"we were wearing purple tops with pro-LGBT messages picked out in white lettering. Since it was a glorious day I decided to walk to the start of the parade at Baker Street. I had just passed the offices of the Bar Council when a group of young men were coming the other way. They were strung out across the pavement. Now, High Holborn is a street I have walked up and down many hundreds of times of the day, including in the early hours of the morning. I have never felt remotely intimidated in the past but, as this group approached, and as they appeared to be staring at the slogans on the T-shirt, in what appeared to me a rather menacing way, my heart started to beat faster and I don’t mind admitting that I felt vulnerable and somewhat scared. As it happens, the group of men walked past without incident and I was able to get on unhindered. That experience, however brief and insignificant, gave me a flavour, at least, of what sort of things gay people have to put up with, day in and day out, even in today’s society. It emphasised the courage that is required to live a life true to one’s own in-built sexuality."
So he was walking down a road while other people walked the other way and nothing happened. From that, the Chairman of the Bar Council (it is from his column that I take these words of wisdom) managed to draw some rather sweeping conclusions about modern British society. For judges, this sort of thing has to happen (or rather, not happen) on the Clapham Omnibus for it to count, but Alistair MacDonald QC can find a moral on the pavement outside his office.
While reading MacDonald's article I was reminded of that time Alan Partridge listens to a guest tell a story about losing her luggage and then replies: "It’s not an anecdote. You’ve got down here in your press release 'anecdote'. And that’s dishonest."
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