Prime Minister David Cameron has told the House of Commons that he wants NHS England to make a decision on funding Pre Exposure Prophylaxis PrEP Drugs on the National Health Service.
During his Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) today, David Cameron told the House Of Commons that he wanted a decision from NHS England this month on whether they would fund PrEP, a game changing anti-HIV drug, that has had incredible results in stopping new HIV infections.
The PM said that he recognised the growing rate of HIV in the UK and that he was pressing for a decision about the service’s ability to offer the PrEP drugs to those most at risk of contracting HIV.
During his PMQs MP Mike Freer asked,
“HIV infection rates are on the rise. NHS England has refused to fund Pre Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) drugs. Will he meet with me and leading charities to review?”
Responding, David Cameron said,
“NHS England is reconsidering this, I want them to make a decision this month. I recognise the growing rate of HIV in this country. I’ll make sure he gets the meetings he needs.”
NHS England said that it would continue to pay for PEP, a treatment that can prevent HIV infection after the virus has entered a person’s body, but has fallen short from offering PrEP.
Ian Green, CEO at Terrence Higgins Trust, welcomed the statement saying,
“We welcome David Cameron committing NHS England to making a long overdue decision on HIV prevention game changer, PrEP, this month. Thank you to Mike Freer for continuing to champion this life changing HIV prevention tool.
“We urgently need NHS England to make PrEP available for those most at risk. Every day this is delayed, seven men who have sex with men are infected with HIV.”
This year’s Birmingham Pride which celebrates 20 years of the parade as we know it, promises to be the biggest ever, and the stuff they have organised certainly speaks volumes.
Here’s my handy guide to just some of the things to look forward to over the weekend of Pride.
1. The Vengaboys.
Yep you read that correctly, our favourite guilty pleasure of the 90’s are appearing at Birmingham Pride on Sunday the 29th on the main stage, so you can re-live your Hooch (or Blue Nun) fueled dance routines, while wearing a mask to protect your identity and coolness obviously. One can’t actually be SEEN watching and enjoying The Vengaboys now can we…
2. Willam Belli & Latrice Royale.
Two of the greatest queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race have been booked for the Saturday (Willam) & Sunday (Latrice) and I for one am so excited about this. Willam will be in the Cabaret arena, and Latrice is appearing at the Village Inn. Honestly I’d just be happy to watch Latrice laughing for an hour.
3. Liberty X.
Work it a little, get hot just a little and dance along to the fabulous Liberty X on the Saturday on the Main Stage. After Kevin’s success on The Voice, he’s rejoining his band mates to get our little gay asses dancing to some fabulous tunes from the early noughties. The band is also appearing later in the evening at The Nightingale Club
4. One half of Erasure.
Luckily the singing half of Erasure, Andy Bell. We all know A Little Respect and you can dance along with him on the Sunday on the main stage. For us gays born before 1995, Erasure was the campest thing we’d seen, and it was amazing.
5. Vicky Jackson.
The brilliant and talented Vicky Jackson who sings her heart out at every performance and impersonates some of our favourite artists including Katy Perry, Pink and Amy Winehouse will be gracing the Cabaret stage on the Sunday. I’ve never been disappointed by what she does, and even had the pleasure of performing on stage with her once
6. The random acts.
Sometimes you can find a hidden gem performing in the various bars and clubs around the Gay Village that you forgot about seeing on the line-up or who was booked last minute. A couple of years ago and during a slightly (OK, very) drunken moment, I walked into one of the bars and saw this little ginger Liverpudlian singing away, and loudly announced during a quiet bit in the song “Is that f**king Sonia?” (it was) I got a smile in return.
7. The Parade
Always a great start to the weekend, the actual march itself is something amazing to see, with so many varied people taking part and having the time of their lives. You can’t help but smile at the floats and the shockingly hot men in skimpy shorts.
The whole weekend is a brilliant opportunity to just let loose and be yourself. There’s going to be 80,000+ people there, from bears to drag queens, you will find people you relate to and you’ll find yourself having the most random conversations with people you meet
outside the bars, clubs and arenas
9. The Gale – Or The Nightingale Club to be precise.
The biggest gay club in the village. It never fails to deliver, and this year Alesha Dixon is appearing there to perform her own and Mis-teeq’s tracks. But if you don’t want to see her, it has multiple floors with various styles of music.
10. Something for everyone.
There’s so many different types of acts that you would be hard pushed to NOT find something that you can enjoy. From DJ’s to pop royalty, there is going to be something there for you, so kick back and relax with a beer in hand trawl round the various stages and clubs with your friends old and new
The full line up is available here and while tickets are limited now, there are still some available, and you can get some on the gate on the day. But be aware it’s going to be incredibly busy that weekend.
Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.
It’s a show that’s older than you and me. It’s a show that has stood the test of time. It’s ‘Showboat‘ and its back in London.
