Err.... There is no Mrs Mather. No Mrs Musket obviously but in the same way Akenhateon doesn't want respectable people to think old Alex is a bigoted twat, I unfortunately have a reasonably well known (in that I am held to account by politicians and media) profile, so when Akenhateon insists on using my name, he is using the name I have always used in music, keeping my professional / family apart from my hobby, singing and playing. If I could find humour in any of his posts, I would laugh at his attempts to "out" people he thinks are dangerous to his warped sense of reality.

But I can't. I have a weird sense of humour but not a sick one.

You see, I stand by whatever I say as Ian, Musket or Phil. It's all the same, but with perhaps different levels of diplomacy and empathy. In any event, my disdain of those who judge lifestyle and wish to inflict their wishes accordingly get the same treatment anyway. I would wipe my feet on the way out, regardless of whether I drink or leave my beer. I reckon I would leave it. It might taste sour.

Such people who would "do something about" sections of society have unfortunate consequences. Because of them, people might feel it not a good idea to mention aspects of what makes them what they are. I am amazed for instance how many gay people there are in the UK folk circuit whilst at the same time how many people think the folk circuit doesn't have many gay people in it. Ditto the numbers who love collecting old songs as a jigsaw to the past yet at the same time there are those who think it is no more and no less than an expression of left wing political nonsense.

We hear every life story in the pub. One of the saddest I heard when staying in London was a lad who was seeing another man. He hadn't worked out whether he was gay or not but felt very attracted to his new boyfriend. He had had female lovers as well but couldn't work out whether he was keeping his father, 500 miles away, happy. To compound matters, his new boyfriend was black and the large Afro Caribbean community down there made their feelings known regarding inter race, let alone gender! (Isn't bigotry so fucking awful?). Young Bruce felt so frustrated because he respected his family, saw his father as a dinosaur but a dinosaur he wanted to please. He was silly enough to say all this whilst slightly drunk to quite a few of us, hence I, a drinking acquaintance, heard it all.

Bigotry has cause and consequence beyond the experience of the bigot. One of the worst aspects of the affliction.