PeterRS

This being glued to phones is extremely anti-social in the worst possible sense. Those who do so have started to live in some kind of parallel universe that is so unreal. Yet as I continue to rant against social media, I sometimes wonder if there is in fact much difference beween today and my childhood aeons ago. We lived mostly in small communities. Telephone calls were expensive and so we tended to mix in our own smallish social circles. International calls were almost unheard of and had to be booked in advance. The reason? For much of the 1960s the UK only had 3,000 international telephone lines and half these were reserved for the banking sector! For news we depended on the BBC whose words we treated as gospel. Newspapers offered a degree of variety but were we really aware that they were owned by private interests putting forward essentially personal views - Beaverbrook, Roy Thomson and others in the UK; Hearst, the Newhouse Group, Henry Luce and now Murdoch and others elsewhere. Is it in broad terms more or less the same but on a world stage? Although i dislike even suggesting it, it sometimes seems so.

One of the Oscar short-listed Documentaries has the title Cashing Out. As the HIV and AIDS crisis developed it became a cottage industry which an article in today's Guardian terms "ghoulish and and liberating at the same time." Faced with a lover who is dying of AIDS, Scott Page recalled that his partner had a good term life insurance policy which would pay out on his death, at which time it would do him no good whatever. Short on cash, Scott placed an advertisement in the local paper to see if someone would buy his partner's policy in return for an advance. One did, and a reduced amount was agreed, thereby enabling his partner to live out what remained of his life in relative comfort. Page recalls how the money transformed his boyfriend's life as the stress of money worries vanished. Many of those dying of AIDS did not have lovers and partners in the 1980s. With the US Federal Government downplaying the AIDS crisis and refusing medical advances recommended by the CDC, so Greg tried to set up a form of brokerage. Banks and credit unions refused to help, telling him that insurance monies should go to beneficiaries, not the dying. Yet it was the beneficiaries who had walked away from their dying sons! So he approached small time investors. Ironically the sicker the patient, the quicker the windfall payout. As the young gay documentary director, 26-year old Matt Nadel recalls, it was members of the African American community who really suffered at this time as few had any form of life insurance. He knew, because he learned in 2020 that it was his father Phil who had been an early investor buying up these policies. The full documentary can be seen within the link below. A still from the movie - Photo: The New Yorker https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/21/cashing-out-documentary-short-aids-profiteering

The authorised distriutor for Denon products in Thaiand is Mahajak Development Co. Ltd. It's website is https://www.mahajak.com/en/denon?srsltid=AfmBOopwcRskVxuM2A-AYm1836Fh7tFiQ3rYwdmp_Sj4yyL24VGTt0zx&p=2 The email for support is onlinesupport@mahajak.com From the website you can see it has outlets at Paragon and Emquartier, but best to visit the headquarters at 46 Sukhumvit Soi 3. Paragon and Emquartier have phone numbers against them but I would not consider phoning for a repair job.

The mental health issues resulting from social media are particularly worrying with children and young teens, several of whom have killed themselves as a result of some form of on-line grooming. Interesting that governments are finally taking some action. Australia recently announced a ban on under-16s unsing social media, and this has caused quite a storm in the country. Denmark and Norway are likely to jump on that bandwagon with the age being either 15 or 16. There is also discussion in France, Spain. Italy, Greece and Malaysia. https://www.euronews.com/next/2025/12/23/which-european-countries-are-considering-banning-social-media-for-children

Perhaps I just do not remember dreaming in any colour, even black and white. But the sensation the morning after in Morocco was very vivid. No idea why other than the couple of puffs of hash having some result.

The Camera is on Jomtien thread under the Pattaya section has morphed into a discussion on nude beaches. Although there is no such beach in Hong Kong, it does have two main gay beaches, and part of a third. The main one is Middle Bay on the south of the Island between Repulse Bay Beach and South Beach. Little happens during weekdays and I am told it is less cruisy than it used to be at week-ends. On Sundays it was always packed with many dozens of gay Chinese guys. At the southern end is a large changing room which sometimes has some action. Above it is a little snack bar, ideal for a quick lunch rather than packing sandwiches. There also used to be some action in the rocks on the north side. But police sometimes venture into that part - and not to participate! Some gays have moved to the southern end of South Bay. The problem with these two beaches is there is no direct public transport. Minibuses occasionally venture on the road above, but it is a dead-end and to be sure you really have to take the bus and get off at Repulse Bay. It's then about a 15 minute walk. Over on Lantau is the 3 km long Chang Sha Beach. With many more locals now residing on Lantau, it is much more busy than it used to be. But there is still a gay section if you can be bothered getting there. If you are based on the Island or Kowloon, allow about an hour.