Credit – Johan Persson
Now playing at London’s New London Theatre on Drury Lane, it’s a spectacular recreation of the show that had its first performance in 1927 in New York, staged by Oscar Hammerstein II. Yes, that’s how old this show is, almost a century, and it’s new production shows that ‘Showboat’ has got sea legs.
If you don’t know the story, ‘Showboat’ is a show that is made of two parts. The first part is where we get introduced to the boat (called ‘Cotton Blossom’ which is spectacularly recreated on stage), it’s a boat that’s used to put on shows. It’s captained by Andy Hawks (Malcolm Sinclair) with a cast of whites and a crew of blacks. Captain Hawks’ single and carefree daughter Magnolia (Gina Beck) works on the boat, and it’s there where she meets and falls for the handsome yet mysterious Gaylord Ravenal (Chris Peluso). They get married and eventually have a daughter, but it’s the second act that gets dark. You see, Gaylord’s a gambling addict, can’t control his addiction, and can’t support his family, especially after they move to Chicago and have a baby girl. The lifestyle they knew and loved on the boat becomes a distant memory. As the years roll on, she and Gaylord split, and he disappears. But eventually her family and friends rally around her. It’s all told in great musical style with a cast that has loads of talent.
The original London production opened in May, 1928 at the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane. It came back in 1971, and then again in 1998 at the Prince Edward Theatre. There was a short-lived production in 2006 at the Royal Albert Hall, and now it’s back for a new generation to see and it has not lost its life.
Classic songs such as ‘Ol’ Man River’ (sung by Emmanuel Kojo) to ‘Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man’ (sung by an ensemble of the woman) are given new life by the singers. It’s the very talented cast, chief among them Beck, Peluso, and Danny Collins as a fellow performer, and Sinclair, who stand out.
Masterfully directed by Daniel Evens, with lots of great musical numbers including entire ensemble dance routines, this ‘Showboat’ is a must see, especially in the New London Theatre where every seat in the house is a good seat.
Opening a burger/foodfest restaurant and bar with a sizeable backroom complete with stage for live music in a space joined onto a Novotel hotel might not seem like the most conventional of pairings. But Jamboree on Blackfriars Road SE1 is a breath of rainbow-bunting fresh air for the borough of Southwark.
Don’t be put off by the French, mid-range hotel brand’s corporate exterior. The building is accessorised with a fun red neon Jamboree sign and their colourful interior can be seen from across the traffic-magnet main road.
Once inside you’ll feel as though you’ve walked into a London take on a barn dance bar. High ceilings laden with multicoloured bunting and exposed vintage bulbs, bare wood beams, walls, floor and tables. A clean spit-without-the-sawdust gaff. We approve.
To wet our whistles we were pointed towards these two bad-boys:
Fire Apple: Fireball cinnamon whisky, cloudy apple juice, bitters and ginger beer. It was like pouring an energetic San Francisco Stomp down the gullet where all the participants were hot-footing it in cinnamon-laced cowboy boots. Not too sweet and plenty of yeehaw from the bitters and ginger.
Knees Up: Blackwoods gin, basil, lemon, apple and ginger. A few defuser reeds and this imbibe could easily freshen up the mustiest of rooms. If TheGayUK owned a five-star luxury spa, the Knees Up would replace the complimentary cucumber water. An abundance of herby, floral and citrus notes.
We sampled three burgers, all of which were sandwiched in white, spongy, slightly sweet buns.
Maryland soft shell crab burger: a sugar-paper texture followed by light fishy candy-esque meat. Claw-icious.
Racing Bull Argentina beef burger with chimichurri: succulent, gamey and moreish beef elevated by the parsley, garlic and punches of vinegar from the chimichurri – a burger worth saddling up for.
The Yucatan veggie burger: a smooth sombrero-sporting falafeley filling with a hint of oregano. My pulse-and-prune-eating pal polished off the lot, but it’s not for everyone.
Thursday evenings, Jamboree will be filling their stage with live music. The bar has been set high after hearing the five-piece band Gatsby – http://www.gatsbyband.co.uk – performing their own takes on Bieber, Bruno Mars and Coldplay – we almost buckaroo-ed out of our chairs and threw our stetsons in the air.
With cocktails at only £7.95 and a decent burger for £13.95, we suggest you jump on the bandwagon.
London has a new Mayor in the form of Sadiq Khan. We find out what his pro-gay credentials are.
Winning over 1.3 million votes Sadiq Khan has become London’s new mayor. He took nearly 57% of the votes. So we’ve decided to look at just how LGBTI friendly Sadiq is.
Voting as an MP.
Sadiq Khan is the MP for Tooting in London. During his term in office he has, according to theyworkforyou.com, “almost always voted for equal gay rights.”
In 2007 he voted Yes on the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation), in 2013 he voted in favour of allowing same-sex couples to marry – but was absent for its third reading.
