Council issues apology after forcing pub to take down rainbow pride flags (From Gazette)
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Council issues apology after forcing pub to take down rainbow pride flags
4:16pm Tuesday 21st August 2012 in News
A COUNCIL which forced a gay-friendly pub to take down three rainbow pride flags has issued an apology.
Tendring Council enforcement chiefs ordered the Lion, in The Street, Ardleigh, to take the flags down because they breached advertising laws as only a national or county flag can be flown without consent.
But now council leader Neil Stock has said sorry for how the council handled the issue and has offered to meet landlord Stephen Culham for clear the air talks.
Mr Stock said: “My understanding is government legislation exists to control unauthorised advertising, although in this case I am not convinced that the rainbow flag would necessarily constitute a breach of those regulations.
“However, the pub is in the heart of a conservation area and if there were three flags flying, of any description, then I can quite understand why the parish council would have needed the issue looked into.”
He added: “I feel we let ourselves down by sending out a strongly worded letter without contacting Mr Culham face to face to talk things through and explain to him what options were available to him.
“Mr Culham, who first put up the flags in June, has accepted the request for a meeting, which will take place as soon as possible.
Comments(30)
B1gman
says...
4:33pm Tue 21 Aug 12
Mr Honest wrote:sounds like Mr Honest is a bit homophobic! perhaps the council has realised they were heavy handed in the situation as stated in the story, every thought of that ?
Why has the Council backed down? Makes them look weak. Landlord playing the Gay card no doubt.
romantic
says...
5:12pm Tue 21 Aug 12
Mr Honest wrote:Dozens of pubs a week are closing, anything which brings people in is a good thing. If the gay crowd have money to spend, then fair play to The Lion for getting them in.
Why has the Council backed down? Makes them look weak. Landlord playing the Gay card no doubt.
You don´t actually have to be gay to go to a gay-friendly pub! If you feel that your manliness might be threatened, maybe you´re the one with the problem.
Anyway, it´s good publicity for the place!
xxxdave
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5:18pm Tue 21 Aug 12
Sdapeze
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5:33pm Tue 21 Aug 12
Reginald47
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5:40pm Tue 21 Aug 12
Boris
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6:47pm Tue 21 Aug 12
taylor08
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7:50pm Tue 21 Aug 12
this is a really great pub has some wonderful people who run it and everyone is friendly. You don't have to be gay or lesbian to go.
6079 Smith W
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9:15pm Tue 21 Aug 12
Boris wrote:Yes. Imagine this in the accent of an elderly Welsh lady:-
I agree with romantic. Mr Honest is clearly gay but trying to pretend he isn't. Come on out Mr Honest, nobody is going to bite you, just live up to your name and enjoy life to the full.
'What that lad needs is a nice bit of ****!'
6079 Smith W
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9:20pm Tue 21 Aug 12
Mr Honest
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10:38pm Tue 21 Aug 12
omgwtfbbq
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10:10am Wed 22 Aug 12
just dont tell Fred ;)
you're_scaring_me_now
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10:37am Wed 22 Aug 12
Mr Honest wrote:So homosexuals are 'not normal' to you then Mr. Honest?
Ha ha ha. No I am not Gay and I am going to make a point of visiting the pub now. Im just saying that the Council have backed down only because the landlord has probably giving it large saying "Im Gay and you are homophobic". A bit like if the landlord was black the same would have happenede. A normal white heterosexual male wouldnt get away with it though.
This is the year 2012 and that view is simplynot acceptable. It's totally not OK.
I thought people with your attitudes had died out with the dinosaurs!
Boris
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12:11pm Wed 22 Aug 12
6079 Smith W wrote:"Little Britain" was quite funny but other shows were funnier. Right now the best comedy show on TV is a Mark Steel's In Town special, in Leith, on channel 301, but only till to-morrow. It is on a permanent loop till 23rd August and you get to it via the red or blue button from either BBC1 or Radio 4.
As in a male chicken. Actually, Boris, I can't imagine Little Britain was your sort of thing. It wasn't mine really, but 'the only gay in the village' sketches were quite funny.