I thank my lucky stars that I never took up smoking cigarettes or taking drugs. I did, though, try to inhale a marijuana cigarette at a party in Marrakesh in the 1970s. On a solo holiday to Morocco, I had met up with some other British people my age who invited me to a party in their hotel room. Hash was being handed around. In order to blend in, as it were, when one was handed to me, I tried it. I managed two short puffs before coughing almost uncontrollably. I noticed no effect and the guy I fancied at the party clearly was straight. So I left earlyish. But the next morning I realised that for the first - and the only - time in my life, my dreams had been in colour. Strange sensation.

That is the statement made today in an article in The Guardian newspaper. The full detailed quote is - Some of us have always been Instagram and Facebook refuseniks, and never publicly posted pictures of our lives or families or any of it. But it’s not the norm, and billions of people have entirely forgivably got sucked into a world where they are the product, where they work for free for the tech lords, who successfully devalued the idea of privacy at the altar of their big lie: that “being connected” via their networks is far more important than privacy; that it is a win for humanity; that it is social. But it isn’t. Societies are in a mess. Literacy’s in a mess. Young people’s mental health is in a mess. The world’s in far more of a mess than it was when the techlords found it. The quote comes at the end of an article which illustrates the fate of one prominent British family who sold out to the tech world from the start and have lived their lives in the full glare of the world's gaze - deliberately. Now their 26 year old eldest son has virtually excoriated them and said he will never have anything to do with them ever again. His parents engagement was 'sold' to the media. Their marriage photos exclusively 'sold' to one magazine. Their first son's emergence as a foetus was 'sold'. They 'sold' photos of their home, and of their young son's nursery. Everything in their lives became a commodity. As did the brand they were creating as the perfect family. That family is named Beckham. Specifically Sir David and Lady Victoria Beckham. 30 years ago he was a prodigiously talented soccer player who would go on to become one of the best ever produced by England. Everyone in the country was soon talking about him. He then became engaged to a young aspiring fashion designer who had been a member of the hugely popular group, The Spice Glrls. . After their glitzy royal-style wedding, they went on honeymoon to New York where their first son was conceived. They told the world they'd name him Brooklyn. Odd name, you'd think, but they added "because he was conceived there." Just what the world wanted to know, I don't think! When social media came along, they embraced it in every possible way. In particular at ever turn they preached family love. Their staff ensured that photos were placed here, there and everywhere with that love abundantly clear. They were paid fees for as many photos as possible. Their brand was love and family. After soccer, David developed this brand in various ways. One was to assist now King Charles with his charity, The Prince's Trust. Around the time of the Olympics in London in 2012, he seemed to be everywhere. Meanwhile, thanks perhaps - just maybe! - his wife's fashion business was taking off. The couple is now estimated to be worth £500 million. But as the article writer points out, while "alchemically lucrative", their life was an "accident waiting to happen." Recently it did. Brooklyn went ballistic in a series of instagram posts accusing his parents of treating him like a commodity all his life and doing everything they could to prevent his marriage. In 2022 he had married a rich aspiring American actress whose father is a billionaire, Nicola Peltz. He and her brothers are devout Jews but her mother is not. Beckham Junior accused his parents of doing their best to derail his wedding - his mother of cancelling his future wife's wedding dress at the last minute, and then of insisting at the reception that he dance the first dance with her and not as is customary with his new bride. He added his parents pressured him into signing away the rights to his name, something he adamantly refused to do. His father also refused to see him on a visit to Los Angeles. He now goes by the name Brooklyn Peltz Beckham. The author believes the Beckhams have become so lost in the world of social media they do not know how else to live their lives - the only truly credible explanation for why they continue to live their life so remorselessly out loud is because they still crave the attention. And, realistically, because they have forgotten how else to live. And where is Sir David now? Where else but at the World Economic Forum in Davos mingling with world leaders, yesterday lecturing how children are "allowed to make mistakes." Naturally the brand must be repaired and continue. He was well aware his speech had been circulated and would again appear on social media. Forget the wayward son was the unwritten message. The tech lords must ensure the Beckhams' brand remains important. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/20/brooklyn-peltz-beckham-inc-disaster-david-victoria https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce3ekq4z5dyo

