auror F/N L/N"

"Mmmh," He grumbled and shooed you away.

Without bothering to ask any further, you walked to the elevator where two dementors accompanied you. Chills ran up your spine at the feeling of freezing air that their tattered and haunting cloaks were putting into the small space. Low growls and Sleek, Black creature like hands.

This had better be worth it.

---

Sebastian Sallow was just as handsome as he was all those years ago, if not more. His soft and round childish face grew sharper and more defined into ruggedness. The brown in his hair was darker and it was more more dishevelled. He was different. Larger hands, wider shoulders, and a dark look in his eyes, his emerald, crystalline eyes.

But he had his freckles still. Those goddamn freckles.

Ominis hadn't changed. Yes, his hair wasn't slicked back, and his face wasn't soft, and his once soft, cloudy eyes were glinting darker. But he hadn't changed. His body posture was still reserved and quiet, and he still gave quirks back to Sebastian's antics.

You observed them from outside their cells beside each other. Sebastian leaned with his arms above his head against the jailbars, eyes closed. Ominis leaned with his back at the wall, arms crossed, and one leg on the wall.

"You can't ignore me forever. Just answer my question, would you?"

You folded your arms across your chest and sighed. Ominis chuckled.

"You seriously haven't changed. Always in a hurry."

You watched ominis shake his head and push gently off the wall before he walked to the bars with a certain elegant swagger that only ominis gaunt could pull off. From beside ominis's cell, was the glaring eyes of Sebastian Sallow.

Emerald and Sharp like razor cut grass.

"Why not stick around and wait for a bit? You might find these people are as friendly as they look." sebastian gave a sly smile.

His face close to the bars, cold metal pressing into his worn out skin.

"I've seen them all before" You said simply as you moved your face closely to the bars. Inches from seb. "When I put them in here."

You stepped back and sighed. "Look, you guys, I have a few photos of symbols, I need your help to decipher what it all might mean"

Sebastian scoffed. "Wow. After 13 years and you couldn't even give us a how are you?"

"Not even a hello?" Ominis chimed in.

You looked at the floor. You were ashamed that the only time you'd come to see your best friends was when they were behind the bars of a prison cell. You weren't afraid to admit you had missed them. A lot. The illustrious look in Sebastian's eyes and the cheeky smile that ominis wore.

You had certainly missed it all. And you'd be damned if you didn't say you were just all that glad to see them, even under such circumstances.

Ominis slid his hand through the bars as he leant on them and gestured for you to give him the note.

"What is it?" Seb's eyebrows furrowed.

As ominis traced over the dark ink, the look on his face told you he had caught notice of something you clearly hadn't.

"There's an indentation here," he points to the top of the triangle, or thereabouts. "And some smaller dots across the paper"

"What's that mean?"

And before you could even turn your head, sebastian was already smirking.

"It means they've succeeded in marking their targets. Whoever made this has left small imprints of where they've left their victims"

You looked over at ominis, who nodded.

"Is it supposed to be so out of place?" You asked seb.

And he laughed. He actually laughed.

"Out of place? Love give me the paper" he chuckled.

You took the paper from ominis and gave it to sebastian. Ominis looked like he was suddenly useless.

"Here's a pencil"

"You're not looking clearly if you think it's a mess," seb spoke up as he pointed to the paper with the tip of the lead.

His arms were dangling out through the cell bars as he leant lazily upon them.

"See this?" He drew a connecting line from the tip of the triangle to the next dot then the next until they formed an askew square shape.

The paper now showed a squiggly line, a triangle, and a small askew square protruding off the side of the triangles' right side.

Seb handed the paper and pen back to you and sighed. "Kindergarten work"

You rolled your eyes. "So what's this mean then? That the next victims could be within a square area?"

"Yknow for a high-ranking auror, you're not very bright," ominis retorted. To which seb snickered.

"I didn't come here for smartass comebacks, I came for help. Now tell me what the hell this means!"

Ominis and sebastian sighed in unison. If you hadn't been under such circumstances, you would've kissed them both on the cheek to make them blush before running away like you used to.

"It's an old calling card for when a dark wizard needs help. They would make a hidden square in a symbol or code of some kind. I myself used it before" sebastian spoke.

For a moment. Just for a moment before sebastian said anything, you felt like it was just you three back at hogwarts figuring out mysteries together. You used to get caught by Professor weasley all the time and take the blame for omi and seb.

For a moment, you'd forgotten that your two best friends were now the world's most wanted dark wizards.

"You don't know how much this means to me guys, really,"

You said as you tucked the paper back into your vest pocket.

"So, are you getting us out of here or not?" Sebastian sighed, raising his brows. "Or did you come to gloat and show off your new robe like a preen?"

You couldn't believe this was your seb talking to you like this.

"No. No, I did come here with the intention of helping you both out"

You pulled out a pair of keys from your back pocket. The look in both Sebastian's and ominis's eyes could've lit up the darkest of rooms. Ominis stood up straight, but sebastian was still slumped.

One was hopeful, and one was doubtful.

"I'm getting you out of here...it's the most I could do..."

"For putting us in here..."

sebastian finished your sentence as you approached his cell, and when the keys unlocked the door, there was a moment of deep silence as you went to unlock ominis out of his own cell.

"Yes, for putting you in here"

Neither wizard nor witch said a word until sebastian spoke up.

"Come give me a fucking hug would you?"

And almost pathetically fast, you ran at Sebastian's into his arms. He smelt like the wet azkaban floor and was covered in soot and dry blood splatters on his rags but you couldn't have cared less.

Sebastian was back in your clutch. Both of your boys were. You wouldn't have to look at them through newspaper clippings and notebooks again. They were real this time.

"You have no idea how much I've missed you both" you spoke as you hugged ominis.

"I hope you brought a pair of shoes." Sebastian grumbled.

You chuckled. "I didn't, but I'm gonna take you both somewhere safe okay?"

They both nodded, and for the first time since meeting you, they both felt at peace once again.

And they would never let you go. Again.

----

Still taller than you even now, Ominis and Sebastian Strided alongside you in heavy, hooded cloaks to conceal their identities. You knew it was dangerous to have them out in the open. They were oozing with dark magic traces, and the dementors would surely come after them again and even more so if someone spots them...

It was easy to get them out of azkaban, as the guard had just shooed you off. You were sure that there had to be some kind of punishment for releasing prisoners just like that. especially ones of their status.

But you couldn't complain.

"So where will we go now?" Ominis turnt to you.

His cloak was soaked by the relentless rain, and his face was dripping. Cold rain flooded at his lips as he tried to speak.

The rain battered your bodies. Thuds upon the concrete made it hard to hear anything. Night was falling, and you only had so much energy.

"I don't know, but somewhere safe"

Sebastian scoffed and straightened his back. "There's nowhere safe around here"

He spoke in a doubtful tone. Which you couldn't blame him for.

"I will find us a place. There's a hideout most minstery staff use when they need a safe house. " You spoke as you checked your pocket watch. "We should be there soon. If we walk now, we can make it by midnight"

"A safe house?" Sebastian stopped in his tracks.

"What?" Your brows furrowed.

"You're gonna take us to your high profile safehouse and then what? Use us for our smarts and then give us back to azkaban?!"

You shook your head. "No! No no no sebastian i would-"

"WHAT?!"

