Category Archives: Abolition Of Work

There is only one thing worse than homosexual art, the painter Patrick Procktor was once heard to declare at a private view in the 1960s. And thats heterosexual art. It would have been intriguing to hear his views on Queer British Art at Tate Britain. All the more so since it includes several of his own works, including a fine line-drawing study of the playwright Joe Orton, completely naked except for his socks which he kept on because he felt they were sexy and reclining somewhat in the manner of Manets Olympia.

In fact, many of those included might have had reservations Oscar Wilde, for example, one of whose characters observed, The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. There are quite a few of those included here. Then again, strictly speaking Queer British Art is not about art at all, but defined by law, and those who fell foul of it.

In other words, its concerned with a clandestine and persecuted group. Its para-meters are the abolition of the death penalty for sodomy in 1861 and the legalisation of sexual intercourse between consenting adults in 1967 (Oscars fate is grimly documented by a cell door from Reading Gaol).

The result, from the artistic point of view, is a lot of promiscuous mingling of the good, the indifferent and the simply awful (though sometimes, as in the case of Glyn Philpots paintings, also quite fun). Frankly dreadful items such as Walter Cranes enormous, pallid, silly Renaissance of Venus (1877) get in for the sake of a good story. Apparently, on first seeing this canvas Lord Leighton exclaimed, But my dear fellow, that is not Aphrodite that is Alessandro! He meant that the body was that of Alessandro di Marco, a successful male artists model.

The received explanation for this if the picture really was painted from life rather than being simply a blend of Botticelli and whimsy is that Cranes wife forbade him from using female models. The catalogue, however, prefers to interpret it as a case of gender fluidity, quoting with approval the comment of the painter W. Graham Robertson on Leightons remark: Still, she was a fine, upstanding slip of a boy.

Fluidity of gender is, naturally, a hot topic in queer studies an academic discipline as abstruse as particle physics, and discussed in equally impenetrable jargon. It is presumably because of complex equations worked out by trained queer scholars that pictures such as Cecile Waltons Romance (1920) a semi-nude self-portrait of the artist as a young mother with her two children are included. It comes in a section headed, rather broadly, Defying Convention.

There are moments, while walking around, when you begin to wonder whether there is any clear distinction between queer British art and British art, tout court. Indeed the non-British sculptor-painter Alberto Giacometti had the same thought, according to Lucian Freud. He told me he had decided to come and live in London, et je deviendrai un pdraste. Almost all my friends at that time were queer, and he had decided that that was the life!

Freud is not included in the exhibition, but many of his circle from the Forties and Fifties are John Craxton, John Minton, Francis Bacon. It is easy to imagine Bacons response to being seen in this company, aesthetically. He was a famously savage critic one friend gave up painting in despair after Bacons hilariously scathing reaction to his work.

He would probably have been equally entertaining if let loose on the audio guide to Queer British Art but perhaps unfairly so. There are some fine pictures here and there by the neglected Edward Burra, for example, and the almost forgotten Ethel Sands. The photographs, however, tend to catch the eye more than the paintings whether camp and fantastic, such as Cecil Beatons Stephen Tennant as Prince Charming (1927), or poignant like John Deakins frayed print of the two Roberts, Colquhoun and MacBryde, asleep (or passed out) in each others arms, c.1953.

Turning to the two stars of the show, there is much better Hockney on display in his triumphant retrospective and the Bacons are also far from his best. Its a shame that Tate couldnt get the latters Two Figures (1953) based on Muybridges photographs of naked wrestlers and informally known as The Buggers which is surely one of the truly great post-war British paintings. It hung for many years on Freuds bedroom wall. Francis, he recalled, liked to imagine that he was the one underneath.

Those more interested in visual delight than in social history albeit touching and amusing might like the new installation Forms in Space by Light (in Time) by Cerith Wyn Evans in the grand Duveen Galleries upstairs. It consists, in effect, of illuminated neon tubes that draw in the air above your head, producing an effect a little like a skein of vapour trails in the sky. Its free, fresh, energising and altogether lovely.

Here is the original post:

Would the artists in Tate's Queer British Art show have approved of being included? - Spectator.co.uk

The regulation of housing associations needs sweeping changes, MPs have told the Guardian, after an investigation into troubled new-build developments, which have benefited from more than 60m of public money.