The covers of the defaced books (two below) are now exhibited in the library from which they were 'lifted'. Some were even sold at an auction in 2019 which raised £50,000 for the library. I have a feeling Orton would be quite pleased about that, although less so his lover Halliwell if only because Joe's name would appear and not his! I understand that Halliwell hacked him to death with a hammer when he heard that Joe was going to leave him. He then took an overdose of barbiturates. From the movie and his diaries, I have always wondered what on earth Joe saw in Halliwell as their relationship neared its end. Everyone seemed to like Joe. Even The Beatles commissioned a movie script from him, athough they never used it as they felt it was too gay.

FInally some sense! Some time ago I wrote about my father, a doctor. At the start of WWII, he joined up and like hundreds of thousands of other troops was transferred to northern France. While the vast majority was based close to Dunkirk, one group of around 10,000 from the 51st Highland Division was sent to the western town of St. Valery. After the many months' long phoney war, Britain evacuated all its troops at Dunkirk. But there were no ships left to pick up those at St. Valery. They were left to face the German onslaught and suffered many casualties. My father was captured and then moved around Germany in a series of prisoner of war camps, ending up near Gdansk before being liberated by the advancing Russians. Many of his colleagies were intent on escape. As the medical officer, though, he was duty bound to stay and look after his fellow prisoners. Some of those wishing to escape had been circumcised. Their main fear was they would be captured and singled out as Jews and sent to the concentration camps, even though few were Jewish. To try to prevent this, my father devised ways of over time gently pulling the skin at the shaft of the penis to make it look like more like a foreskin. He was clearly successful in that none of hose escapees who were captured were considered Jews. Most, thankfully, evaded capture and eventually returned to the UK.

Not having lived in the UK since 1979, I was not aware that Mary Whitehouse is still remembered. I do remember seeing her on an episode of The Dame Edna Experience and found she came across as very pleasant. But I resented what she was up to with her Filth campaigns. She reminded me a little of the wonderfully gay playright Joe Orton, very sadly bludgeoned to death by his lover when he was only 34. Whenever one of his three plays was on in London, newspapers would include indignant letters from one Edna Welthorpe saying such filth shold not be permitted. Welthorpe was none other than Orton himself just drumming up a bit of very good PR! I found this in an old issue of The Guardian The wording seems quite tame now but was quite cutting in its day. She died just after Queer as Folk hit British TV. That surely must have made her vitriolic! I have read several spy books, most recently two on the Burgess, Maclean and Philby episodes. I knew of Tom Driberg's Soviet exploits but have not yet read his book.

Blah! Blah! Blah!

Nor is your attaching childish videos on what are very serious subjects!

Also never been, but love the hot springs. 8 days and I am on my way to Taipei again. Incidentally i went to the Sukhumvit Yunimori hot spring in Bangkok with some Singapore friends a week ago (although it is far nearer Rama IV than Suk!) I had only ealier been to the much newer one off Sathorn very near Saint Louis Skytrain station. Although clearly older, we all enjoyed our time there. The staff are wonderfully welcoming, the facilities in the bathing space excellent. The one real difference is that the new facility has seven pools whereas the old one has four. Only the sitting out areas and little cafe need a bit of updating. Some time ago I read one post from a poster here who rather trashed the place. I beg to differ. I'd go again gladly. Both Yunimori have senior discounts - only Bt. 300 per entrance.

Ha! So typical! When a poster changes his decision on the basis of yet more idiocy from another member, you call it liying! And you post silly little cartoon-type pics supposedly to demean another poster. Don't be even more childish than you have shown yourself to be so far. We get it! Understand? You are pro-circumcision. Your choice based on your understanding of the research. I GET IT! Your view is entrenched and will not change! I GET THAT! I speak for the majority of nations in the world and the majority of the peoples of this world that have chosen a different path. I have no access to their research or the reasoning for their decisions. But the very fact that a vast majority in the world are uncircumcised without any religious or cultural reasoning shows that you and the American medical system give no attention to others than yourelves. Which i suppose in the end of the day is what indeed should happen. I am sure other members are now pissed off with yet another Japanese farmer-type impasse. Leave it be!