In 2014, he voted to “enable the courts to deal with proceedings for the divorce of, or annulment of the marriage of, a same-sex couple” and in 2015 he voted to make “same-sex marriage available to armed forces personnel outside the UK.”
Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens is billed as an inter-galactic disco extravaganza that explodes all around you. Well something exploded, or backfired. Think all-singing, trying-to-dance Battlestar Galactica meets Mad Max, throw in some glitter, silver lamé and a few other odds and sods from another solar-system’s secondhand dressing-up box.
In amongst magnetosphere-of-madness is a wannabe poet cosmic Cyclops, a zodiac German doctor impersonator, a metallic-headed basque-sporting Medusa with two klingons in tow – the vixen trio. And thrust into the starlight as if she just landed from another planet, Chesty Prospects (Sophie Cordwell James): imagine Cheryl Fernandez-Versini trying to pull-off ‘fierce’, with a live vocal performance wearing a studded bra and stardust. Light years from close.
Confused? So were we. There’s a serial killer, and these super-fashion crime-fighters from a groovier galaxy with a mission to fight crime and liberate the universe harnessing the Power of Disco. Or, a dark-matter Rocky-Horror-esque disco blended with a whole sphere of amateur cabaret.
The production lifted off quite well but gravity kicked in and it landed flat on Uranus. The concept is fun but the stage time could have been halved, and for some, more rehearsal time added.
NHS England have confirmed responsibility for funding post exposure prophylaxis (PEP), a treatment that can prevent HIV infection after the virus has entered a person’s body.
(C) marcbruxel Depositphotos
However, the battle continues to see NHS England accept the same responsibility for funding PrEP – a game-changing treatment that is taken before exposure to HIV. Earlier this year NHS England shelved structured plans for PrEP availability on the NHS, but then last week said they “will carefully consider its position on commissioning PrEP”.
Ian Green, Chief Executive at Terrence Higgins Trust, said:
“We are pleased that NHS England has finally been clear on their responsibility for reimbursing local authorities for antiretroviral drugs used to prevent HIV infection after exposure to the virus.
“What remains to be seen is whether they will accept the same responsibility for funding PrEP, a pill taken once a day by HIV negative people who are at high risk to prevent transmission.
“Every day that access to PrEP is delayed, seven men who have sex with men are infected with HIV, despite advances in HIV prevention. We need answers from NHS England on if and when access to PrEP will be available to those who are at highest risk. Only then can NHS England make a full commitment to HIV prevention.”
Jeff is a married man with a fetish for wrestling. He’s walked out on his religious but shrewish wife and is hiding out in his hometown in southern England where he’s having a fumble with grieving youngster Malcolm. By coincidence, Malcolm’s boss is Jeff’s Biblical claptrap spouting father.
Is a play about a secretly gay married man still relevant in 2016? Sadly it is. It’d be naïve to think that being gay in contemporary British society was accepted by everyone and that gay men weren’t still suppressing their sexuality and trying to hide in plain sight. Any foray into gay life will tell you that the phenomenon of the closeted gay man is still very much present. You can’t spend more than five minutes on a hook-up app, the Internet or in a sauna without tripping over a married man or two. The issues in the play are still prevalent. Gay men might be able to marry and public opinion might have moved on but people are still prejudiced and still spout obscure parts of religious tracts to justify this. Some people are still so affected by the prejudices of others that they suppress their natures and try to be things that they aren’t.
In spite of this there’s something dated feeling about “Abominations”.
The problem with the play isn’t the subject matter but the dialogue and characterisation. Whilst Jeff feels generally convincingly drawn and credible, his wife feels like a two-dimensional throwback to a dated sit-com. Malcolm is an earnest ukulele-playing buffoon who reveals few other character traits than naivety and rather than endearing, is more of an irritant. The dialogue is stilted and quaint at times. Scenes are short with awkward shuffling pauses. In spite of some well-drawn sections the sum of the play is much less than its parts and fails to gel. The comedy often falls flat and sits awkwardly with the more intense and better-written scenes.
The saving grace of the piece has to be the stunning central performance from Alexander Hulme as Jeff. He handles the part with style, imbuing the character with credibility and hinting at the shifting emotional landscape of a man unravelling. He’s all swagger and brittle chav charm but manages to give glimpses of something deeper and darker with a softer core. He’s also very easy on the eye and displays a lot of flesh that distracts the viewer. In the midst of the play there are some genuinely moving scenes between Jeff and his father and Gary Heron displays some fine acting that ably supports Hulme in his role.
This is definitely a play that had potential and there are glimpses of unrealised style and impact. The well-written lines stand out and there are scenes that have real power. Sadly, the finished overall product felt almost as tired and lacklustre as the location of the theatre: Camden High Street.
Abominations plays at the Etcetera Theatre Until the 29th of May 2016
A gay man in Brighton has opened up about a vicious assault to him and his boyfriend in Brighton, he says left him battered and fearing for the sight in his left side.