He yelled suddenly, drowning out every sense of thunder in the onyx skies. His eyes filled with a dark cloudiness that was haunting to see in the eyes of someone who used to look at you like you were the world.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" You clenched your fists at your sides and couldn't tell which was running down your face, tears or raindrops.

"WOULDN'T DO THAT? NEED I REMIND YOU WHO PUT US IN THOSE CELLS!"

"NO SEBASTIAN SALLOW!"

The sound of your foot stomping on the cobblestone reverberated down the echoing path. Lightning cracked in the distance, and the rain kept its relentless beating upon your back.

You've never called sebastian by his full name. And you hope, for a second, that it scares him. The look in his eyes glints corruption and dark magic, all things you never used to know your sweet sebastian was capable of.

Used to know.

"I'm not trying to screw you over! I'm aware that I've done that before!"

"You could've told them we were innocent!"

"OH GIVE ME A BREAK!"

Your voice hurt from yelling. You felt bad for poor ominis who couldn't see what was happening but could hear the emotion being poured into it, and for the first time in his life, he was almost glad to be blind.

"I know I let you down, okay! I know that you have no reason to trust me anymore!"

Ominis turns to face you. His smoky white eyes haze over you just as they did 13 years ago before he walked away from you. The rain drips down his face, and you can't make out what he might say or might be thinking.

And it makes you want to cry. Because you should know.

"Please don't fight for merlin's sake. Like or not, were all in this together now, alright?"

Sebastian looks at you, but you look away.

------

Let me know if you guys want part 2😭😭😭

[clairedaring]

Compilation post of my favorite Nadao actors (Nonkul Chanon, JJ Krissanapoom, Tor Thanapob) & Bright Rapheephong giving some interview answers on why they decided to star in queer/LGBTQ+ coded series/roles, some of their takes on being in BL (Y)/Queer series.

note: if you find this post familiar, it's because i've posted this on Reddit before. reposting here for archival purposes

TOR THANAPOB

Tor Thanapob interview in April 2023 when being asked about starring in Midnight Museum (a queer-coded GMMTV series) - (translation by infinitygraph_)

Tor: I think nowadays we should stop talking about gender. It doesn't mean that I have to act with women all the time or I can't act with men at all. I feel that I have proved to everyone that, work is work, and everything is about art. Even my team who are staying with me all the time has all kind of sexualities. It's not strange if someday we want to try telling story of other sexualities that we feel that we might be able to help them telling. If you ask me if today I am like that, today I might not, but I have a chance to understand them more, so I want to do it. Q: Is it because of the spoiler that [Midnight Museum] might be a series Y (BL)? Tor: Nothing to do with it. I tell you, sincerely, it has nothing to do with the spoiler. I just want to say that you don't have to overthink about it because nothing is fixed. Actors are actors. These days there are some award shows don't divide genders into categories anymore. I think this is a great step. Actresses also don't have to act with men all the time, they can act with women. And they both being the main characters Right. Because not all the main characters from every project have to come with the word 'love'. Even if there's 'love', there're many kinds of love. It's up to the audience what kind of feeling they have. Do they feel the same as me or they even feel more than I do? Q: So that means these days you can accept the work without any limit about what you are, which genders... Everything is about the story/script-writing? Tor: Right. I admit that I was afraid before. I wasn't afraid about my image, I was afraid that I would tell the story without understanding it, because I didn't have any experience at all. But at some point I found the chance to be more open-minded, brave to act it out all the way, such as Midnight Museum...

Tor's Vogue Interview in February 2024 on Spare Me Your Mercy as another important milestone as an actor (all translation by saltymarbles on twitter)

Tor: As for Euthanasia, I’ve been interested in it just from its name. If we were to go back in time to the period of the Prime Ministerial elections last year, there was some talk regarding the laws about euthanasia. As such, I know the meaning of it but if I had to explain it, I wouldn’t dare to because I don’t know that deeply about it. Tor: Up to the day that this drama happens, the owner of this project told me he wanted to set this question before anything changed in society: ‘Actually, are humans capable of choosing their death?’. Tor: This question shot through the core of my brain and immediately, i was like: ‘I need to tell this story’. And the role that he hoped to give me also served that function too. It’s a character which sets up the question of ‘what is right?’.(t/n: "this question" likely refers to a more philosophical kind of question regarding morality which asks what does being ‘correct’ mean — what is ‘objective morality’ (if it exists)) Tor: Do the people who are really suffering have the right to ask to leave? (t/n: "leave" is just a polite way of saying die (Thai people usually don’t use directly use the word die when talking about humans, usually use a more polite way like how we say ‘passed away’ or ‘xyz has left us’) Tor: Thus I decided to play along with knowing that the timeline of Euthanasia will remain with one in a hundred (people), so I like shades of the polar opposite. If the first story is navy blue, the other will be red — not close at all.

NONKUL CHANON

Nonkul's response to the question “If you have a chance, would you consider playing in a BL series? If accepted, who do you to co-act with?” in a Facebook Q&A video in 2021

Nonkul: If that series is an interesting storyline for me, I am always open to any kind of genre. I never categorized BL series as an BL series, I just think of it as a series with another plot as part of my work. It is a normal series that can have any of the plots which I will categorize as Romantic Comedy, Drama or whatever. Thus, when I choose the BL series I want to work with, the love preference of the character does not affect my decision. If the plot of the series is interesting, of course I’m gonna do it for sure. Every work that I chose, I personally think it at least enjoyable for me. Of course, if in the future, there are BL series with plots that I find interesting, that I enjoyed the script. “Like, wow, that’s my type!”, I will definitely selected it to be my future project. A good written series is a good series. This is what I believe as an actor. For BL Series, I think I can work with everyone. I don’t think I have anyone in particular. One thing! I desire the character of that person/actor? to be close to the character in the series. At that point I will be satisfied. Sometimes, I as an actor have a chance to work with people who don't have a lot of acting experience. I will still discover something new from him as well. And there is a BL novel which I really like! [Nonkul explains the plot of his favorite BL Novel ‘Peremo’] I would prefer to choose the “heroine” role because it will be a new experience for me as an actor because it will be a new experience for me as an actor. Because basically I only play as a hero role for the main character or support character in my work, but a “heroine” role in a BL series is the only chance for me to play a character more feminine. So it is a new experience for me. [Nonkul continues raving about 'Peremo’]. But if you think that you can make [an adaptation of Peremo], please do not forget me, Nonkul! Pleaseeeeeeee, I will do my best, I promise!!! However, I’m not only fixated on this novel. I’m also open for many more BL series if there is an interesting plot.

Nonkul's response to being ask if he's worried about filming NC scenes in IFYLITA (translation by saltymarbles)

Nonkul: I have to say when I had finished reading [the novel] and it’s made me want to act (in this series). I am probably worried more about the CG because if it’s a fantasy story with time travel, if the CG isn’t good, people will feel that it’s ‘off’. Because CG is something we don’t know anything about until we see the final product. One of the reasons that I accepted this role is because for some series, when I’ve read (the script/novel) for homework, I don’t accept them because there are some scenes that are forced in just for the sake of fan service. And I’m not really into that. If it’s a natural NC scene, then I’m not bothered. I’m a person who places a lot of importance on the story in series making sense. So to me, if an NC scene is reasonable, I won’t be bothered by it. But if it seems forced, I’m not into it. It’s important to show human-ness.