You really are being stupid on this issue. Unlike you I am far from the one making any judgements here. We are talking about governments for whom I am trying to add a voice. And if you think every government is as dumb as that of the United States that has since the end of WWII maimed and killed millions of their own and not only murdered many tens of millions in the rest of the world, it continues to murder them as in Laos, the most bombed country in the history of the world where it dropped a planeload of mostly cluster bombs every eight minutes of every day for nine whole years. Laos, a tiny landlocked country where the USA will still not pay world agencies to clean up the hundreds of millions of cluster bombs remaining in the ground which kill and main young children every year. Perhaps if it diverted funds away from padding doctors' bills through circumcising American babies, it might use the funds to consider cleaning up the disasters it has left behind and which continue to kill others in other parts of the world. It is governments that have decided they do not wish male babies circumcised - not me! WHen will you get that into your head? Yet you stated unequivocally without any justification or proof these same governments have condemned 300,000 children to death. How utterly ridiculous can you get!

Apologies. The Taipei beach is Shalun Beach 沙崙海灘 Very easy to reach from Tamshui terminus on the red subway line.

Sadly I have missed the sakura in Tokyo as often as I have seen it. The only time I was guaranteed to see it were the years I lived in the country! If I was making a special trip specifically to see it, a) I'd be flexible date-wise, and b) I'd be flexible location-wise. But inevitably that means a very significant budget. As has already been pointed out, the blossom moves from south to north over a perdiod of 3-4 weeks or so. Then you have to keep a keen eye out for the weather. I recall one year I lived near the centre of Tokyo. The sakura was almost in blossom and then the next day it all looked magnificent - truly a bucket list event. But that night it rained, and the following morning most of the blossoms had fallen to the ground. I found that there are certain colours more prominent at certain times. On my last visit in earlyish April pre-covid, it was all mostly white. At other times it can be mostly pinkish. Whatever, though, whereas the blossom trees are all over the city, you need to go to where it is most concentrated. I only know the city centre ones. In addition to Ueno Park and Shinjuku Park I mentioned earlier, a great place to visit, especially in the evening is Aoyama Cemetery. An odd place to view the sakura but it has many trees. It is also fun to go in the evening when so many people also have their dinner on their tarpaulins lit by little paraffin lamps. As @Keithambrose points out, there are various internet sites which give you details of the updated daily progress of the sakura each season. The one problem is that no one is ever sure when it will start. That is totally up to the weather.

Sincere apologies. You are quite correct. In my original post I should have written $110,000 for the price that girl paid for the Baccarat bottle of cognac. (I had omitted the K from the subtitles!) Little wonder, as the host points out, that a lot of the girls become prostitutes to supprt their habit of attending host bars.

As a doctor, I would have expected you to write more succinctly and clearly on what is an extremely serious subject. You highlight obesity. You are correct, thank you. You sort of suggest giving up smoking. You are correct. Thank you. You do not mention diet and you do not mention other lifestyle issues. Alcohol intake is another. As I stressed, age is one. A look at the Mayo Clinic page on pancreatic cacer offers considerably more than your post. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/pancreatic-cancer/symptoms-causes/syc-20355421

Do you know something? You are acting like the child you were roughly a year ago when you were discussing the farmer outside Tokyo who for decades had refused to sell his land to enable Narita Airport to expand as it wished. You told readers in post after post after post after post that he was wrong. He should have taken the money. Yet those who had lived in Japan a great deal longer than your few weeks there, who understood and respected Japan's history, culture and traditions, who understood how the Japanese revere their land, who accepted the decision of the governments of the day and who, most importantly of all, respected the views of the tens of millions of Japanese (if not more) who sided with the farmer, meant absolutely nothing to you. They were wrong! The farmer was wrong! Only you were right! Now it is the same. You refuse to accept that other government medical experts may be wrong on the issue of cicumcision because you are right. Well, you are again wrong! And guess what? The farmer is still there. And world governments who are not in favour of circumcision will not change their minds after all the debate on the issue just because you throw at them some studies they no doubt read ages and ages ago. Do with your copies as you wish. But accept that a large majority of our varied world just does not agree with the practice. End of discussion.

