Signal Boost - the latest Nationwide ad campaign

If you're in the UK you'll probably have seen TV adverts and accompanying billboards, featuring Little Britain's David Walliams and Matt Lucas in their "hilarious" Emily and Florence personas. Nationwide is promoting this campaign under the slogan "Proud to be Different", although it all looks pretty samey to anyone old enough to remember Dick Emery.

Anyway, the point of this post isn't to go over the ways in which these characters have worked to give legitimacy and a vocabulary to transphobic abuse, but to provide a link to Dru Marland's open letter to Walliams - which has mysteriously become almost invisible to Google in the last couple of days. ETA: Visibility has now been mysteriously restored...

Signal Boost - the latest Nationwide ad campaign

If you're in the UK you'll probably have seen TV adverts and accompanying billboards, featuring Little Britain's David Walliams and Matt Lucas in their "hilarious" Emily and Florence personas. Nationwide is promoting this campaign under the slogan "Proud to be Different", although it all looks pretty samey to anyone old enough to remember Dick Emery.

Anyway, the point of this post isn't to go over the ways in which these characters have worked to give legitimacy and a vocabulary to transphobic abuse, but to provide a link to Dru Marland's open letter to Walliams - which has mysteriously become almost invisible to Google in the last couple of days. ETA: Visibility has now been mysteriously restored...

Steepholm's Dream Diary: 14

I am reading a photo romance, of the kind they used to print in Jackie. Except that it's not a romance at all, but a rather grim detective story, possibly by Ruth Rendell. It appears that a young woman has just been condemned to death for a crime she did not commit. The two policeman in charge of the case are discussing the situation. The more senior, a tortured and aesthetic Adam Dalgleishy type, sits behind his desk and explains to his junior that although they both realise (too late) that the woman is innocent she has been duly convicted, and there's no way they could ever persuade a judge or jury to reverse that verdict, no matter how compelling the new evidence may seem to them. It's just one of those times when it's lousy to be a copper.

Steepholm's Dream Diary: 14

I am reading a photo romance, of the kind they used to print in Jackie. Except that it's not a romance at all, but a rather grim detective story, possibly by Ruth Rendell. It appears that a young woman has just been condemned to death for a crime she did not commit. The two policeman in charge of the case are discussing the situation. The more senior, a tortured and aesthetic Adam Dalgleishy type, sits behind his desk and explains to his junior that although they both realise (too late) that the woman is innocent she has been duly convicted, and there's no way they could ever persuade a judge or jury to reverse that verdict, no matter how compelling the new evidence may seem to them. It's just one of those times when it's lousy to be a copper.

Soundbites

Just heard on Radio 4 while making coffee (prior to marking, natch): "It's not enough to say that without Paganini there would have been no Liszt, Chopin or Schumann. Without Paganini there would have been no Jimi Hendrix."

Very true. And, one might add in a slightly different vein, no Julian Lloyd Webber neither.

Soundbites

Just heard on Radio 4 while making coffee (prior to marking, natch): "It's not enough to say that without Paganini there would have been no Liszt, Chopin or Schumann. Without Paganini there would have been no Jimi Hendrix."

Very true. And, one might add in a slightly different vein, no Julian Lloyd Webber neither.