Batwoman is Really Dead, Aussie Actor Ruby Rose quits CW’s ‘Batwoman’ after only one season, constant criticism of the dire show’s writing, and the tanking in the ratings shows that forcing an LGBT agenda with an anti heterosexual subtext down people’s throats doesn’t attract a popular fan base, CW however green lights season 2 of a show that needs to be killed off

Dear All

I wanted to start this post by using the immortal line; ‘Thank fuck this shit is over’ but it is not.

If you happened to love comics, action and Sci fi you would have seen plenty of movies and tv shows over the last decade to keep you more than happy. But ever show which has potential doesn’t always make it. As some examples, two series spring to mind immediately to me, The Brave, starring Anne Heche, well made, engaging actors, decent plots, and Pitch, the story of a female black baseball star. Pitch was also well made with good production values and like the Brave, a decent cast. In the world of Tv, what is important is ratings, because ratings is what drives the industry.  

High ratings means big brands will want to place their products within the show or during the breaks where you watch adverts. To add to the cash pot, great shows have spin offs and others merchandise like toys, books and even movies to keep the money rolling in. Find the right show and you can become a major star, become wealthy and use it as a launch pad for other projects.

Casting the right lead in a TV show or Movie is critical, a lot rides on picking the right person, pick the wrong one, and the show will tank, pick the wrong writers and even a great actor, male or female will not save it. CW makes many shows, Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash and the ill fated Batwoman. In Batwoman, the producers wanted Ruby Rose, actor and model who has some decent movies in her CV such as John Wick 2 and Resident Evil, the Final Chapter. In John Wick 2, Ruby Rose played a bodyguard to a Mafia figure who yearns to sit at ‘the High Table’ of organised crime. Although Ruby Rose didn’t speak, it was a great part for her playing an action character.

After John Wick 2 under her belt, it would seem obvious that someone would take a chance on her and give her something better which led her to becoming Kate Kane, aka Batwoman. The supporting cast was a mixed bag of talent featuring, the ever good Dougray Scott, alongside other actors like Rachel Skarsten, Meagan Tandy, Camrus Johnson and Nicola Kang. Skarsten stole the show with her portrayal as Batwoman’s mad killer sister, which was the only saving grace for this show.

So, what was Batwoman’s problem?

The producers decided to write Batwoman as Bat-lesbian, having a lesbian lead however that wasn’t the problem; it was the forcing down people’s throats of an LGBT agenda. People thought they were getting a crime fighting show but in reality they were getting fed a lesbian show sprinkled with a few approved heterosexuals to pad it out.  The subtext which ran through the show was that heterosexuals were bad, they were the enemy. In a crossover with other CW shows, Crisis on Infinite Earth, Ruby Rose’s character is one of the special people who are needed to save our world. Batwoman was written as the paragon of courage, this is despite not having done anything really to merit this title. At this point of the first season, who had she really saved? And also where was her courage as her mass murdering homicidal sister killed her way across the city using her butterfly knife? Where was Batwoman, the “paragon of courage” and defender of the truth, well she was sitting about being an unhappy lesbian with angst. She was upset that an ex girlfriend was getting pumped senseless by a heterosexual called her husband. Oh, and as the “paragon of courage” and defender of the truth, you get special rights to break up a happy home being a LGBT hero. Contrast this with Superman Returns; Superman comes back to earth after 5 years, Lois Lane has a kid and living with another guy, does Superman attempt to break up a happy home? Funnily enough, he doesn’t. In the lore of the Superhero, sacrifice is a burden not shunned but to be carried, except in Batwoman.

As Batwoman continued through-out the first season, another incident which caught my eye left me baffled, it was what people call a WTF moment. Batwoman and the ex girlfriend are in a high end restaurant working their way through their angst of feelings. A waiter pops up and what must be the most contrived piece of anti heterosexual writing objects to them holding hands. If you saw a woman crying and another woman holding her hands would your first thought that they must be a pair of lesbians? I doubt it. What makes this scene so interesting is that Batwoman says to the waiter, she is Kate Kane and one of her relatives is an online critic with millions of followers and she will have the restaurant boycotted.

So basically, Batwoman, the “paragon of courage” is willing to have a restaurant boycotted leading to its closure which could put what 30 innocent people out of their jobs? Does that sound like a superhero to you? Does that sound like someone who is the paragon of courage? In total, the sum of this show is so bad from a writing standpoint it was little wonder that people turned away from it almost immediately. Warner Bros. TV, the CW, and Berlanti Productions tried to sell the public a crime fighting show that was not a crime fighting show. The public felt cheated, and felt their disapproval had to be heard which prompted a backlash from the LGBT community who decided that labeling everyone who complained as homophobe was a good way to plaster over dissent.  