1. Naked Homophobia There is one anniversary which I consider very important in our gay calendar which I will write at length about next month (yes, for those who don’t like long blog-type articles, please do not bother to read either this or it). There is an event about to take place in England which I now remark on here. Both refer back to major events in gay history around 60 and 70 years ago, one in the USA, the this one in England. Both should be remembered even at length when we consider the relative freedoms we all now enjoy as gay men. (As this post deals with England, American readers may wish to skip it, although it is no doubt mirrored by similar events in their own country.) As most readers will know, the legal system in England and Wales is different from that in Scotland. The former decriminalised homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in 1967; the latter not until 1981. Whereas between the two World Wars homosexuality appears to have been rather brushed aside as a matter of little public import, in England the anti-brigade thereafter suddenly seemed to burst into life. We all know from the film The Imitation Game that the code breaker Alan Turing was gay. We know too that through his work he shortened the course of the War in Europe by, some say, two years. Gay relationships existed post war, but it was far from easy and most gay men found most sexual gratification through casual acquaintanceships, often in public lavatories, a practice known as “cottaging”. I do not know anything about Turing’s habits. All I am aware of is that he was discovered to be homosexual only because he freely admitted it to the police. His house had been burgled, ironically by a friend who himself was homosexual. That ‘friend’ was one of his casual sexual acquaintanceships, a 19-year old unemployed youth he had met outside a cinema. When explaining the events of that night with the police, he was confronted with the information about his friend. When asked if he, too, was homosexual, he did not try to hide it. Although he was the complainant, his solicitor urged him to plead guilty. He was then charged with “gross indecency” and given the option of two-years in jail or chemical castration. Had the police had any idea of his wartime service, the chances are the case would have been swept under the carpet. But he was bound by the terms of the Official Secrets Act and would have been subject to even greater legal penalties had be broken them. Rather than go to jail, in March 1952 he chose chemical castration. It ruined him. He lost his security clearance and hence the job he loved. He was still able to travel in Europe and in more tolerant Norway did find another man he enjoyed being with, Kjell Carson. He invited him to spend some time with him in England. But the authorities intercepted the postcard on which Kjell had informed Turing of his travel plans. They then deported him before the two could be reunited. In June 1954 he committed suicide. The English establishment had effectively murdered the one man who had save countless hundreds of thousands of lives less than a decade earlier. Alan Turing - Photo: The Nationlal Portrait Gallery, London Turing was just one of many rounded up in what became essentially a witch-hunt. Entrapment was one of their methods. Young handsome police officers were actually trained how to troll around cottages, shown how to seduce men and then wait to be propositioned before making an arrest. One caught in this trap was one of Britain’s most famous actors, the recently knighted Sir John Gielgud. He was taken to court in 1953, like Turing pleaded guilty and was fined £10 for “persistently importuning young men for immoral purposes.” Although he had been allowed to appear in the dock under the pseudonym John Smith, a journalist in court recognised him. As this was splashed all over the newspapers, for many in England it was a scandal to revel in. Yet more evidence of the furtive, dirty lives of men who were deviants, no matter their reputation! For it was fact that those people who even considered homosexuality at that time did so with revulsion. Gielgud himself was utterly mortified. He believed his career was ruined and, as he told his biographer Sheridan Morley, he considered suicide. It was only thanks to the love and loyalty of his many friends that he remained alive. As the Turing case was made into a film, so Gielgud’s case became the subject of the 2008 play Plague ever England. Its author, Nicholas de Jongh, wrote at the time that he wanted to use the offence to illustrate the depths to which the law in 1950s Britain had sunk in terms of enabling the prosecution of tens of thousands of men simply because of their sexuality. And as we know, both men are now held in the highest possible regard in Britain. Turing had the remarkable honour – and honour it was because he was one of less than a handful – to receive an official unconditional pardon not just from the Prime Minister but also from The Queen (although I am not sure why it should be termed an “honour” when he had to die before receiving it). His face now adorns Britain’s £50 notes. English heritage has had a plaque placed on the house where he lived. Most notably for the gay community, Turing himself would probably be most pleased that parliament passed