The investigation into properties across London found issues with five housing associations: Catalyst, Sanctuary, Notting Hill Housing, Wandle and the One Housing Group, who together control 175,000 homes. Problems experienced by tenants and homeowners have included structural defects, damp, mould, broken lifts, infestation by rats, and widespread issues with poor customer service.

Rushanara Ali, MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, called for a new system of transparency and official ratings. Why cant we have league tables for housing associations so we know who are the worst offenders? said Ali, who has led recent attempts in parliament to force the government to take action on oversights by housing associations. That would force them to act.

We cannot tolerate the poor practice were seeing now. We wouldnt tolerate it from private landlords, so theres absolutely no reason we should be tolerating it from publicly funded housing associations. Whats scandalous is that public money is being given to them, even when customer service is failing.

The Green party co-leader, Caroline Lucas, said the revelations highlighted the downsides of recent government policy. The appalling state of some housing association homes is the result of years of deregulation and profit-seeking being prioritised over the building of decent homes, she said. No one should have to live in these kind of conditions. Mould, flooding and rats might be relatively common in Londoners homes, but that doesnt make their presence in any way acceptable.

The shadow housing minister, John Healey who served as housing minister under Gordon Brown said the Guardians findings exposed huge issues about how social housing providers are changing. This investigation is a cautionary tale about some housing associations work, he said. When some of them are adopting a more commercial model, they need to take care not to adopt commercial building standards, which too often these days the public see as unsatisfactory.

The National Housing Federation, the umbrella organisation which speaks for housing associations, said residents in housing associations were overwhelmingly satisfied and that the examples uncovered by the Guardian were in no way representative of the general quality of these housing associations homes nor the sector as a whole.

But politicians and housing professionals have become increasingly concerned about some housing associations performance and the governments drive to cut back funding and regulation, much of which was put in place under the last Labour government.

The Audit Commission played a key role in monitoring housing associations performance, but was dissolved in 2015. In 2010, the then housing minister Grant Shapps announced the abolition of the Tenants Services Authority, which was responsible for inspecting housing associations and addressing residents concerns.

Now, although the government insists that a strong regulatory framework remains in place, further moves are afoot. The Conservative housing minister, Gavin Barwell, recently told the House Of Commons that the government was committed to deregulating the sector, and highlighted new moves that free housing associations from the need to seek official approval for organisational changes and selling off their stock. Barwells department said: Housing associations are regulated and need to maintain their houses to a decent standard Where necessary, wed expect local authorities to use their enforcement powers for dealing with any breaches [of regulations].

The Labour MP Jon Cruddas, whose consituency of Dagenham and Rainham will have tens of thousands of newbuild homes constructed over the next 15 years, said:.Whats happening to some housing associations mirrors what happened to the building societies. They chased the market, and demutualised, and became much more aggressive, at the expense of their civic inheritance. The worry with housing associations is similar: theyre getting bigger and bigger, and theyre becoming more marketised.

Calls are growing for a different system of regulation, which would boost the role of the housing ombudsman. Sixty-one people work for the housing ombudsman, said Ali. Thats not many. I would like the government to change the requirement for people to go to their MP before they make a complaint. That just delays things. And the ombudsman does not publish how many complaints have been submitted for housing associations. That needs to change.

See the rest here:

MPs call for sweeping changes to housing association regulation - The Guardian

Malcolm Torry

There has been much discussion recently in Social Europe posts about a Basic or Citizens Income: an unconditional and non-withdrawable income for every individual. My aim here is to respond to one particular point made more than once: a Citizens Income would be unaffordable.

This is a complex question to which a variety of responses might be offered. Several of those responses would not be viable in the short or medium term but might be possible in the longer term: for instance, new forms of taxation, such as a financial transaction tax or land value tax, or the creation of new money, along the lines of the quantitative easing practised by central banks since the financial crisis. None of these funding methods would be easy to establish, and the likelihood of being able to implement one of them at the same time as introducing a Citizens Income would be close to zero.

A more feasible method for funding a Citizens Income in the short to medium term would be adjustments to the current tax and benefits systems. In the UK, such measures might be the reduction of the Income Tax Personal Allowance, adjustments to National Insurance Contribution rates and thresholds, changes to Income Tax rates, and the abolition or adjustment of existing means-tested benefits. A wide variety of different configurations would clearly be possible, but some would be more feasible than others.