Two clips of Nonkul being asked what he thinks about doing NC scenes in IFYLITA (Clip 1 and Clip 2). Nonkul said that he places great importance on the character's actions. If an NC scene is reasonable he wouldn't mind but would if it's not reasonable. For Nonkul, understanding character is very important, especially for himself as an actor. Nonkul also said previously he had rejected some BL series offers because he can feel when NC scenes are put in just for fan service, which is also a reason why Nonkul accepted to play Jom in IFYLITA is because the love scenes are natural and make sense.

JJ KRISSANAPOOM aka JAYLERR

JJ's interview in February 2024 on Spare Me Your Mercy and his chemistry with Tor (translation by saltymarbles)

JJ: The pilot of ‘Euthanasia’ has been received well since the novel has many fans already who are excited about it. JJ & Tor are similarly excited and are committed to doing their best. The chemistry between Tor & JJ need not be questioned according to JJ since they are already close with each other. The series is in the phase of pre-production currently.

One of my favorite fictional characters of ALL TIME (not just in Thai or BL series) has got to be Tangmo from Great Men Academy (2019) (the series that a lot of BL audience refused to admit it's a queer series). The character Tangmo (played by Jaylerr) was questioned by the press about his gay crush on the protagonist: "Do you think being gay affect your chance of winning the competition?" to which his reply was a stellar "Well then let me ask you something, Does being gay make my good deeds meaningless?"

This isn't the first time JJ has played a queer role, JJ has played a gay character in TWO seasons of the LGBTQ+ series Diary of Tootsies (2016 and 2017). JJ plays Gus, the love interest of the main character.

So even though many BL fans consider Spare Me Your Mercy to be JJ's "first" BL series (which I don't agree with this strict interpretation of BL series), it is definitely not his first QL (Queer Love) series nor queer-adjacent roles as shown through out his filmography.

It is also noteworthy that even during the airing of these series, JJ was already in a public relationship with his fellow actress girlfriend Thanaerng (who has also played sapphic roles). You can see that the real life relationship of JJ or Thanaerng do not influence how/what projects they take on because work is just work :D

BRIGHT RAPHEEPHONG (all translation by saltymarbles on twitter)

Bright at Mono29 Lineup event

Bright: I think that, as I’ve previously said, BL series are just like other ordinary series or movies. Like IFYLITA can be changed to be said to be more like a period drama. I feel that BL is just about two people loving each other, not about whether it’s about male-male or female-male. This series is a period drama and it’s a romantic comedy and the other series is an action drama.

Bright's Interview with LIPS Magazine

Q: What if one day, we’re sucked in by the ship? Bright: I think fans in this day and age don’t need actors to do fan service to that extent. For myself, I’ve never intended for it to be the foundation (of his work). I think it’s a matter of being partners and working together. As such, it’s somewhat good in every aspect because it’s not forcing it. But in some moments, there may some actions that may just be the result of being friends. So even if fans ship, it’s cute to me. (smiles) Q: Do you feel a sense of “newness” stepping into a full-fledged BL? Bright: I feel that BL series are another branch of acting. I don’t think of it as being a specific form of male to male communication. It’s just another type of series just like action dramas, comedy etc, it’s just another kind of role that we can play.

Bright's Interview with Praew Magazine

Q: How is it working with Nonkul? Bright: Nonkul is a person who already does a good job at his work. He does his homework and he is also good at delivering and receiving emotions when on set. It isn’t just Nonkul who is great but the other characters in this series too, this includes P’Tee, the director. We can always talk about ideas which made the work even better. If asked whether entering the scenes with Nonkul made me shy, I would say that BL series are just another branch (of acting), it is just another role. I don't think that when acting with another man, that there’s a need to feel anything. I feel that it’s just another form of work. Another thing is that our workshops were very complete. When we work together I know what level and extent I can go to, what I should do and also trying my best in how I should feel. Thus, I felt at ease working together.

Bright’s Interview with NineEntertain

Q: Are you happy to do “ship” activities like this? Bright: I feel that if there’s an opportunity with regards to being an actor, I don’t want to be stuck in ships like this. I accepted this role with the status of an actor and I want to accept various roles too. It doesn’t always need to be BL or a specific kind of series. I will have another series next year which is ordinary boy-girl relationship and not a BL series. I feel that BL series are just another category of series — not like BL series are just BL series. It’s another category like action, romcom, or drama. It’s just another category. Q: There is still the possibility of coming to act as per usual. (unclear of what the interviewer said) Bright: I feel that with every work opportunity, it’s more about the script and storyline of the work that I were to accept. For example, I accepted the role of Khun Yai in IFYLITA as i felt that it was a script that was suitable for me. I didn’t think of it as “oh it’s a BL series, I need to accept it” because to be honest, I have been contacted for various BL series but because [IFYLITA] storyline is really good, I wanted to try acting in it. Q: What is the difficulty of acting in BL as an actor? Bright: I feel like there isn’t any difference compared to regular series. I feel that when two men love each other or kiss, I don’t think of it as (me and) a man, I think of it more as each of the characters or persons. Q: Does that affect the trend of being a ship? Bright: Hmm… Actually I am not able to answer that because I feel like it depends on people’s perspectives. Because some people may prefer that (an actor) has a (onscreen) gf/bf but some people may be upset about it. I feel like the trend depends on the people’s perspectives as people have different ways of thinking (about it). I think that I am open to listening to all different opinions on this. I feel that working (in this industry), you should be able to explore different things and you should not be fixed in one thing. We need to continue moving onto the next thing. I feel that Non has his own work and I also have my own work, and other actors too have their own upcoming work. It doesn’t mean that coming to act in IFYLITA means that you stay in IFYLITA forever. Q: Some may feel that it’s sad their their ship is coming to an end and that they are gonna work with different people. Bright: Actually, there are still some upcoming pair events but as I’ve said earlier, everyone needs to continue to do their own duties as an actor. Q: What if people change their minds about shipping your ship in the future? Bright: I think it’s a normal thing. I feel that when someone (likes us), they also like our work. I feel like our fanclub likes both Yai and Jom, and they also like Bright and Non. They like the characters and that Bright and Non play these characters and they so they like us at this point. I feel like people who came to like us are also fans of other people. I feel that they are a source of encouragement for me when they like me but I am also glad if they meet someone new or support another person. I feel happy when they come to meet me and if they’re happy when they meet other (celebs), it’s a good thing for them. If there’s a new person, an older person, a regular person or a person they just met that they are happy to meet, I feel that it’s nothing to be stressed about. Let’s say a fan comes and likes me and is following my work and there’s someone new who enters and they like their work, I am glad for them to go support that other person because that person can bring happiness to the fan.

Wow, I really got carried away with this compilation but as a fan who's followed Nonkul, JJ and Tor since their Nadao days, watching them star in queer-coded series/roles like Bangrak Soi 9/1, Hormones, Diary of Tootsies, Great Men Academy... (or in Bright's case a gay character in lakorn Rivalry), I'm just so proud that they have been able to receive "BL" series script offers that they would like to take on.

I've never sat well with the difference in the treatment of the press to "BL actors" and "non-BL actors". I wish there weren't such a distinction because it feels like the notion itself holds a lot of prejudices baggage with it, to both "BL" and "non-BL" actors. To quote a friend on Reddit, "I believe most actors would feel more fulfilled if they knew their fans loved/respected them as individual artists, instead of only seeing them as one part of a unit whose value is lower when 'separated' from their official partner."