the Turing Law in 2017 which effectively pardons most categories of living and deceased gay men and is intended to wipe their criminal histories from the official records. Just one well-known name to receive the pardon is Oscar Wilde. While most welcomed the move, some campaigners to change the law claim it does not go far enough. Being pardoned automatically presumes one has been guilty of some offence. George Montague said he would refuse the pardon. Instead he wants a formal apology for government actions. Still, from saviour from war, to convicted criminal, to suicide, to becoming known to all in the UK in a very positive light and a gay martyr as a sort of icing on the cake, Turing’s existing family members must be in some senses pleased. Sir John Gielgud - Photo: Godfrey Argent 1969 Sir John took most of a year off appearing on the stage following the publicity surrounding his conviction. He gradually worked his way back, first touring a one-man show and then in some of the many plays being written by the new generation of “angry young playwrights” like Harold Pinter, John Osborne and Arnold Wesker angry at the state of Britain and many of its communities. But first he had to complete performances of the play he was then appearing in. As one blog site (listed below) writes of that first evening – The day that the news broke of Gielgud’s arrest he was paralysed with fear. At the time, he was in Liverpool, starring in a performance alongside the formidable Dame Sybil Thorndike, and felt it almost impossible to go onto the stage that night. As the curtain was about to go up, something remarkable is reported to have happened. Dame Sybil grabbed Sir John by the arm and whispered in his ear, “Come on John darling, they won’t boo me”. With that, she led Gielgud out into the dazzling lights of the Royal Court Theatre. You can almost feel the tension as the expectant audience stared down at the two theatrical legends — one intent on giving her usual astounding performance, the other shaking like a shitting dog. There was silence. Not a shout. Not a boo. Not even a cough. And then…..a standing ovation. The audience cheered and applauded Gielgud, raising the roof of the Liverpudlian theatre. The message could not have been more abundantly clear. The people did not give two hoots what Johnny got up to in his private life, they considered him an outstanding actor and held him and his performances in such high regard. His sexuality did not matter. Dame Sybil Thorndyke; “a glorious actress” quote from the celebrated British actor Paul Scofield - Photo: unknown That summing up may not have been entirely true, but it was to have two effects. The first is that Gielgud’s view against suicide was reinforced. Far more importantly it led to a far deeper public discussion about homosexuality and why it was regarded as such a heinous moral crime. It was to play a key part in parliament’s further enquiries and finally decriminalising homosexuality in England and Wales in 1967. It is important to realise that the law was not merely intended to ferret out homosexuals and parade them as deviants. Equally it played an important role in preventing gay men, however closeted, from certain professions. One was the law itself. As a young Jewish man born in 1951 who knew he was gay, Terence Etherton realised he was destined for a career in medicine or law. Even though the gay section of the law had been changed, the views of many higher up the profession had not. Etherton was aware that the conservative (with a small ‘c’) wing of the legal profession would prevent his becoming an elite Queen’s Counsel, the highest rank for a barrister, and that he could never become a judge. Although the law had by now been changed, the Conservative Government’s Lord Chancellor in the early 1970s, Lord Hailsham, had made his disgust of homosexuality. Very clear. Earlier when appearing before the Wolfenden Committee which had recommended parliament change the law, Hailsham stated, “The instinct of mankind to describe homosexual acts as ‘unnatural’ is not based on mere prejudice.” In a 1994 BBC programme he went a lot further. “All the homosexuals I have known have been extremely eager, like alcoholics, to spread the disease from which they suffer.” Lord Hailsham - Photo: Getty Images It is a mark of the progress made by the higher-ups in society that Etherton not only did become a barrister and later during the Queen's reign a Queen's Counsel. After retirement he was enobled. Terence Etherington, the boy who believed doors were closed to him because of his sexuality, became Baron Etherington. He died in May 2025 leaving behind his long-time partner Andrew Stone with whom he had entered a civil patrnership in 2006 which they converted to marriage in 2014. It is just possible that Hailsham may not have been aware of some of the more nefarious deeds some of his fellow Lords were up to! Or maybe he was and merely turned his mind from it. Robert Boothby had been a member of parliament for 34 years before being elevated to the peerage. In the 1950s he had been a prominent advocate for changing the law against homosexual acts. Perhaps Lord Boothby had a special reason for suggesting this for his personal life was, as been frequently described as colourful. Twice married he enjoyed an affair for many years with