In the UK, the value of the combination of the Income Tax Personal Allowance and the National Insurance Contributions Lower Earnings Limit is similar to that of the main out-of-work means-tested benefit, Jobseekers Allowance, suggesting that a Citizens Income of the same value could be paid for by reducing to zero the Personal Allowance and the Lower Earnings Limit and abolishing means-tested benefits. This approach might look attractive, but first of all the levels of means-tested benefits related to housing (Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit, and the housing component of Universal Credit) are substantial in areas of high housing costs, so those benefits would need to be retained; and secondly, households receiving Working Tax Credits and Child Tax Credits would find that their Citizens Incomes would replace the lost Income Tax Personal Allowance but not the value of their in-work means-tested benefits. Large numbers of low income households would therefore suffer substantial losses at the point of implementation of the Citizens Income. This would clearly be unacceptable.

The only option in the short to medium term is the retention of means-tested benefits, with each households means-tested benefits being recalculated on the basis that they would now be receiving Citizens Incomes and that their net earnings will have changed. It might be objected and it has been objected that this sacrifices the simplicity of Citizens Income, which is one of the advantages claimed by its proponents. This is to misunderstand. The Citizens Income would still be radically simple. It would be paid at the same rate to everyone of the same age, whatever their income, household structure, or employment status. It would function as a secure foundation on which every individual and every household would be able to build.

The means-tested benefits which some households would still receive would still of course remain as complex and stigmatising as they now are: and households still on means-tested benefits would continue to suffer high marginal deduction rates. However, any household that found itself no longer on means-tested benefits would see reduced marginal deduction rates and higher employment incentives, and would no longer experience the bureaucratic intrusion, sanctions, stigma, insecurity and complexity of means-tested benefits. So what matters is the number of households that would no longer be on means-tested benefits following the implementation of a Citizens Income and related tax and benefits changes; and also the number of households within striking distance of coming off means-tested benefits because any household with means-tested benefits of only a few pounds a week would choose to abandon their claim and instead add to their employment hours, in the knowledge that any additional gross earnings would no longer result in benefits withdrawal.

The Institute for Social and Economic Research has published a number of working papers on costed Citizens Income schemes. The most recent examples are An evaluation of a strictly revenue neutral Citizens Income Scheme, and Citizens Income Schemes: An amendment and a pilot project: An addendum to EUROMOD Working Paper EM 5/16. These show that a Citizens Income scheme that leaves in place and recalculates current benefits, and raises Income Tax rates by only 3%, can be revenue neutral, can avoid losses at the point of implementation for low income households, can minimise losses for all households, can reduce poverty, can reduce inequality, can take appreciable numbers of households off means-tested benefits, and can reduce substantially the average levels of payments of most means-tested benefits for those households still receiving them. The fact that such a scheme would reduce both poverty and inequality at zero net cost would be argument enough for implementing it. The fact that it would also take a lot of households off means-tested benefits, and that it would provide every individual and every household with a solid financial floor on which they could build, would be to take the first steps towards a tax and benefits system appropriate to the flexible labour market and household structures of the twenty-first century. The reduction in the number of means-tested benefits claims would deliver an administrative saving greater than the administrative cost of Citizens Incomes, which would be simpler to administer than Child Benefit.

The Citizens Income debate has evolved rapidly during the past five years or so, from a discussion of Citizens Incomes advantages and disadvantages, to exploration of its feasibility, and more recently to ideas about implementation. As the debate continues to evolve, the feasibility and possible consequences of illustrative schemes will be increasingly important.

Dr. Malcolm Torry is Director of the Citizen's Income Trust and a Visiting Senior Fellow in the Social Policy Department at the London School of Economics.

Original post:

Citizen's Income: Both Feasible And Useful - Social Europe

Henry Scott Tuke (1858-1929), The Critics, 1927, Oil on board, 412 x 514 mm, Warwick District Council (Leamington Spa, UK)

Queer British Art is the title of an exhibition that reveals itself to be a tamely closeted affair. And, if you bother to read the smaller subheader, giving the timespan covered youll see why. Despite its bold promise, this is a survey spanning an almost-century from 1861 to 1967 so well before queer theory and the reclaiming of a word that, by the 20th century, was a pejorative for any male who was slightly effeminate.