[xhxhxhx]

It's December 4, 2024.

Today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in United States v. Skrmetti, a challenge to Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care. The specific question presented is whether Tennessee's ban violates the Equal Protection Clause.

The challenge is to Tenn. Code Ann. § 68-33-103(a)(1). That is, it's a challenge to a bit of Tennessee's Annotated Code. Title 68, Chapter 33, "Prohibited Medical Procedures for Minors."

I don't have anything to say about Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care. Nor do I have anything to say about how the Court will treat the case. Not yet, anyways.

But I have something to say about the Code.

I.

Tennessee's laws are compiled by its code commission.

Under state law, the commission is a five-member body, consisting of the state's chief justice, attorney general, and counsel for the legislature, along with another two members appointed by the chief justice. Tenn. Code Ann. § 1-1-101(a).

The code commission supervises the official publication of the state's statutes, codes and session laws. § 1-1-105(a). The commission is empowered to commission to contract with publishers to that end, § 1-1-106(a), and obliged to inspect and certify their work. § 1-1-110(a).

When its work finished, the commission puts its certificate of approval in each volume and pocket supplement. § 1-1-110(c). But their first certificate, the one they leave with the secretary of state, § 1-1-110(b), is what gives the code the force of law. § 1-1-111(a).

Beyond that, the commission's work is ministerial. It cuts and pastes. "[T]he commission shall not alter the sense, meaning or effect of any act of the general assembly, but shall copy the exact language of the text of the statutes, codes and session laws." § 1-1-108.

The commission may "rearrange, regroup and renumber" the laws; change their "section headings"; "correct manifest misspelling[s] and typographical errors"; and "omit enacting clauses, repealing clauses, severability clauses, conditional clauses, preambles, [and] captions", § 1-1-108—and not much more.

II.

Tennessee leaves the work to Lexis, a private publisher.

Lexis's product, the Tennessee Code Annotated, is not eligible for copyright. Public.Resource.Org v. Matthew Bender & Co., No. M2022-01260-COA-R3-CV, slip op. (Tenn. Ct. App. Nov. 9, 2023). But it is not subject to compulsory disclosure, either.

Under current law, according to the state's intermediate appellate court, the Tennessee Code Annotated in the hands of Lexis is in the hands of a private contractor, not the State.

If Lexis had been the functional equivalent of a government entity, contracted to "perform a governmental or public function," it would be subject to the State's public records law. *8. But it's not.

That's what the state's intermediate appellate court says, at least. But its reasoning is less than persuasive.

III.

Lexis is merely a contractor. The commission specifies the work, and Lexis does the work. The commission may be exacting, but it isn't controlling. *9.

That's the court's argument, at least. But that strikes me as a less than complete account of the commission's duties under State law, which must inform any characterization of its contracts.

Under State law, the commission is "authorized and directed to" control each dimension of the compilation, Tenn. Code Ann. § 1-1-105(a), and must

supervise the execution of plans for the compilation, arrangement, classification, annotation, editing, indexing, printing, binding, publication, sale, distribution and the performance of all other acts necessary for the publication of an official compilation of the statutes, codes and session laws of the state of Tennessee

The commission's contractual powers, set out in the subsequent section, § 1-1-106, are an incident to its primary authority and duty to "formulate and supervise" the compilation. § 1-1-105(a).

The commission's primary authority and duty to prepare the compilation is plain on the face of the law. Under State law, the compilation is the commission's work, down to the copying and pasting, § 1-1-108(a):

In preparing the manuscript of the revised compilation (including pocket supplements and replacement volumes) for publication and distribution, the commission shall not alter the sense, meaning or effect of any act of the general assembly, but shall copy the exact language of the text . . .

This is more than the relationship suggested by the court. It's more than control over the product. It's control over production, the work of "preparing the manuscript."

To the extent that Lexis is doing the work, "preparing the manuscript," and "copy[ing] the exact language of the text," it is performing the commission's functions.

The court says "Lexis is not a stand-in for government." But that's exactly what it is. The commission is a government body. And Lexis is doing the commission's work.

That seems like a governmental function to me.

[ilexdiapason]

[@theminecraftbee inspired this fic! hermitcraft season 10's south neighbourhood becoming werewolves for the bit, ft. ren's propensity to take it seriously, and being the only one who does]

It was Stress who started it.

"C'mon, it'll be fun! I've never been a wolf before!"

"Werewolf," Ren corrects, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose tetchily. "And it's not fun. It's a chronic condition that needs constant management and can lead to some serious carnage if it's not properly cared for."

"Ah, who cares about a bit'a carnage? It's, like, week two. People die, they'll come back, no harm done. And you're tellin' me you don't see the appeal in a pair'a teeth like that?"

"Not - not really?"

Stress huffs, good-natured, tilting her head and baring her neck. "Think about it!"

"That's vampires," says Ren, "you're thinking of vampires who bite necks. Werewolves don't have a designated spot to bite. Because, like I said, it's not supposed to be fun. You're not supposed to want it."

She sighs loudly and uprights herself. "Alright. Figure something else out, then, shall I?"

"Do what you will," he tells her.

And then...

Well, it's a very unfortunate coincidence, is what it is.

He doesn't mean to get as wrapped up in his Ministerial Administrative duties as he does. There's a lot of paperwork that Xisuma cheerfully shrugged off on him when he realised Ren was assuming an admin position willingly - inventory checks and server code assessments and Right To Host permits that all need to be thoroughly combed through before they can be signed off on. It's not the most interesting job in the world, but Ren's been dying for a bit of busywork for a little while now. Strange how a life full of nothing but card games and deadly dungeons can leave you pining for the simpler days.

But the evening stretches on, and the letters start to swim before his eyes a little, and it's all too easy to just let himself rest on top of the pile of papers for a second before he gets back into things, gently lit by the glow of the full moon...

Ren wakes up, as he does more often than he'd care to admit, entirely naked.

He's in the street. Or what will be the street once the roadworks have gone underway, which is currently a patch of grass like all the other patches of grass around him. His office is maybe fifty blocks eastward, his trousers are nowhere to be seen, and the sunlight is altogether far too bright for him to take in much more than that.

Once he stumbles back to the office with naught but a pair of paws for cover, he finds his sunglasses and his shirt, and he can start putting the pieces together. Namely that his upper body is quite thoroughly splashed with blood, his claws are also caked in red, and the vial of wolfsbane he was meant to take last night is sitting unopened on the floor amid a pile of shredded paperwork.

So. Erm.

Some explaining to be done, then.

His clothes were shredded by his transformation, but of course he's got spares on hand for emergencies exactly like these ones. Shame about his periwinkle tie; it's going to need a cold wash, a hot wash, and a good bit of stitching to get it back in pristine condition. Unless he could convince Xisuma to do a rollback, but he doubts it at this early point in the season where so many people are working through the night to get themselves set up. Mending will have to suffice.

He also finds his comm lying in the wreckage. The chat history is... illuminating.

<Iskall85> is that ren i see outside?

<Xisuma> Looks like

<Iskall85> oh dear

<Iskall85> oh dear oh dear

<Iskall85> everybody keep your doors locked unless you want to become a werewolf

<StressMonster101> ...

