Cleverly Admonishes the Gays

It seems some foreign values can be tolerated after all, provided they are themselves intolerant enough. Britain's Minister for Misnomer, James Cleverly, has politely requested gay football fans to rein in their evil passions and show respect for the violent homophobia of their World Cup host, which has itself compromised in allowing them to attend the tournament at all. No doubt Cleverly recalled the shining moral example of Winston Churchill's great contemporary, who was magnanimous enough to allow the black athlete Jesse Owens to compete at Munich in 1936 despite his own sincerely held beliefs about the lesser breeds. Even so, when calling out Cleverly's moral Anglicanism the shadow secretary for blah-and-circuses was uncouth enough to mention Qatar's record on workers and human rights: an indiscretion which may well earn her a serious talking-to from her sensible and moderate leader, who wishes nothing more than to gain the respect of people who don't care about workers or human rights.