Starting from the year that saw the abolition of the death penalty for sodomy, the exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of male homosexuality under the Sexual Offences Act (lesbianism was never criminalised). And that end date doesnt just predate queer as a word embracing a radical political identity, but also the word gay, which doesnt really gain mainstream currency until as late as the early 70s (again, mainly for men).

This is why TV sitcoms and light entertainment programmes throughout that decade were full of gay double entendres. Gay lives were so under the radar that even though gay camp was the defining part of Saturday night entertainment, heterosexual audiences could still labour under the illusion, remarkable though it now seems, that camp entertainers were simply straight men pushing the envelope a bit with titillating What a gay day catch phases. Four years after decriminalisation, sober audiences could watch a serious film about a middle-class straight-bi-gay mnage in John Schlesingers Sunday Bloody Sunday (in which the two male characters were denuded of any sign of camp), but popular light entertainment was still straight out of music hall.

So naturally, camp, musical hall, vaudeville, and theatre all play a part in this exhibition, under the gaily euphemistic heading theatrical types and no surprises that its women, again, that this title excludes. Men dressed as women and women as men were a 19th century music hall staple for family audiences, though clearly once trousers, shirts, and short hair became common female attire, there was little demand for women as male impersonators. Meanwhile, drag acts such as Danny La Rue, as we see here, could go on to become one of the most highly paid and visible entertainers of the 60s, all the while keeping their sexuality under wraps, years after it was legal or, as were gently reminded, partially decriminalised. However bizarre the illusion La Rue, for instance, was known for starting every show with his gruff navvys catchphrase, Wotcha mates heteronormativity had to be maintained.

Keith Vaughan, Drawing of two men kissing, 195873, Tate Archive DACS, The Estate of Keith Vaughan

Meanwhile, plays still came under the censorship of the Lord Chamberlains Office until the 1968 Theatres Act abolished the censor. And its the ephemera that comes with all these details, the plays that escaped the cuts or which were performed uncensored in private clubs, the real lives of those depicted in largely dull, forgotten portraits, the details of the masquerades that were maintained for the sake of ones standing in society (though many seemed to be surprisingly open and unfettered) that prove absorbing; that is, its the reading between the pictures and the photos and the artefacts that largely detains you.

Youll find that Robert Harper Penningtons full-length portrait of Oscar Wilde, c. 1881, isnt half as absorbing as the story of its commission and its sorry fate after Wildes disgrace. Nor are the stilted pre-Raphaelite paintings of androgynous figures by Simeon Solomon, an artist who suffered a similar fate to Wilde and who died in disgrace in Solomons case he was arrested in a public lavatory for attempted buggery. Though even here the law has a human face. Duncan Grants portrait of PC Harry Daley, portrayed in his buttoned-up uniform and helmet, is identified as E.M. Forsters sometime casual lover, who later wrote a memoir detailing his exploits on both sides of the law. Forster had a thing for working-class bobbies, and indeed the sexually fetishised nature of both class and race are coyly hinted at.

But theres a difference between an exhibition that shows work by artists who are gay or queer or lesbian, and a thematic show that illustrates its subject or opens up a way of understanding its subject through mainly visual means. The former needs a lot more framing and scaffolding, and this is an exhibition that manages to work largely because of this framing though it also chooses to muddy the waters by including artists who dont fit under any queer labels at all. The heterosexual (probably) and married Laura Knight pops up, though of course, shes also an artist who punctured gender norms, albeit in a much broader sense, that is, by simply being a woman artist breaking the mould by painting female nudes in the first half of the 20th century. However, theres nothing really gender fluid about this.

Laura Knight (1877-1970), Self-Portrait, 1913, Oil on canvas, 152.4 x 127.6 cm, National Portrait Gallery (London, UK)

In the end, ones left with the impression that shes included because there simply arent enough women in this show so thank heavens for the overworked Bloomsbury Set and their associates for making up the numbers, I guess. Even so, one can have too many genteel drawing room paintings. And that the exhibition ends with its two biggest names, Hockney and Bacon, in a kind of showdown, underlines how much its skewed towards the male presence.