No rainbow flags though.
Mr Honest
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2:16pm Wed 22 Aug 12
Sdapeze
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5:16pm Wed 22 Aug 12
danzadellamorte
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7:19pm Wed 22 Aug 12
6079 Smith W
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7:38pm Wed 22 Aug 12
Sdapeze wrote:You are not racist in suggesting that out, you could point to statistics. It all depends on why you think that. If you think it's down to the fact we are different races, with fundamental genetic differences, then you'll be on the lines of racism. If you think it's all probably more to do with culture and environment, I wouldn't dare call you a racist.
You are free to be homophobic Mr Honest, if you want to be. Don't apologise. You simply pander to the Thought Police in doing so. Be free to have your own views, however much others may disagree with you. Apparently I am a racist in believing that black Africans are better runners than white people. I couldn't care less.
6079 Smith W
says...
8:45pm Wed 22 Aug 12
6079 Smith W wrote:Just read that back. So nobody misunderstands me here. That should have have been 'different races', because as a 'fact' it has been proved completely untrue.
Sdapeze wrote:You are not racist in suggesting that out, you could point to statistics. It all depends on why you think that. If you think it's down to the fact we are different races, with fundamental genetic differences, then you'll be on the lines of racism. If you think it's all probably more to do with culture and environment, I wouldn't dare call you a racist.
You are free to be homophobic Mr Honest, if you want to be. Don't apologise. You simply pander to the Thought Police in doing so. Be free to have your own views, however much others may disagree with you. Apparently I am a racist in believing that black Africans are better runners than white people. I couldn't care less.
Sdapeze
says...
10:41pm Wed 22 Aug 12
Douglas Park
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3:34pm Thu 23 Aug 12
I believe the pub's landlord was most surprised by Tendring Council's reaction to what was initially a Parish Council issue. In retrospect, Tendring has admitted the issue was not handled respectfully and good on them for having the bottle to admit it and seek an amicable solution.
romantic
says...
5:20pm Thu 23 Aug 12
Sdapeze wrote:sdapeze, I agree, it is a sign of imbalance in the natural order of things, and you both need to sort it out!
The question is whether you accept that the human race is divided into sub races. I think that we can divide up the human race into different classifications. In my world we have European, Asian, African, Polynesian, Chinese, Aboriginal, etc. In the main I base my classification on facial appearance. It is purely subjective and matters not one jot as to the person's position in life's rich tapestry. But I am having a difficulty with Anna's affability toward me just recently. This must stop! Can we please return to the vitriol?
BTW, I notice that you are shown as a performer at the Free Festival (comedian). What sort of time are you on?
6079 Smith W
says...
7:02pm Thu 23 Aug 12
romantic wrote:What with all that disagreement with somebody I really shouldn't have been rowing with, even sometimes I get tired of arguing the toss!
Sdapeze wrote:sdapeze, I agree, it is a sign of imbalance in the natural order of things, and you both need to sort it out!
The question is whether you accept that the human race is divided into sub races. I think that we can divide up the human race into different classifications. In my world we have European, Asian, African, Polynesian, Chinese, Aboriginal, etc. In the main I base my classification on facial appearance. It is purely subjective and matters not one jot as to the person's position in life's rich tapestry. But I am having a difficulty with Anna's affability toward me just recently. This must stop! Can we please return to the vitriol?
BTW, I notice that you are shown as a performer at the Free Festival (comedian). What sort of time are you on?
And yes, what time is Sadpeze on? That is guaranteed a laugh, even if he ain't funny! Seriously (sorry to be so affable again), that takes guts, so fair play Sdapeze!
6079 Smith W
says...
7:33pm Thu 23 Aug 12
Sdapeze wrote:Yes, it would be a little silly, and dangerous, to ignore we are a diverse specious. But we started as one race (in Africa), and remain one race. We simply moved around the planet, and evolved and adapted to the different environments we found ourselves in, which is why we have different characteristics.
