Remember Jason Donovan; or, How the SNP embraces homophobia

You may not have heard of Kenneth Gunn - indeed, you most likely have not heard of Kenneth Gunn. I had forgotten I had heard of him until yesterday, driving home through the Yarrow valley, in the aftermath of last week's local elections, we saw a fluorescent SNP placard in a farmhouse front garden; along with the SNP symbol (I have never known what it is meant to represent - a ribbon?) it bore the injunction, "Gunn". I asked my Borders-based friend if this was the same Kenneth Gunn I had come across a few years ago (he and his wife have done some very impressive charity work). It was indeed.

My Borders friend then made a passing comment to some past Selkirk scandal involving Kenneth Gunn and homophobic comments he had made. This immediately made me curious, and led me to this Southern Reporter piece from August 2009. It transpires that during a BBC Radio Scotland phone-in (about an interactive Glasgow exhibition which invited participants to write in and on the Bible, in an effort to 'write in' to it those who have traditionally been 'written out'), Kenneth Gunn got a little homophobia-happy and was slightly too open about his opinion of "so-called gays" (love that phrase) and atheists:

"Just look where this country has gone over the last 40 or 50 years. When we all went to church on a Sunday morning and we all prayed to the Lord Jesus Christ every Sunday morning, this was a much better country. Look where it is going now. We have got so-called gays who are really very sad people and we have non-believers and heathens, you know, running the country and running down Christianity."

The full transcript can be found in the Southern Reporter - if you read it, you will see that it is not the most vitriolic of homophobic religious rants that we have been subjected to over the last few years. Indeed, it is not the language or subject-matter of Gunn's tirade that I find interesting; what I find interesting is the reaction, or lack of it from the SNP.

There was absolutely no action from the SNP, other than to state that the "comments are a personal matter" and to ask Gunn to apologise that his comments had caused "offence". Other than that, Gunn has continued to represent the SNP, and to stand as their candidate at a number of elections. This sends a very clear message that the SNP not only tolerate homophobia, but are happy to be associated with it (rather like the issue of their refusal to condemn or even seriously engage with the sectarian violence associated with Scottish football, they are afraid to alienate what they see as their key electorate. What happened to politicians with ideals who wanted to make the world a better place: Wilberforce, etc. I know I sound naive, but seriously, this is low - exploiting homophobia, sectarianism, etc. in order to maintain support).

I couldn't help but be reminded of another homophobic incident involving another SNP-er - this time an MSP: Alasdair Allan. Allan is the MSP for the Western Isles (and - incidentallty - originates from Kenneth Gunn's own stomping ground) and, in 2008, was accused (by a political enemy) of "walking hand-in-hand" with "his boyfriend [...] enjoying the beautiful weather" (It was also suggested that this show of decadent perversion took place on a Sunday - not being an inhabitant of the Western Isles, I'm not sure whether breaking the Sabbath is more or less sinful than sodomy).

RIP Leith FM

I have just heard about the re-branding of Leith FM and can't help but feel a bit sad - another one bites the sellout dust.

As its name suggested, Leith FM was set up as a radio station for Leith and the surrounding areas (I could still pick it up a few miles from Leith...) - and it had an authentic community-run feel, quite reminiscent of those Highland radio stations, like Lochbroom FM and Cuilin FM, that I love so much. It was properly local (and by this I don't necessarily mean "Scottish" - it was rightly reflective of Leith's multiculturalism) - it took itself and local issues seriously, as a local radio station should, but it was also lots of fun to listen to. It made an effort to involve the local community - with "open evenings" to bring in new people, and with Leith FM staff tutoring courses at the local school, and in this sense was also very accessible. 

Well, as of the 22nd March this year, Leith FM is no more, and if you tune in to 98.8 FM, you will pick up "Castle FM". The new name alone shows just how strong the commitment is to keeping the station's local empahasis, and recognising its roots: i.e. nil - where is the castle in Leith??!

There are so many questions I want to ask about this, and it is typical of the abysmal state of print media in Edinburgh that the Evening News has not taken this up.

The reason given for the re-branding is that Leith FM had "developed a 'bad reputation' in the local community" - well, if this is the case, it is the first I've heard of it. And how is basically re-figuring the station as a commercial competitor to Forth FM going to improve anything other than the station employees' pay cheques, let alone the station's reputation?

Apparently, Tom Farmer (of Kwikfit fame) is involved - as is his cash no doubt. Now, Tom Farmer makes a lot of his Leith childhood, which is all well and good, but he is as distant from the realities of life in Leith nowadays as it is possible to be, and is no part of its current community. Why, then, has he chosen to get involved with this community radio station?

It makes me deeply uncomfortable: he owns 90% of Hibs footballl club, he is a major donor to the SNP; in 2004 (when Leith FM was still a twinkle in Mary Moriarty's eye) he tried to set up a commmercial Edinburgh radio station called... Castle FM. 

This document on the Ofcom website makes for depressing reading. The list of those involved in the original Castle FM license bid reads like a roll call of Edinburgh finance, media and local government usual suspects: Angus Grossart, Andrew Neil, Eric Milligan, etc., etc, - and, of course, Tom Farmer. If the diversity of this group is anything to go by, then Leith FM (which was once truly local, and without a commercial agenda) has been handed over to same individuals who already have  the Edinburgh media scene entirely sewn up. Well done.

Tom Farmer has done many good things for Edinburgh, and for Scotland, but he clearly has  an idelogical and commmerical agenda alongside his philanthropic one - and where better to begin to play this out than in a small, cheap radio station (good value for money, less financial risk if it doesn't work out, and yet with the potential to wield a lot of influence - an Edinburgh Telemilano...)?

This story, and this picture, make me feel slightly queasy (cheerleaders?! - why?? where is the vibrancy, the diversity of Leith? - maybe they are there to disguise the fact that over 80% of the non-cheerleading participants in this photograph are male?):