One could wish for any number of different exhibitions, more exciting than this one, to celebrate a half a century of increasing visibility. One from 1967 to now might have served its title better. Or one less willing to dilute its subject. Some private, graphically erotic drawings by Duncan Grant, perhaps, shows another alternative. One thinks of the private, erotic drawings and paintings of artists such as Turner or Rodin which have long fascinated curators. How much more intriguing it would it be to explore the more intimate nature of queer desire that such a possibility presents. Another time, perhaps, and in a smaller space.

Queer British Art is at the Tate Britain until 1 October 2017

See the original post:

The Quietus | Features | Craft/Work | Colouring Out: Queer British Art ... - The Quietus

2017-04-06T17:21+02:00 17:21 06.04.2017

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that a positive vote in the European Parliament on granting the visa-free regime for Ukrainians by the European Union still does not mean the abolition of visas, but the Ukrainian authorities are working to ensure that the final introduction of the visa-free travel is not postponed to a later date.

"I want to emphasize that this doesn't yet mean the opening of the border. We are still waiting for a decision of the EU Council, we are working hard so that no one postpones it or drags out this process," Poroshenko told journalists on the sidelines of the 10th Kyiv Security Forum, which takes place in Kyiv on Thursday.

According to him, "pro-Putin representatives" in the European Union are trying to prevent Ukraine from receiving the visa-free regime and the latest debate in the European Parliament confirmed this.

"Only the joint work of all political forces within the state and beyond gives us a firm belief that everything will be fine," the Ukrainian president said.

Poroshenko also believes that the presidential elections in France cannot affect the process of granting the visa-free regime to Ukrainians.

Original post:

European Parliament vote doesn't mean abolition of visas yet - Poroshenko - Interfax

BESS MANSON

Last updated05:00, April 8 2017

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Dame Laurie Salas spent her life promoting peace and justice.

Dame Margaret Laurence Salas,peace campaigner:bFebruary 8, 1922, Wellington; m(1) Ian Webster 1941 (d 1943); (2)John Salas 1946,4d, 2s;dJanuary 26, 2017, Wellington, aged 94.

Dame Laurie Salas was a peace campaigner who believed you had to try tochange the world for the better. You had to make a difference. And so she did.

She dedicated her life, beyond her family, toa legion of organisations for women whose objectives embraced the concepts of peace, justice and humanitarian assistance.

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Salas embraced the concepts of peace, justice and humanitarian assistance.

She always pushed for the total abolition of war. "There must be an alternative to resolving conflict other than by killing each other," she told the Evening Post on receiving her damehood in 1988.

READ MORE: * A life story - Arty Bees founder Bob Burch * A life story - Allen Walley * A life story - Michele Amas

The National Council of Women and the United Nations were her main platforms for change.

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Dame Laurie Salas ''was a devoted mother but she was also always connected outward'', her daughter Rosie says.

She represented these and other non-governmental organisations at manyinternational conferencesover her career, travelling toParis, Oslo, Tashkent, New York, and Beijing.

Women and children were the main beneficiaries in her fight for change.

As a staunch anti-nuclear campaigner she once pointed out that the cost of one nuclear submarine was equivalent to the education costs of 160 million children in 23 Third World countries.

Addressing 400 women gathered for the Save the Children Woman of the Year Awards in 1988, she told themthey must bring pressure on politicians to stop the "unacceptable and outmoded concept of wa''. The world must replace fear with understanding, tanks with tractors, she said.

Laurie Salas was born in Wellington in 1922.

One of four children, the family moved to Christchurch, where she attended Fendalton School and later Rangi Ruru.

When she was13 her family werein a serious car accident which left her unconscious for a week. She spent four months in hospital and had a year off school.

The accident left her with gaps in her memory of her life up till that point.

At the age of 19, while doing her BA in philosophy and history at Canterbury University, she met and married Ian Webster. But after just 21 months of marriage Webster died of blood poisoning. His death inspired her to study medicine but half way through medical school she married John Salas, another medical student, and started a family.

She never finished her degree.

In the early 1950s, after the birth of three of her six children, the family moved to Edinburgh,where her husband was studying. Theyreturned a few years later, to Timaru, where the couple had another daughter and, following a move to Wellington, two sons.