The question is whether you accept that the human race is divided into sub races. I think that we can divide up the human race into different classifications. In my world we have European, Asian, African, Polynesian, Chinese, Aboriginal, etc. In the main I base my classification on facial appearance. It is purely subjective and matters not one jot as to the person's position in life's rich tapestry. But I am having a difficulty with Anna's affability toward me just recently. This must stop! Can we please return to the vitriol?
The idea of race is actually a comparatively recent one. When the general belief system was that we all came from Adam and Eve, the 'word of God' wasn't questioned, we were just one race. But then along came the slave trade, with millions of Africans been transported as mere chattel, and sold as slaves. How could this be justified before the 'word of God'? The way to do it was to see Africans as a separate race, not descending from Adam and Eve.
So the notion of race, and racism, soon became fashionable, and justified in scientific terms. Frances Galton comes along with his eugenics, and we end up with the horrors of Auschvitz. This creation of the falsehood of race, had a very bad outcome indeed.
There's good reason to talk of ethnicity, rather than a term with so much baggage, and one that will forever be intertwined with this scientific falsehood.
icecoolmark
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10:48pm Thu 23 Aug 12
Tolkny
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10:18am Mon 27 Aug 12
That is a fascinating link, I had never made the Little Britain connection before, yet used to walk down there.
That is a very informative and interesting website looking back to the time of the Olympic's bid as well.
What is round comes round!
There is even a Lion in this story but at Ardleigh not St Osyth!
Tolkny
says...
10:38am Mon 27 Aug 12
Tolkny wrote:6079 Smith W says...
Thanks to 321gone,
That is a fascinating link, I had never made the Little Britain connection before, yet used to walk down there.
That is a very informative and interesting website looking back to the time of the Olympic's bid as well.
What is round comes round!
There is even a Lion in this story but at Ardleigh not St Osyth!
7:33pm Thu 23 Aug 12
"the 'word of God' wasn't questioned"
Uhmm, possibly not questioned by very many in Europe, after Christianity was adopted as the faith of The Roman Empire in about the third century AD.
However, before that, amongst the Greeks and Romans, to name just two so called civilizations, there were many God(s) and further away from Europe there were many other spiritual understandings, some aboriginal ones that have just about lasted until today>
So whilst the " 'word of God' " may not have been questioned (much) within specific communities there were and still are many different understandings of what 'God' was, is or might be.
It is probably helpful if those of us who think about these things do not repeat the notion that somehow the belief systems in Western Europeanised society are the most important to all the World's populations or even the most prominent every where.
Tolkny
says...
11:15am Mon 27 Aug 12
6079 Smith W
says...
6:25pm Tue 28 Aug 12
Tolkny wrote:An important point, Tolkny. We all need to be careful not to be Euro-centric in approach, which ironically includes you! The mistake you've made there is to see Adam and Eve as only part of a Christian belief system, you've forgotten it is central to all Abrahamic religions, which of goes beyond Europe.
Tolkny wrote:6079 Smith W says...
Thanks to 321gone,
That is a fascinating link, I had never made the Little Britain connection before, yet used to walk down there.
That is a very informative and interesting website looking back to the time of the Olympic's bid as well.
What is round comes round!
There is even a Lion in this story but at Ardleigh not St Osyth!
7:33pm Thu 23 Aug 12
"the 'word of God' wasn't questioned"
Uhmm, possibly not questioned by very many in Europe, after Christianity was adopted as the faith of The Roman Empire in about the third century AD.
However, before that, amongst the Greeks and Romans, to name just two so called civilizations, there were many God(s) and further away from Europe there were many other spiritual understandings, some aboriginal ones that have just about lasted until today>
So whilst the " 'word of God' " may not have been questioned (much) within specific communities there were and still are many different understandings of what 'God' was, is or might be.
It is probably helpful if those of us who think about these things do not repeat the notion that somehow the belief systems in Western Europeanised society are the most important to all the World's populations or even the most prominent every where.
Tolkny
says...
9:32pm Tue 28 Aug 12
Mr Honest says...
4:27pm Tue 21 Aug 12