One Ferguson Down: One More To Go

I woke up this morning to to joyful news that Ferguson has resigned. Fantastic. Another victory for reason and progressive values.

Sadly, I was mistaken. They meant Sir Alex Ferguson, enormously successful footballing tyrant and manager of Manchester United, not Niall Ferguson, Transatlantic Bigot. Master of the hairdryer treatment, of Fergie Time (a new branch of physics), of mind games and of his players, many of whom have been treated ruthlessly when they evince the slightest interest in thinking for themselves. With Ferguson gone, surely Assad can't be far behind. But one man's retirement is another's opportunity. Tony Pulis of Stoke City must be in for a shout: he's uncompromising, rude, determined and enormously gritty. The episode in which he dashed out of a shower, naked, to head-butt his striker for complaining about a Christmas party must be considered a job application in Old Trafford. The only difference between Alex and Tony is, well, success.

But that's enough about one rich Scottish Ferguson with a healthy disregard for the rules of polite society. The other Scottish Ferguson with an attitude who requires defenestration in short order is of course Niall Ferguson the Harvard economist and rather slap-dash scholar. A few days ago, he claimed that John Maynard Keynes's economic models were flawed because JMK was homosexual, married a ballerina and being childless, had no long-term stake in society. And he's done it before: this is no off-the-cuff quip.

I don't know. These gay economists. Marrying our ballerinas and advocating counter-cyclical strategies to maintain capitalist stability. Better people than me have critiqued Ferguson's reactionary attitudes and terrible books, but this outburst annoyed me. Firstly: homosexuals have children sometimes. More frequently, homosexuals have nephews and nieces, friends and loved ones, all of whose well-being they may well consider to be a stake in society. I'm childless. Should my vote be removed, my opinions discarded?

Ferguson's logic leads to the repeal of universal suffrage. In Britain and many other countries, the vote was restricted to people owning property with a minimum value: clearly an attempt to disenfranchise the vast majority of the population, the argument was that the poor had no stake in society. As well as being childless, I don't own any property. I could up sticks and leave in a heartbeat, spreading subversive poison throughout the land.

Ferguson isn't an historian or an economist. He's a freelance ideologue who abuses his academic credentials to propagate a jaundiced, backwards world-view. If his supporters at the Daily Mail want to keep buying his books, fine. But Harvard shouldn't be dignifying this rubbish with an academic post.

All in the best possible taste…

The (American) National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Science and Technical Professionals is holding a series of events to celebrate the role of GLBT people in the sciences, and to highlight the potential difficulties of coming out in that world.

Good. Sciences have, of course, different subcultures and these will impact even on sexual orientation and behaviour. So it seems like a good cause to me.

But. But, but, but. What an appalling name. I mean, really. Can't they find a better way to summarised their purpose while referencing popular culture.

I propose (drum roll):

QUEERED SCIENCE!

Thankyewverymuchladiesngennlemen, I'm here all week.

Your contributions also welcome.

Should Sun journalists get the vote?

It's been all go on the Nazi front today: the Sun ran a poll on 'should gays be allowed in the government?' and Richard Littlejohn, the hateful Mail's vanguard nutter chuntered on, as he usually does, about all Liberal Democrats being gay and other weird expostulation.

Vacillating class traitors, yes. All gay: probably not, and who cares anyway? Thieves in the Cabinet - bit of a problem with that to be honest, but then, I'm against the landed gentry running the country too. I'm supremely indifferent about the proliferation of similar genitalia in Lib Dem beds.

So here's an antidote: Stewart Lee, Britain's finest comedian, and one of the country's most intelligent and thoughtful people, on 'political correctness gone mad' (thanks to Neal).