<Iskall85> stress???

<StressMonster101> well i was finkin about it?

<Iskall85> you're insane

<Iskall85> go on then. girl's night

<StressMonster101> false! you coming?

<falsesymmetry> to get infected with lycanthropy?

<falsesymmetry> yeah, alright

<ZombieCleo> did i hear girls night?

<Iskall85> i take it back. we're ALL insane

<falsesymmetry> wait, this won't kill me, will it?

<Iskall85> yes??? what do you think turning into a werewolf is

<falsesymmetry> oh, better not risk it then

<Iskall85> only on the hermitcraft server

<hypnotizd> do NOT start without me

Ren blinks, and blinks again, and checks his claws, as though he might be able to tell which of his friends' blood is under them.

Girl's night. They're all transformed into hideous creatures of the night just like him because they thought it would be fun. And here he stands uncognizant of any of it.

He's gonna need to call another meeting.

(At sundown, though. Today is a writeoff for the vast majority of the neighbourhood. Worse than any hangover, trust me.)

[wutbju]

This requires some explanation.

In Bruce McAllister's first official act as president of BJU, he stated:

We will seek to improve student life. We will ensure that their living environment is healthy and safe.

He continued to describe things like exercise and etiquette, but nonetheless he did say "safe."

What is his idea of safe?

Remember BJU Class of 1986 Jonathan Alan Weaver? WutBJU covered this information in 2023:

In November 2000 Pastor Jonathan Weaver began taking her to his private residence on the church grounds under the guise of “counseling.”  Instead, according to Clark, the pastor used the meetings to molest, forcibly touch, and sexually abuse the 15-year-old girl.  Plaintiff Clark says that the abuse continued and became more aggressive over the next year, despite her demands for the pastor to stop.  The pastor, according to Ms. Clark, used psychological tactics to prevent her from revealing the abuse to anyone.

As the abuse continued, Clark said the church became aware of the misconduct in 2004 when church employees witnessed Weaver and Clark in “private sessions” and confronted him about his behavior.  In an attempt to escape the abuse, the plaintiff left to attend Bob Jones University in South Carolina in 2004.  Weaver was a graduate of the college and visited the campus in 2005 and Clark claims that Weaver raped her during the visit, resulting in pregnancy.  The Hyde Park church congregation learned about the pregnancy and she says the members began a campaign of harassment against her. 

To summarize:

In 2000 a 35-year-old Weaver began sexually assaulting a 15-year-old church member in his care.

In 2004 his church became aware of this "misconduct" and confronted Weaver.

In 2004, Shielagh Clark tried to "escape" the abuse by coming to BJU.

In 2005, Weaver visited BJU, raped Clark, and impregnated her.

And BJU's response at that time was to "code" Jonathan Alan Weaver in its campus database, InfoMan.

But on May 5, 2005, the "Director of Extension and Ministerial Training," Bruce McAllister documented a change in BJU's "code" for a person who would become a convicted rapist.

Here's the text:

Coded separately CrossFiled May 5, 2005 Jonathan Alan Weaver - grad ok, being changed to "U" After reading the file report I called Calvary Baptist Seminary in Lansdale where Jonathan went to seminary following his graduation from BJU. I spoke with Kim Daulton's mother, the seminary secretary, to see if anyone from Lansdale was helping Jonathan. Indeed, a process is underway. Dr. Jeff Tuttle, seminary dean, and his wife met with Jonathan and his wife Lisa recently for three hours. Jonathan and his wife and family will be relocating under the pastoral ministry of Wayne Burgraff. Jeff was also at Jonathan's former church in Hyde Park, New York, this past Sunday I believe. The assistant pastor is also a Calvary seminary graduate. Bruce McAllister

Let me translate all this BJU-speak:

After reading the file report in which undergraduate Shielagh Thompson claimed that Jonathan Weaver raped her, I decided to find out for myself what was going on from other people who know Weaver. Don't worry -- I talked to loyal BJU folks like Jonathan Daulton's mother-in-law. Lots of people are helping Jonathan not rape. The dean and his wife met with Jonathan and his wife for a really long time! They are moving soon to get him out the way of temptation. That seminar dean is working behind-the-scenes as well. And the assistant pastor is another good fundamentalist who knows the rules. So we can change the code on Weaver so that he's permitted to come back on campus. He's okay. It's not his problem.

That's what all that means.

Does McAllister still practice that cloak-and-dagger and protect-the-rapist-at-all-costs? We don't know. All we know is that this is what he did to protect a man who is now serving time for first-degree assault and battery.

BJU is NOT Safe.

[shituationist]

I think companies like Google and Microsoft have incentive to embellish and even falsify the results of their machine learning projects, but I do worry that sufficiently capable (we won't say "conscious," because that doesn't matter) AI agents are going to replace human workers in services while "advanced economies" have made their economies dependent on the existence of a service sector with high-paying jobs (on a global scale) buttressing a comfortable middle class existence for the average adult.

This isn't just an AI thing. Professionals in the US and Western Europe advocate more restrictive work visa and credentialing programs in order to protect their salaries. This also goes for unskilled workers, who are afraid of the influx of Latin American labor in the US (especially when bosses can hire these workers under the table and pay them less, while paying no payroll taxes on that labor).

The whole existence of the labor market is increasingly at odds with human needs and the technical horizon of the world economy. Coupling livelihood to wages has also been a monstrous feature of our society, but it is becoming more and more monstrous as the number of jobs which provide a consistently decent standard of living seem to be increasingly the purview of machines.

Theorists like Steven Wolfram seem to think that "computational irreducibility" will keep plenty of jobs around forever, but I don't know. Automation in manufacturing didn't increase the total number of manufacturing jobs in the US and Europe. People didn't go from making the tenth part of the head of a pin to the thousandath part. People who were displaced by automation and offshoring were instead shuffled into the service sector, but as automation hits that sector, where's the next sector for them to go to?

Socialist planned economies struggled with this too, but because of more conscious political objectives, since an employment guarantee (an artefact of the appropriation of capitalist, specifically Fordist, thinking) was part of their social contract, and automation would reduce the number of jobs or otherwise make workers redundant (but you couldn't just fire them, especially since things like housing were often tied to jobs), so there was a conservative impulse outside of the military production sector to keep jobs labor intensive. Political ossification and the gerontocracy ensured that people with no adequate knowledge of on-the-ground conditions would be able to reach a ministerial position and make the Soviet state unable to undertake needed reforms (so they ended up privatizing everything and sending millions to an early grave with the liquidation of the planned economy instead). Glushkov's OGAS project is a testament to this: early digitalization of the planned economy was killed because ministers didn't want to hand over any control to a computer network, even if that computer network would have breathed new life into the planned economy or made it more competitive with its imperialist rivals (bear in mind here that many ex-Soviet ministers would go on to become oligarchs after privatization was pursued).

I don't know. I'm a little scared and therefore motivated to be skeptical of recent advances in artificial intelligence. "Artificial General Intelligence" has seemingly been redefined from "scary superintelligence that's gonna became conscious and kill us all" to "computer program that can complete any task that a human can do", which is a more realistic goal and arguably feasible from a materialist vantage point (even if not commercially profitable). It isn't there yet, and there's reasons to think the current approach could hit a wall, but even without breaching that kind of "intelligence", the impact of automation in services could mean that service workers are increasingly subject to the precarity that American manufacturing workers have been and which such bromides as "learn to code" have been intended to address.

