Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Words fail me...

In one of the most bizarre examples I’ve ever seen of failure to understand how markets and businesses work, equality campaigners have attacked Canterbury City Council because the city apparently is not gay enough. One of their main complaints is that the city lacks a gay bar, the nearest being 17 miles away in Margate. What that has to do with the council is completely beyond me, and quite rightly they responded “No council in the land would set up a bar – gay or otherwise. It would be seen as a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money.” The absence of a gay bar is due to simple lack of demand – if the demand was there, there would be one. And isn’t the whole concept of a gay bar a bit old hat nowadays? Surely things have moved on and fewer people feel the need to define everything they do in terms of their sexuality.