Daughter Rosie remembers her mother always being involved in some community organisation or other, in particular the Playcentre Association and later the Mothers Helpers Committee.

"She was a devoted mother but she was also always connected outward. She believed that even if you were really busy, as she was raising six children, you should still go out and do things for other people."

In the late 1960s, with the children all at school, she became more deeply involved in her cause for women, international relations and peace.

It was through her work in the mid-1960s with the Mothers Helpers Committee and the Federation of University of Womenthat she came to the attention of the National Council of Women (NCW).

She would go on to work at the highest levels of that organisation, starting out as the national secretary from 1976-1980 and moving tothe position of vice-president from 1982-86.

Salaswas involved in the NCW watch committee on work with proposed legislation that would make significant changes to the lives of women, including the Matrimonial Property Act, the Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act, and on matters of equal pay to women.

By the early 1980s it had become clear to her that although women may have had equal pay in theory, they did not have it in practice. Organising a two-day seminar at the Centre for Continuing Education in Wellington, Salas took practical steps to make education for women a political priority.

Jean Fuller, who worked alongside Salas on various women's organisations for almost 50 years, says her friend was a respected leader and a gracious and generous person.

"She gave immeasurable amounts of time to the organisations that she believed in. She was always nice, friendly and helpful but that doesn't mean she was a puffball! She could be steely when needed and earned great respect from the politicians."

Salas and her siblings all ended up undertaking a lot of public work. Their parents had instilled into them the importance of serving the community and of stewardship.

Several family members were formally recognised for the work they did. Her father, Sir James Hay, acouncillor and deputy mayor of Christchurch andthe founder of the department store chainHays, was knighted for services to the community. Both her younger twin brothers were knighted:Sir David Hay, founder of the National Heart Foundation, who died last year, and Sir Hamish Hay, former mayor of Christchurch who died in 2008. A sister, Helen Louisson, also served her community volunteering for the Red Cross and the Save the Children Fund.

Salas herself received the Queen's Service Order in 1982 and in 1988 she was made a Dame Commander of the British Empirein recognition of her voluntary service for women's causes as well as forher work in international relations and peace.

Her work in peace and disarmament and with the United Nations was partly as a result of her aunt who had a liberal and international outlook on life, she told Deborah Coddington in a 1991 interview with North & South.

Her own family had suffered terrible loss at war with two uncles dyingin the Gallipoli campaign.

"After World War II it seemed such a terrible waste of life and I thought there must be some other way of solving disputes rather than going to war and killing each other

"The more people think of resolving conflict in ways other than in bouts of legitimised killing, the more likely is the prospect of lasting peace," she said.

As the former national president ofthe United Nations Association of New Zealand and vice-president of the World Federation United Nations Association, Salas was a leader in improving the status, safety and security of women.

In 1982, she was the only non-government representative from New Zealand at the United Nations session on disarmament, as well as at the New York conference of Women of the World Working for Peace. She was involved in many organisations working towards social progress, such as the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and the National Society for Alcoholism and Drug Addiction.

In a 1988 article in the Evening Post Salas defended the UN from criticism that it was no more than a"costly talk-shop", saying if it had not been established there would probably have been a lot more conflict in the world.

"Now that we seem to be moving towards a more peaceful world I hope that people realise that we can perhaps do without war altogether. The more people who have faith in the UN and really support their respective governments, the more likely we will have the enduring peace the charter sets out to achieve," she said.

She was a frequent contributor to this newspaper's Letters page.She was in her 80s when she wrote about the effect of smacking and hitting children:"The end result will, I hope, be a society where children have the same protection from assault as adults and animals do, and New Zealand will be seen to comply with all the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child," she wrote.

Campaigning till the end for the protection of others.

Sources: Salas family, National Council of Women, United Nations Association of New Zealand, North & South (Deborah Coddington).

-Stuff

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A Life Story - Peace campaigner Dame Laurie Salas dies, aged 94 - Stuff.co.nz

Trumps fans buying anything hes selling

Regarding Paper should focus on the Rice controversy (April 5): President Trump was desperate to divert attention from charges that Russia helped his campaign. Enter shiny object No. 1. He makes up a story that Barack Obama personally wiretapped him. But that doesnt work out very well, since there is no evidence for it.