Every day I am more convinced that our choice is between socialism or barbarism: a global planned economy in which our basic and social needs are addressed through collective, non-commercial, association(s), in which opportunities to make our lives meaningful through work have become "life's prime want"; or a capitalist world-system which mericlessly throws people into the industrial reserve army of labor, making people's lives subject to impersonal forces completely and totally beyond their control, preserving the class structure at all costs and bribing the remnants of the labor aristocracy and bureaucracy with patronage while potentially billions suffer. Worst case scenario is we only get the former through the latter.

(I would appreciate it if you have anything to say about this post, don't do it through a reblog but through a reply or DM, just for my anxiety's sake 🥺)

[sourcreammachine]

so the party manifestos won’t be published for a few weeks prolly, but the Labour Party policymaking system means they have an internal “policy platform” agreed by the partisan structure that kinda dictates what goes in the manifesto, and a similar partisan structure has the final say on the manifesto itself. the platform is private and internal, but it’s been “seen and summarised”. so heres a couple of interesting bits:

nationalise the rail; allow greater municipal ownership of bus networks; more ev charging stations and increased ev subsidies

“fundamentally reform our system of energy supply, generation and transmission” via public ownership, but without stating whether or not this includes consumer services or if the private wholesale system will continue

abolish the Lords; votes at 16; NO commitment to abolishing FPTP

“support the recognition of” palestine (note wording, and note the fact this was written before 7 october)

ban conversion therapy including for trans people; “modernise the process of gender recognition to remove indignities for trans people, while upholding the Equality Act, its protected characteristics and its provision for single-sex exemptions” (obviously using terf dogwhistles to get out of meaningfully reforming the law, without clarifying their plans)

sewage monitoring and fines for sewage leaks by water companies – water remains private

“land-use framework” to organise farmland with the goal of biodiversity, close hunting loopholes

intellectual property reform, maybe? they’re very vague about that one

one-month waiting time for mental health services

“reform broken tuition fees system” – NO commitment to abolition and debt forgiveness, only this squirmy line

“robust regulation to protect people from online harms” – basically equivocating to allow any possible passage of a bad internet bill :/

£28B green energy investment; double onshore wind, quadruple offshore wind; reinstate fracking ban and stop new oil/gas; “green energy by 2030”, whatever that means. weirdly fetishistic about hydrogen power

VERY, VERY little mention of City oversight and reform. City to remain extremely independent, capital to continue flowing

abolish leaseholds; end ‘arcane’ land laws; end no-fault evictions

football regulator; reform gambling laws

end fire-rehire; more regulation for two-tier employee/contractor workplace inequalities; more statutory workers’ rights; ban zerohours with more than 12h/week, “right to a contract”; change the minimum wage quango to account for cost of living, potentially hiking the minimum wage by several pounds

repeal a number of union-busting acts; regulate gig economies to statutorily allow the right to unionise; increase rights for unions to organise and manage themselves

ethics quango to enforce the ministerial code for the first time in its history; ban second jobs for MPs with very limited exceptions for professionals; ban former ministers from lobbying for five years; political finance reforms to restrict financing by shell companies

certain devolutionary powers for english local authorities on request; shrink whitehall, let the civil service go elsewhere

“respect orders”, ASBOs 2; domestic abuse register; misogyny as a hatecrime; ‘protect the right to protest’, explicitly opposing the public order bill without committing to overturn it

but yeah, the starmer leadership may leave some things on the cutting room floor, and the starmer government may act totally different when it doesn’t have the partisan oversight. in the end, we have to wait until the proper manifesto releases to make real judgements, but looking through this list can set the tone of our expectations: third-way, boring and pathetic

[forgot-how-catflap-works]

Meet the ghouls squabbling for power in the race to rule the Tories

Tory MPs are donning their robes and sharpening their sacrificial blades this week as they prepare to ritualistically cull a second candidate from the Conservative Party leadership race. 

Priti Patel was eliminated last week after securing just 11.9% of the vote, which already sounds quite embarrassing, then you do the maths and realise that’s a total of 14 votes. Considering the sheer number of controversies that litter her political career like dog shit in a play park, I’m amazed she didn’t perform better.  

(Formerly of the tobacco industry, Patel voted in favour of overturning the smoking ban because she recognises that mainly poor people use public spaces so, y’know, fuck ‘em.) 

Patel resigned as Home Secretary in 2017 after attending up to a dozen private, unsanctioned meetings with Israeli officials where departmental business was discussed while she was on holiday.

This gross breach of the ministerial code wasn’t enough to prevent her from being reinstated to the position under Boris Johnson’s government, where she dedicated herself to ruthlessly targeting asylum seekers, lobbying for pharmaceutical companies during the height of COVID, and bullying her staff. 

Next up on the chopping block appears to be Mel Stride MP who narrowly escaped elimination last round with a whopping 16 votes. 

(Launching his campaign, Stride said the Tories need to “build trust with the electorate again", presumably so they can get right back to abusing it.)  

Mr Stride served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury in Theresa May’s cabinet, when he spearheaded the controversial loan charge policy which – as of January 2024 – has been linked to ten suicides. He was then elected as chair of the Treasury select committee, effectively securing himself a position where he was the one responsible for scrutinising his own dastardly deeds and, unsurprisingly, finding nothing to be concerned about. 

Former Minister of State for Security Tom Tugendhat limped a single vote ahead of Stride in the first round. Tugendhat is notable only in how boring he is, and hasn’t even breached the ministerial code once (that we know of). Total amateur. His strategy appears to be to fly below the radar, presumably in the hope the other candidates will destroy each other and he can rule over the ashes. 

(Having already lost one leadership race to Liz Truss of all people, Tugendhat looks like a surefire bet to lose another.) 

A former soldier, Tugendhat holds some classically conservative positions like increased military spending, opposition to the European Court of Human Rights and wanting a cap on immigration but these days that’s a mild salsa. He appears moderate compared to the others, and lacks the brain rot and crypto-fascist brainworms that UK conservatives have been steadily importing from America over the last decade. The most interesting thing about him is that he had to change his campaign slogan because the acronym spelled TURD. 

Now we’re done with the dregs, let's take a look at the front runners starting with weed smoking, Warhammer playing, porn enjoyer James Cleverly. That makes him sound much more interesting than he is. Having previously filled both the Home and Foreign secretary positions, Cleverly has long had leadership aspirations.  

(Cleverly once had to apologise for an “ironic joke” about spiking his wife’s drink with rohypnol during a Westminster reception, apparently being both a weird creep and not understanding the definition of irony.) 

Another paint-by-numbers Tory, he stirred up a fuss a few years ago by saying that gay football fans should show "a little bit of flex and compromise" when visiting Qatar for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He added that it was "important when you're a visitor to a country that you respect the culture of your host nation." Cleverly it seems considers a seven year prison sentence for being gay little more than a cultural quirk rather than something queer football fans might have legitimate concerns over. Basically saying reign it in lads, no need to be homo in public. 

Landing in second place during the last vote is former Minister for Women and Equalities Kemi Badenoch who claimed in a speech last year that transgender people could transition “too easily”. This is supported by the fact that waiting times for an initial assessment are as high as seven years in some parts of the country, so that definitely tracks. Badenoch clearly knows what she is talking about. 

