Monday, March 30, 2009

satan vs the macho man

Welsh flag

Do they come much madder than this?

The Welsh Christian Party says having a red dragon - an animal it believes symbolises the devil - on the national flag is at odds with Wales' position as a Christian nation.

It is calling for the flag which has officially been in place since 1959, to be replaced with the black and gold cross of St David.

St David flag

The party's leader, the Rev George Hargreaves, said, "We will not allow this evil symbol of the devil to reign over Wales for another moment.

"Wales is the only country in history to have a red dragon on its national flag.

"This is the very symbol of the devil described in The Book of Revelation 12:3.

"This is nothing less than the sign of Satan, the devil, Lucifer that ancient serpent who deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

"No other nation has had this red dragon as its ruling symbol.

"Wales has been under demonic oppression and under many curses because of this unwise choice.


Well, if they're against the red Welsh dragon on the flag, shouldn't they also be looking askance at the notably similar rampant red Scottish lion on the Royal Standard?

the Royal Standard of the UK

To me, this flag is waaaay more offensive. Leaving aside the unmerited assertion of Royal worthiness (being vaguely descended from thieves and murderers seems a poor qualification for adulation but maybe I'm just picky), England gets twice the space of Scotland or Ireland.

It seemingly lays claim to all of Ireland, and - surely a better platform for a Welsh party to fight - there's no Welsh feature at all. Whilst this may be a more accurate depiction of the real state of constitutional bias in the UK, it's hardly what we should be affirming by sticking it all over a new batch of coins.

Anyway, back to the main topic, who exactly is this person who can say with a straight face that Wales has suffered fifty years of 'demonic oppression' because of its flag?

The Welsh Christian Party is one wing of Hargreaves' Christian Party. They were outraged at the recent atheist bus adverts

Bus displaying advert 'There's probably no god, now stop worrying and enjoy your life

So they responded with one of their own

Bus displaying advert 'There definitely is a God, so join the Christian Party and enjoy your life

The clue to what sticks in George Hargreaves' craw lies in considering the adage that there's none more zealous than the convert.

Before he formed the Christian Party in 2006 he'd dallied at the edge of politics, standing for election in the Referendum Party. His own party, though, has allowed free rein to his even less tolerant leanings on abortion and other issues.

For the Welsh Christian Party, the practice of homosexuality will be presented as a sinful activity alongside sex out of marriage.


Hargreaves wasn't always a modern day Mary Whitehouse. Come back 25 years and we find him somewhere altogether different, initiating the revenue stream that funds his bigotry work to this day.

an anti-abortion group contesting every UK seat in the European elections is being directly funded by royalties from Sinitta’s 1980s disco classic ‘So Macho’.

The song reached number two in 1985, sold over a million copies and still generates around £10,000 a month for the man who wrote it, the Rev George Hargreaves, a songwriter and promoter turned Christian.


As it's sung by a woman, So Macho is often taken as an offensively sexist song ('I want a man who will dominate me / Someone to love and protect me / And take care of my every need'). But it was actually a Hi-NRG record aimed squarely at coke-and-poppers gay clubs.

As if to prove the point, the B-side is called Cruising.

back of the cover of So Macho

Well then, Mr Hargreaves. We know what homophobia really says about someone, don't we?

9 comments:

Jim Bliss said...

Regarding the Royal Standard...
It seemingly lays claim to all of Ireland, and - surely a better platform for a Welsh party to fight - there's no Welsh feature at all.

That reminds me of something I noticed a couple of years ago. Dublin still contains many echoes of past colonial rule but none more blatant than the decorative sculpture that tops one of the city's most impressive buildings; The Customs House, built in the 1780s.

At each end of the long facade is a stonework harp. Above it is a crown. And surrounding the harp, keeping a rather menacing watchful eye on it, are a lion and a unicorn.

A brief search of Flickr, and you can see what I mean

Gyrus said...

I'm having none of this. You, Merrick, are a time-travelling satirist and you've spent aeons engineering the existence and career of George Hargreaves just to supply yourself with some delicious I-don't-have-to-add-much-to-reality lampoonery. Admit it!

Anonymous said...

In a spirit of fairness and balance, we should campaign for the Welsh Red Dragon not only to be kept, but enhanced by having it ridden by the Whore of Babylon. It's Biblical and everything...

Then negotiate for some kind of middle ground - perhaps lose the Dragon, keep the Whore and have her tied to the Golden Cross?

(BTW, my word verification was 'homic' which fits Mr. Hargreaves nicely!

merrick said...

Gyrus, I am often at pains to emphasise that I am an amateur on the issues I write about. I rely on the published data and reports issuing from the expertise of others. I am certainly not capable of time-travel.

But ask yourself this - who would have the sort of power to bend spacetime to their will? Who can control minds and the fabric of reality itself? Obviously, it's the intergalactic shapeshifting lizards.

Note who the first person to comment on this post was - Jim Bliss. He talked about Dublin. As I previously revealed, Bliss moved to Dublin from Walthamstow, the same Dublin where lizard minion Chris De Burgh's daughter is a champion with lethal weapons, the Dublin of Trinity College, an institution frequented by both Bliss and De Burgh's son Hubie.

Now hear this: George Hargreaves, product of lizardly reconstitution of the fabric of time, first appeared in our political culture standing for election in - where else - Bliss' hatching-ground of Walthamstow.

Have Hargreaves and Bliss ever been seen in the same room at the same time? I know Hargreaves is black and Bliss is white, but obviously as a shapeshifter he'd do that to throw us off the scent.

Why does nobody else see this stuff? It's as if Bubba Ho-Tep had never been made.

Dunc said...

It looks like Voltaire's famous prayer is still working...

Anonymous said...

Interestingly, the Bubba Ho-Tep follow-up, Bubba Nosferatu, is a prequel. Which is sort of timey-wimey...
(And Bruce 'the Chin' Campbell is replaced in the role of Elvis by Ron'the bigger Chin' Perlman.)
(Same director, Don Coscarelli, but hopefully he'll also be making the film of my current fave comedy-horror novel, 'John Dies At The End' by David Wong. A great read if you can pick up a copy.)

(Kinda off-topic I know, but it's that sort of day. Though JDatE has much on the power of, well, power-rock to dispel demons - and how wimpy disco won't work.)

(Oh - and my CAPCHA word was 'petrim'. Pet. Rim. Who thinks these things up?)

merrick said...

Cat, I think we should launch the Welsh Pervo Party, draw up a whore of Babylon tied to a cross logo, then offer to merge parties with the Welsh Christians.

Fancy getting busy in Photoshop?

Kirsty said...

I often wonder if there's a particularly damp stone somewhere that these dweebs grow under.

Check out this other story about Hargreaves:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1637264.ece

There's some cracking quotes in it.

Kirsty said...

Also, apparently he co-wrote the theme tune to Pebble Mill At One. Classic.