the wife of a senior politician who would become prime minister, Harold Macmillan. But Boothby played the field. One of his close friends was the openly gay MP, Tom Driberg. In 1979 Boothby began an affair with a man he appointed as his driver, Leslie Holt, a former burglar. At a gambling club he had been introduced to the notorious gangster Ronnie Kray. Allegedly Kray supplied Boothby with young men and arranged for him to attend orgies. When all this came to the attention of the British media and hints were made, the government enabled it to be hushed up. After the German magazine Stern which was under no such restrictions published the stories, the British media finally went to print. Boothby denied everything, it was all hushed up again and Boothby received £40,000 for libel. Many were aware of Boothby’s indiscretions but all were afraid to mention them openly. it is said that even the Queen Mother was aware of his activities! The ever ebullient Lord Boothby - Photo unknown And it was all true. In 2015 government documents were released including files from the internal security service MI5 proving Boothby’s fondness for young men. The list could go on, for several peers and other notable figures from the 1950s, 60s and 70s were very much in the closet. Much is disclosed in the long article mentioned below Double Lives – a history of sex and secrecy at Westminster. All this is a very long preamble to a new play that will be opening in the UK on 4 February in Salford outside Manchester, England. Naked Homophobia takes the audience back to the 1950s and looks in detail at the very first programme to be broadcast on the BBC on male homosexuality intended for 1954. As we know, the anti-gay law was then in force. As a result, the issue was so taboo the BBC mandarins decided in their wisdom to withhold broadcast for three whole years. They then edited it heavily prior to transmission. As today’s article in The Guardian points out the programme shines light on the experience of gay men in the 1950s and explores gay themes that still resonate today. The play’s author Stephen M. Hornby had access to the original BBC script - “The overwhelming message I got from reading it [the original script] was either naked, foaming-at-the-mouth homophobia of people like Lord Hailsham. Or the more liberal voices who say conversion therapy works, you ought to give it a go at least – and if not you can live a quiet life of abstinence and not do anything which would scare the horses,” Hornby said. The programme was presented by the man who would later go on to Chair the Homosexual Law Reform Society. A strange choice, perhaps, given that in the programme he describes homosexuality as “a sort of infantilism” and “an arrested state of development.” The author discovered that the programme makers had also attempted, although unsuccessfully, to involve the wife of a businessman and mother of three sons who had written a long expose on homosexuality in The Sunday Times newspaper. She had written – “It may seem a strange thing that a woman should write about homosexuality. But I think many mothers suffer from the fear that, through no fault of their own, their boys may be tempted or warped.” Mary Whitehouse, photographed rather inappropriately outside a sex shop! Photo: BBC That writer was Mary Whitehouse, a well-known and influential name in Britain as a crusader against what she termed “filth” in the media. She died in 2001 and is now almost totally forgotten. When the edited BBC programme was finally aired, there was such a public backlash that the BBC took the decision there would be no more programmes on the subject. Following its season in Salford, the play Naked Homophobia will tour to Birmingham, Brighton, London, Liverpool and Loughborough. Primary Sources https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/jan/16/bbc-first-programme-on-gay-men-homosexuality-1950s-stage-play https://medium.com/the-pink-green-room/tis-a-blushing-shame-faced-spirit-gielgud-s-cottaging-catastrophe-95446be36325 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/16/double-lives-a-history-of-sex-and-secrecy-at-westminster#:~:text=The long parliament of,were published in the 1960s).

E-cigarettes have been banned in Singapore since 2018. Now a new crackdown is on the way. The reason: drug-laced vapes named K-Pods have become popular on the streets. With its zero policy towards drugs, the city state is introducing new harsh punishments if caught with e-cigarettes. These include being jailed, sent to state rehab, being caned and fined US$7,780). When found, sellers can be sent to jail for up to 20 years. Note: foreigners and tourists will receive the same punishments and a hotline has been set up so the public can report if they see anyone using vapes. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3387lrz5g4o

Andresen was not gay. He wrote later that he felt extremely difficult being with Visconti, Bogarde and a crew who were almost all gay. All were under instructions that Andresen was not to be 'touched'! He said that a few years later he did later have one gay experience "to try it" (!) but did not enjoy it.

As mentioned the vdo was made some years ago. But in ¥ terms, given the devaluation of the curency it is probably no more expensive now. You could always try it and see! 😵