(Speaking on the Spectator podcast, Badenoch said the Tories need to “stop acting like Labour”. I can only assume she misinterpreted the narrowing ideological gap between Labour and Tories as a softening in her party’s ranks rather than a calcification of right wing leanings in Westminster.) 

Characterised as an “anti-woke” politician, she has also supported conversion therapy for trans people. Speaking like someone who has never actually heard themselves talk, she also claimed that providing gender affirming care for trans kids was a “form of conversion therapy” intended to turn gay kids trans. It’s ironclad reasoning and, as a trans dyke, I value above all else the perspective of a cisgender, hetrosexual woman in all matters relating to queer issues. If anyone is going to lay down the law on who gets to be gay and in what way, it should be her. 

Badenoch bravely announced during a recent campaign video that she was unafraid of fictional character Doctor Who. Furthermore, as a woman of colour, she believes that Britain is not institutionally racist, so we can all stop worrying about that now. What a relief, I was starting to get really concerned about it. You know, what with all the institutional racism that’s been going around. But turns out that was a false alarm, which is probably why she also said “I don’t care about colonialism”. 

Badenoch came out swinging on the subject, making claims broader than my fat ass in order to minimise the brutality of Britain's well-documented colonial history. 

"There was never any concept of 'rights', so [the] people who lost out were old elites not everyday people,” she said in some leaked WhatsApp messages. It’s a relief to know that the three million people who died in the 1943 Bengal Famine were all elites. 

Lego figure cosplayer Robert Jenrick is the current frontrunner, having secured 28 votes in the first round. Jenrick served as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government under Boris Johnson where he dedicated himself to pulling political favours for luxury property developer and Tory party donor Richard Desmond. The move allowed Desmond to avoid paying a community council levy of £40 million which could have been used to fund schools and health clinics. 

(Courting the far right voters who flocked to Reform in the last election, Jenick resigned from his position as immigration minister, saying the policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda didn’t go far enough.)

Grenfell United, the pressure group dedicated to securing justice for the victims of the Grenfell fire refused to meet with Jenrick in 2020, saying: "Your perceived focus on the interests of property developers over the needs of an impoverished local community has soured our opinion of you.” 

Jenrick also served as Minister of State for Immigration where he took aim at the greatest threat to our nation: unaccompanied asylum seeking children. During a visit to an intake centre in Kent last year he reportedly told staff to paint over a mural depicting cartoons and animals, saying it was a “law enforcement environment” and “not a welcome centre”. 

Finally, someone had the courage to put those kids in their place. If they wanted to experience even a single moment where they felt safe, or like they weren’t completely alone in this terrifying and hostile world, they shouldn’t have crossed the bloody channel should they? They need to learn that actions have consequences, unless of course you’re a Tory politician then you can basically just get away with whatever and certainly not have your political ambition stymied in the slightest. That would be unfair.  

With such political titans in the running, Labour should be quaking in its boots. This gaggle of ghouls is among the finest we could hope for, and the fact that they each crave power enough to run the highest office in the land should in no way concern anyone. As the old adage goes: Power corrupts, but only if you’re a little bitch. 

Which of these unscrupulous, foreigner hating, homophobes will proceed to the next round? Tory MPs will be casting their vote today in order to separate the wheat from the chaff, and trim the eligible candidates down to four. 

This three month slog is only just beginning, so buckle your pants because we have to put up with this fucking circus until November.

[lost-carcosa]

The Daily Fail is getting a mysterious new "erudite" columnist who will be "required reading in Westminster - and across the world!"

I wonder who on earth it could possibly be?

Yes, it's this fucking clown:

A person who, let's not forget, was fired by The Times for inventing a quote, lied countless times about EU directives for The Telegraph, lied to the Queen about the need to prorogue parliament as his first act as PM, and has just been found guilty of contempt of Parliament.

And he's just broken the ministerial code by not clearing this new position with the parliamentary Advisory Committee on Business Appointments.

I'm sure with his well documented racism, misogyny, and homophobia, he will fit right in at the Fail. Although maybe someone should warn them that he was frequently late handing in copy at the Telegraph and The Spectator (for which he was the editor...)

[mariacallous]

Viktor Orban’s new ‘sovereignty protection law’ is more an empty provocation than a real danger for democracy. The PM is acting out a charade similar to earlier ones, in which everyone eagerly plays their role, including the media and NGOs.

The new “sovereignty protection bill” submitted to parliament by the national-conservative Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban is the hot topic right now in Hungary, and it inevitably also made its way into the international media.

Most press coverage highlighted criticism from multiple NGOs (some of them funded by the government’s bete noire, George Soros's Open Society Foundations) who accuse the government of trying to silence critical voices with the bill, which will certainly be adopted soon, as Fidesz enjoys a two-thirds majority in parliament. Leading Hungarian media outlets fear they will be harassed by the new Sovereignty Protection Office because they “do not glorify Viktor Orban”.

However, with their immediate and hysterical reactions, the media, opposition and NGOs are playing the role that was intended for them by the government. Namely, Orban is clearly aiming for provocation with the bill, which is not actually as harsh as has been depicted in the press and elsewhere.

The bill did not come out of the blue

The only relevant element of the package is targeted at preventing parties from receiving money from abroad during election campaigns. It is already prohibited for parties to accept money from foreign states or organisations abroad as well as from anonymous donors. Now this prohibition will be extended to civil society organisations and independent candidates – and not without grounds.

It emerged after the 2022 general election that the civil society organisation of the united opposition’s prime ministerial candidate Peter Marki-Zay, called Everyone’s Hungary Movement, received almost 2 billion forints (about 5 million euros at the time) from a US organisation called Action for Democracy. Marki-Zay was backed by six opposition parties, including the green LMP, the leader of which recently suggested that the funding was related to the US ‘deep state’ or intelligence services.

The sovereignty protection law aims at preventing such a scenario from occurring again by amending the Criminal Code and the Act on the Election Procedure. A new criminal offense called “illegal influence on the will of voters” will be introduced: if found to have used foreign funding, candidates or responsible persons of the affected organisations could be sentenced to up to three years in prison. When candidates and nominating organisations register themselves at the Election Commission before elections, they will now have to make a declaration not to receive any funding from abroad. If an audit by the State Audit Office reveals the opposite, they will be fined twice the amount of campaign funding that they received.

Beyond these specific provisions, a new authority is to be established with more general competences. The new Sovereignty Protection Office will prepare reports and recommendations regarding the protection of Hungary’s sovereignty. Further, it can conduct inquiries into specific cases to reveal foreign disinformation and foreign influence on democratic decision-making. Mapping organisations that might influence voters’ intentions or the outcome of elections by using funding from abroad is also among the tasks of the office. However, regardless of what such inquiries will find, they will not have any direct legal consequences; the findings will merely be published.

Who will be jailed and who will be bullied?

It is a legitimate aim to prevent Hungarian politics from being tainted by foreign money, even if the campaigning environment in Hungary has been unfair for many years thanks to some tricky and discriminative legislative changes. However, it is questionable whether the new proposed legislation could successfully prevent a scenario similar to that in 2022.

Namely, it is only nominating organisations that are prohibited from accepting foreign money, but Everyone’s Hungary Movement itself was not a nominating organisation at the election. Its candidates were formally candidates of the six parties in the opposition coalition. The reason for that is associations in which form civil society organisations operate can only run in local elections. At European and general parliamentary elections, nominating organisations can only be registered political parties.

