Posterous theme by Cory Watilo as adapted by Jamie Graham

Friday morning train porn again

written on Friday 22 July 2011 and filed under [british rail] [intercity] [porn] [trains]

More excellent marketing from British Rail: why face the hell of the airport or stress of the motorway when you can sit back and relax on a comfortable, speedy Intercity 125?

This is probably British Rail's most famous advertising campaign, appearing in a couple of versions (originally ending 'British Rail', the advert was still in use as Sectorisation came along and BR dissolved its regions in favour of 'Sectors' - Provincial, Intercity, London and South East and Freight, hence the 'Intercity' tag line with only a little double-headed arrow). Like much of British Rail's marketing, it now produces a smile of recognition and warmth, not least for presenting the inside of the Mk III coaches so well. They've been refurbished since privatisation, with view-blocking high seats (in case there's an accident - it'd be better if you're killed instantly by hitting your face on the seat than slightly more slowly by being thrown into the carriage) that no longer coincide with the windows (who wants to look out of the window when travelling when you could be reading the dire on-board advertising magazine) and a reduction in legroom (because, hey, we need to see if all modes of travel can give you a deep-vein thrombosis).

Nevertheless, despite the shysters who now run the railways, the central part of the advert remains true: there's no better way of travelling than by train.

What might have been

written on Tuesday 19 July 2011 and filed under [albert kennedy trust] [lgbt]

Lesbian, gay and trans kids get a very raw deal. Children are positively mediaeval in the pleasure they take from taunting other children, especially ones that seem 'different' in some way. Grown-ups are often no better: the reason that so many homeless kids are LGBT is not because we're unstable as people, but because loving, ordinary parents would rather throw a child out to sleep rough than accept that they are different. The reason we suffer more mental illness than average society is not because being LGBT causes mental illness but because of the rejection and hate received at the hands of the organisations other people would turn to for help - churches, charities, even the state. 

When I was growing, the state, in the shape of the Tories, feared that people like me were "being taught" that we had an "inalienable right to be gay" and that this was wrong. They passed evil, homophobic legislation that they still haven't properly apologised for, banning the "promotion" (read: discussion) of homosexuality in schools. Hundreds of gay children took their lives in that period. And I've got news for Tories who still worry that people believe they have an inalienable right to be gay: we do.

These attitudes are slowly changing. But very very slowly. Too slowly. A couple of organisations try to do practical things to change this. Diversity Role Models is sending ordinary, happy LGBT people into schools - primary and secondary - to challenge homophobic behaviour and to offer a route out of hell from those homophobia affects, simply by standing in front of a class and saying: look at me - I'm you. I'm normal. I'm happy.

At the other end, cleaning up the damage society's attitudes can do, are the Albert Kennedy Trust. Albert was triple-cursed: gay; abandoned by his own family; and, at 16, as the state is wont to do, tipped out of a children's home to live on the streets. He died running away from the mob that was trying to give him a beating.

There but for the grace of fate goes any LGBT child. The video above is part of their "AKT NOW" campaign to remind us all, gay, straight and everything in between, that this happens and it must be stopped. The stars are all famous celebrities who happen to be gay and happen not to have had their lives ruined - or ended - senselessly because of it.

I defy you not to be moved.

Monday morning Hattie Jacques porn

written on Monday 18 July 2011 and filed under [british rail] [hattie jacques] [porn] [trains]

Ooh, this is wonderful! Even if you're not a railfan, this advert should make you leap on to a train and take a journey somewhere - anywhere - just for fun, because it features the most sexy, most sexual, star of the twentieth century: behold Hattie Jacques getting an 'Awayday' ticket from Sevenoaks to Charing Cross to do lunch with Jackie Stewart*

Be still my beating heart!

* Warning - link plays music at you, in a crime against teh internets.