Thoughts of a Random Thursday…

I made some mistakes on my last posts which Gauss_Jordan kindly spotted. Thanks for that… I hope I will not do them again. I used to be careful regarding these things, but mistakes do happen. I can blame it all in English not being my mother language, but that’s unfair. I should know better…

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In a week time, if all goes well, I’m flying to Spain, to Barcelona, for a long weekend. There are still some flights disruptions due to Eyjafjallajokull (who can really pronounce that name that is not from Iceland?) but I hope it’ll be fine by then. I’m flying on Thursday and I’m staying there until Tuesday. It’s the first time I’m going there and to be honest I can’t wait! I’ve heard nice stuff about the place. Sticky Crows was there recently. I’ve been to Madrid which I loved, but not to Barcelona that everybody said it’s even nicer. Any suggestions?

I’m going there with two female Greek friends of mine. We’ve rented a one bedroom flat with a sofa bed in the living room (guess where I’ll be sleeping). One of the girls is my oldest and dearest friend that I know since primary school. We’ve known each other for more years than we’d like to admit. She’s practically family. I even used to date her for a short period of time when I was 12. She’s the first person that I first came out to, some years later. Funnily enough that’s the first time we’re going on vacation together. We’ve spent some weekends in friends’ places together in the past, but not like this and definitely not abroad. It will be fun…

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On a different matter, I’d like to say that if I was a voter, I’d most likely be in a difficult situation to choose who to vote. For those not familiar with it, there’s a general election scheduled in the UK on the 6th of May. There are 3 major candidates: Gordon Brown from the Labour party, David Cameron from the Conservatives and Nick Clegg from the Liberal Democrats.
I am not entitled to vote since I am not a British Resident (I can only vote for local elections) but I wish I could. I always love a good political debate.


Gordon Brown is the current Prime Minister. During his time, major economic and political scandals occurred that really placed in jeopardy the economic situation / growth of this country. The unemployment rates increased dramatically, the recession affected all households and the national debt increased, to name a few. Some might argue that his government wasn’t the cause of these problems. However the way he tried to counter them is questionable. Keeping him in power would send a message of approval regarding his measures during the crisis. Regarding gay and lesbian rights I think that the current government was sympathetic. Section 28 was abolished and legislation regarding equal rights was made active.


David Cameron is the leader of the Tories. He is presenting himself as the man most capable of improving the UK economy and solving most of its contemporary problems. He condemns (of course) all measures taken by the current government. His better social skills and his wife declaring that she’s pregnant (don’t ask me why) helped his public image and popularity a lot. The dark cloud above his head according to what I think is the gay and lesbian rights. He is trying now to present himself as more liberal, not associated with mistakes of the past made by his party. He made a speech in a gay pride event and apologised for Section 28. However, the question remains about the rest of the members of his party. They are the same people that voted for it in the first place. Also the Conservative party is in alliance with some of Europe’s most questionable parties when it comes to gay rights like Lithuanian’s MEP Valdemar Tomaševski who declared homosexuality being an perversion.

Nick Clegg is the leader of the Liberal Democrats. Not many things are known about him and he is considered to be the outsider. Having done a very good job on the television live debate between the three party leaders, he gained popularity. The other two leaders are in unison now trying to stop him from getting ahead of the game. However, in the recent MPs expenses scandal, Lib Dem MPs were first with the higher claims. Also Clegg has been accused of being a lobbyist with political donations to his bank account coming from questionable sources. However, they have produced a LGBT manifesto, claiming to help gay and lesbian human rights in a way that no other party will.

Now, who to choose between the three?
In short, the first one has a history of political economic mistakes; the second has a homophobic history with condemnable alliances and the third could be overly ambitious / hungry for money and power...
You choose...