Lets try shiny object No. 2. He leaks secret information to Devin Nunes, who parrots it back to him and the media See, he was being wiretapped, but inadvertently.

This doesnt fly either, so on to shiny object No. 3. Drag out Susan Rice to beat up. Fox runs a story without any evidence that she unmasked his team. You may well ask why they were on the other end of the phone with Russian agents.

Cue the Trump lemmings who write in to this paper complaining that they didnt sufficiently cover this latest attempt to divert attention.

Phil Heinz

Rancho Bernardo

The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below.

Is ISIS going mainstream? It said the U.S. is being run by an idiot.

Now that it is ideologically aligned with the mainstream media and Democrats, shouldnt the United Nations offer it a seat? It would fit right in.

Frank Felber

San Diego

In response to Will Donald Trump flub tax reform, too? (April 2): I take exception to your editorials claim that its mind-boggling and crazy that a disproportionate amount of tax relief may end up going to the richest Americans.

This assertion flies in the face of the latest IRS statistics from 2013, which show that the average taxpayer paid a 13.6 percent income tax rate. The breakdown among taxpayer percentiles: the bottom half paid a 3 percent rate, the top half paid 15 percent, and the top 1 percent paid a whopping 27 percent.

Your editorial ignores the context that taxes on the affluent already increased significantly during the Obama years, which arent yet reflected in these statistics.

You also criticize the proposed abolition of the estate tax, which isnt reflected in these numbers either since its an immoral one-time tax on a decedents wealth.

This simply propagates the demagogic narrative that the wealthy need to pay their fair share regardless of the actual numbers.

Whats really mind-boggling is the notion that if youre not in favor of tax hikes on the rich into perpetuity, youre somehow against the middle class.

Zachary M. Goldman

San Diego

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Takes on Trump: Are Rice claims just a distraction? - The San Diego Union-Tribune

The future of Canadas supply management system for milk, eggs and poultry has been thrust onto the national political agenda by a top candidate for the federal Conservative party leadership Maxime Bernier.

Bernier is calling for the abolition of the system after a new levy on dairy products builds enough funds to reimburse farmers for the investment they have made in quota.

Bernier isnt the first leadership candidate for a major party to advocate dismantling supply management. Martha Hall Findlay, a candidate in the last Liberal leadership contest, was a vociferous advocate for the end of supply management. She still is, as president of the Canada West Foundation. Hall Findlay finished a distant third to Justin Trudeaus landslide win.

However, Bernier is considered one of the front-runners in the Conservative party race.

Bernier, a member of Parliament from Quebec, has policies based on classical libertarian economics. Hes also calling for flat taxes and a reduction in the size of government.

Dairy farmers, however, are unimpressed with how Bernier is portraying their pricing system and themselves.

When he starts, the guy in the $1,000 suit, and tells me Im a millionaire and part of a cartel anyone can tell you how hard it is to make payments when you get started, said Mike Bechtel, who farms a dairy between Cambridge and Guelph in Ontario.

Were a long way from being millionaires.

Bechtel is like other dairy farmers who have taken out Conservative party memberships to vote for someone other than Bernier.

Bernier has called these one-issue members fake Conservatives.

Dairy farmers like Pete Van Hemert of Belmont, Ont., who has taken out a Conservative party membership, finds the term insulting.

Although he has never been a member of a political party before, Van Hemert said he has always voted Conservative and considers himself Conservative.

He (Bernier) has made it awfully public against supply management and ran us down the tube a lot of times, he said.

Bruce Sargent is concerned with Berniers description of supply management in his speeches and on social media. Sargent, the son of dairy farmers, questioned Bernier on his ideas around supply management at a Bernier open house in Guelph, Ont.

Bernier said Canadians are paying two to three times the price of milk that they can buy across the border in the United States. By dropping supply management, he said Canadians could save $500 per year.

Sargent said Bernier is not telling the whole story. Larger research projects, such as the Nielsen Fresh Milk Price Report, shows that at the end of November 2016, Canadian average milk prices fell between the commodity U.S. milk price and the milk price paid for no-added-hormones and antibiotic-free milk in the U.S.