The new offense in the Criminal Code also applies to cases where the foreign money is taken indirectly, through proxies, but it is hard to imagine that every single donation to every party could be investigated in this regard. Moreover, criminal responsibility can only be established if the accused person knew about the source of the money: this is more likely to be proven in the case of party leaders than individual candidates.

As far as the Sovereignty Protection Office is concerned, its entire activity is little more than public bullying. The new authority will not be able to levy any sanctions, it will simply publish reports.

Of course, the public bullying of critics is not nice, but it should not be overestimated either. Oppositional parties, journalists and NGOs have long been subjected to smear campaigns by the propagandistic Fidesz media: their response threshold should be quite high by now. If targets still feel offended, they can launch a lawsuit over the violation of their personality rights: such lawsuits have been won by opposition politicians many times against pro-government media outlets.

Playing an old game, time and again

So, it would appear that the government’s sudden urge to protect sovereignty is aimed rather at provoking its enemies. And it would not be the first time. This follows a familiar path: find an enemy (immigrants, LGBT activists, George Soros, ‘foreign agents’), announce some measures against them which sound outrageous but actually have little or no real consequences, wait for the outcry from the liberal bubble and in ‘Brussels’, from where you might also provoke an infringement procedure. Even better! Finally, sit back and tell your voters: “Look, that is what I warned you about, they are betraying the country, intervening in our business, neglecting Hungarian popular will” and so on…

The same formula was used ahead of the general election in 2022. The government annoyed Brussels and liberal public opinion with its so-called “child protection law”, which was ostensibly aimed at preventing children from being exposed to content on homosexuality or transgender issues, either in the media or in school. And ahead of the election in 2018, it adopted a similar law to the current bill, requiring NGOs receiving more than 7.2 million forints (about 22,000 euros) to register themselves as “organisations funded from abroad”. Several NGOs announced a boycott of the law, though they were not fined or even warned or approached by the authorities, as one of the affected NGOs, Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, confirmed to me in early 2022.

Both laws were subject to infringement procedures before the Court of Justice of the European Union: until now, only the latter case concerning NGOs was closed with a judgment, which not surprisingly was condemnatory.

It is likely this sovereignty protection bill will provoke an infringement procedure as well. As the Act on the Election Procedure also applies to elections for the European Parliament, the amendment implies that parties will not be allowed to accept support from their European political groupings during the campaign. European political parties, or party families as they are often referred to, bring together national parties of similar values and ideology at the European level. Supporting their member parties in European election campaigns is common practice, and is expressly allowed by the relevant EU regulation. (It is worth noting that according to this regulation, European political parties are prohibited from accepting anonymous donations and donations from countries outside the EU.)

What makes the situation even more difficult is that, for the first time, local and European elections will be held on the same day in June 2024. So, the campaigns will be simultaneous, and the parallel timing should have a great mobilisation potential, especially considering a peculiar interface between local and EU politics in Hungary: there is a huge amount of EU money that is being withheld by the European Commission due to rule-of-law concerns. According to a Commission announcement last week, only a small part of the 6 billion euros in pandemic recovery funds will be released. The lack of EU money is particularly apparent at the local level because municipalities finance most of their development projects from EU funding.

The opposition will obviously blame the government for that, while the government will blame ‘the Brussels imperium’. One of the biggest favours Brussels can do for the Hungarian government right now is to act ‘imperial’ and do something which can be used as verification of the government’s sovereignty concerns: an infringement procedure because of the new law; more financial support for independent media; even the usual expressions of “deep concern” will suffice.

[anotherapostate]

Fairly long vent under the cut because I have Problems and I’m not entirely sure how to talk about it with the people in my life.

(featuring: wedding woes, conservative Christianity, dresses, an ex-gf, alcohol mention)

Before I was out (or even realized that I was a lesbian for that matter), I attended a four-year Christian college with the purpose of taking a ministerial position within my (conservative, evangelical) denomination. You can imagine how well that went. Once I graduated, I left the faith and lost contact with a lot of friends. This was my fault, but the shame I felt within those first six months was too much to bear, and I couldn’t face my peers who were still in the faith. The few friends I retained from that time mean a lot to me, even if our beliefs aren’t the same anymore. It’s hard to explain, but my experiences at that school seem so incomprehensible to others that weren't there with us (or didn't have a similar experience), that it’s like, “well, we believe different things, but at least I can talk to you about this very formative time in my life and feel understood. You don’t look at me like I have three heads.”

All that to say, my college roommate is getting married and I’m invited to the wedding, which I’m excited for. She’s still in the faith, but she’s always been more left-leaning than our peers. She knows I’m queer and still invited me to her wedding (just the thought makes me want to cry). I’ve already RSVP’ed to the shower/wedding, so it’s too late to back out now, but the more I think about this wedding, the more stressed I feel.

In the Bridal Shower invitation, the stated dress code is “fall/summer dresses.” Dear Reader, I have not worn a dress since my college graduation in 2019. I am a fat, hairy butch with an undercut and a dress-less wardrobe. But I don’t want to make a fuss on a day that isn’t mine, so I ordered a skirt online and figured I could Dyke It Up. But the idea of wearing this skirt makes me feel sick. Like I’m choosing to wear a costume to make others happy. Like I’m impersonating my former college self: closeted, afraid, shame-filled. And even taking the "college-self impersonation" out of the equation, I don't feel at home in traditionally feminine clothing anymore. I wish I had the language to express these feelings. Using vocabulary like “gender dysphoria” feels incorrect to describe my (cisgendered) experience, and I don’t want to misuse words meant to describe trans experiences. But god, this feeling has to be adjacent? A cousin or step-sibling? If the skirt don’t have pockets and I have to bring some sort of bag, I would rather fling myself into the Atlantic. The thought of bringing a purse is almost unbearable. Now, I know the obvious solution is to ask if I could wear pants, but again — it feels like I’m making my friend’s day about myself. I think my social anxiety would prefer me suffering in a skirt than being seen as the Dyke that needed Accommodation.

I will be wearing a jacket/pants for the actual day of the wedding. I’m less concerned about this. I know my peers (and maybe former professors if any are present?) will stare, but hey — half of them probably suspected I was gay in school anyway. Not much use in hiding now. What will be awkward is talking to people I haven’t spoken to in years and nod along with the Jesus talk.

I am 99.99% sure my ex from college will be there. We don’t talk, we aren’t friends, and I still have a grudge against her for reasons I won’t get into here. Which means that we’ve gone from “two queer women hiding our queer relationship from our peers” to “two queer women hiding our former queer relationship and current misgivings with one another from our peers.” Which is demented and stupid and probably a great plot for a fanfic if I wasn’t already living it. (If someone wants to write a fic about this, be my guest. Please give meaning to my very silly sufferings.) There is a chance that she will be at the head table/in the wedding party, in which case I won’t have to sit near her, but I know myself and I probably will feel petty about that too.

If this is a dry wedding (and there’s a good chance — my former denomination is dry) and I have to deal with all of the above, I will probably combust. Part of me want to bring a flask, but if others smell alcohol on me, that will put me in a worse light and give validity to the belief that I’m unhappy because I’m “living separate from God” (see: living as a lesbian).