The Canadian price is also in the middle of the pack of a list of 13 countries. Sargent points to the fact that large supermarkets in the U.S. sell milk as a loss-leader, especially in the border areas to attract Canadians.

But Bernier cast doubt on Sargents claims.

You have stats, but I have the reality, Bernier told Sargent. You cross the border, you will see that a litre of milk will be half the price. I can prove that. Its easy.

The exchanges in the videos from the event show the philosophical gulf that exists between supply management farmers and those opposing the system.

Farmers may be able to muster a strong influence in the leadership contest due to a system in which each riding gets equal weight in voting. That might help supply management farmers where they could control the riding with few members.

What could work against dairy farmers, however, is the number of candidates running for the party leadership, now at 14. That could split the vote and lessen the likelihood of a pro supply management candidate winning.

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Bernier takes on supply management in - Western Producer (subscription)

A woman poses with Oscar Wilde's Prison Door c.1883 (R) and an oil painting entitled 'Oscar Wilde', c.1881, by US artist Robert Harper, as part of the Queer British Art exhibition at the Tate Britain in London. (Photo by BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images)

The door of Oscar Wildes Reading Gaol prison cell will go on display this week as part of an exhibition of Queer British Art.

TheTate BritainsQueer British Art exhibition opens on Wednesday, marking the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales.

The exhibition includes some of the most remarkable depictions of sexuality inworks from 1861 up until 1967, when homosexuality was still a crime.

The Tate explained: Many of the works that will be displayed were produced in a time when the terms gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans had little public recognition.

It presents work from the abolition of the death penalty for sodomy in 1861 to the passing of the Sexual Offences Act in 1967 a time of seismic shifts in gender and sexuality that found expression in the arts as artists and viewers explored their desires, experiences and sense of self.

Henry Scott Tuke, The Critics, 1927. Courtesy of Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum

At the centre of the exhibition are a number of items relating to Oscar Wilde.

The famous playwright and poet, who had a string of male lovers, was famously arrested and sent to Reading Gaol in 1895 for gross indecency with men, under the UKs historic anti-gay laws.

Wilde served two years behind bars in Reading Gaol, penned the work De Profundis from behind bars.

His time in prison was the basis for his final ever work The Ballad of Reading Gaol. a long poem that reflects on the harsh rhythms of his daily prison life.

The Tate exhibition pays tribute to Wilde, displaying the original prison door from his cell in Reading Gaol, along with a portrait that was gifted to him by his wife as a wedding present.

A release adds:The exhibition will illustrate the ways in which sexuality became publically defined through the work of sexologists such as Henry Havelock Ellis, campaigners such as Edward Carpenter and will also look at the high profile trials of Oscar Wilde and Radclyffe Hall. Objects on display will include the door from Wildes prison cell, Charles Buchels portrait of Radclyffe Hall and erotic drawings by Aubrey Beardsley.

Simeon Solomon, Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene, 1864

Work from 1861 to 1967 by artists with diverse sexualities and gender identities will be showcased, and will range from covert images of same-sex desire such as Simeon Solomons Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene 1864 through to the open appreciation of queer culture in David Hockneys Going to be a Queen for Tonight 1960.

A highlight of the exhibition will be a section focusing on the Bloomsbury set and their contemporaries an artistic group famous for their bohemian attitude towards sexuality. The room will include intimate paintings of lovers, scenes of the homes artists shared with their partners and large commissions by artists such as Duncan Grant and Ethel Walker.

In contrast to the bleak outlook from the courtroom prior to 1967, queer culture was embraced by the British public in the form of theatre.

From music hall acts to costume design, British theatre provided a forum in which sexuality and gender expression could be openly explored. Striking examples on display will include photographs of performers such as Beatrix Lehmann, Berto Parsuka and Robert Helpmann by Angus McBean, who was jailed for his sexuality in 1942, alongside stage designs by Oliver Messel and Edward Burra.

Theatrical cards of music hall performers such as Vesta Tilley (whose act as Burlington Bertie had a large lesbian following) will also be featured, as well as a pink wig worn in Jimmy Slaters act A Perfect Lady from the 1920s.

Related:National Trust to explore the UKs hidden gay history

National Trust to explore the UKs hidden gay history

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Door of Oscar Wilde's prison cell takes centre stage in Tate's queer art celebration - PinkNews

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