Despite the show tanking in the ratings and Ruby Rose getting the bulk of the blame, incredibly the producers decided to green light a second series. But in season 2, we will not be seeing Ruby Rose as Batwoman, Rose said that:

'This was not a decision I made lightly'.

So, what does she see that the producers don’t? Well I would suggest she sees that the first season has so badly damaged any chance of this being turned around that the only sensible option is to scrap it. Rose added:

"I have the utmost respect for the cast, crew and everyone involved with the show in both Vancouver and in Los Angeles. I am beyond appreciative to Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Caroline Dries for not only giving me this incredible opportunity, but for welcoming me into the DC universe they have so beautifully created. Thank you Peter Roth and Mark Pedowitz and the teams at Warner Bros. and The CW who put so much into the show and always believed in me. Thank you to everyone who made season one a success — I am truly grateful."

And with that Ruby Rose is hanging up the cowl way sooner than anyone expected because to continue would completely damage her career. Having made one mistake, the producers seem to be hell bent on repeating this by not addressing the issue of why the show was so bad, they even released a statement promising to cast an LGBTQ actress in the titular role for season 2. If you had to sum up in one sentence what Batwoman is, I would suspect that many people would venture this, ‘Batwoman is Bat-Lesbian using an established franchise in an attempt to hijack loyalty to cherished comic characters for ratings to justify their existence  with an underlining subtext that heterosexuals are bad and oppressors.

Finally, LGBT characters aren’t new in Tv shows, in the show, Fear The Walking Dead, a lead character in the show is called Victor Strand, he is played by a black actor called Colman Domingo who also happens to be gay. He called the show’s handling of Victor Strand’s sexuality “brave” and “courageous,” and “very normal.” The character’s main angst is like everyone else’s, to keep living, sexuality plays a back seat just as it does with the straight actors. Batwoman was all about forcing an LGBT agenda with an anti heterosexual subtext down people’s throats, and the public reaction was all too obvious and predictable. Something that major brands will take note of when they book time slots for their adverts further down the line. Batwoman as a series is completely ruined which is why Ruby Rose was smart to leave and the public won’t support it when it returns for a second series.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

The Train Ride- A George Laird Production

Dear All

In these grim dark days, we need to stay as healthy as possible, both physically and mentally. Being stuck inside is hard, very hard, you lose track of time, you lose track of days, and apathy can set in. Somehow to stop yourself going off your rocker, it helps to have a hobby. Some people like to read, others do art; some combine exercise with home improvement.

Others sit on the couch and drink Stella!

Here is a scene I created with 2d and 3d assets along with a sound track of a train I found on youtube. When I started doing After Effects, my early efforts were hampered by the fact I had no experience, no formal training and had no books on the subject, add to that, I didn’t know my way round the interface.

Although there are many efforts I have put up on youtube, I am pretty pleased by this one as it represents an advance in my knowledge.

I hope you enjoy it.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

The SNP's Scottish ‘Road of Bones’ to Holyrood, SNP Leader Nicola Sturgeon was far too slow to act on an earlier Scottish lockdown that 'could have prevented 2,000 deaths', the SNP are now using coronavirus as their Holyrood election campaigning tool, notice how angry Nationalists become when SKY News Presenter cuts off Nicola Sturgeon for a few seconds, total silence from them over 2,000 preventable Scottish deaths, stunning silence!

Dear All

As the Covid-19 virus continues to plague us, it is essential that reporters should seek the views of the real decision makers. Many people will of course have a role to play outside the PM and his Cabinet at different levels which we see every day. The main players are that the UK public wants to hear, they want up to date news, and they want it now. As the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has played petty politics through-out the crisis, even her press ‘allies’ in the media are starting to wear on her grating voice and less than competent handling of the crisis. Today, we learn that Nicola Sturgeon could have acted sooner and thus prevented at least 80% of Scottish deaths.

At least 80% of Scottish deaths could have been saved, let that statistic sink in, in Scotland, the Nationalist exceptional-ism only exists in the minds of the SNP. In the pandemic, many will make mistakes, but to try and turn this into political capital for next year’s Holyrood election seems to be uppermost in the Nationalist mindset. Everyone knows what is  Nicola Sturgeon’s Nationalist real agenda and in the midst of the crisis, trying to engineer an outright victory is being sought, the road to Holyrood for Sturgeon is paved with her very own ‘road of bones’.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52617895

We are talking a death toll that has and will run into thousands of lost souls; Sturgeon claims each as ‘a tragedy’, but clearly not tragic enough to act faster. Her many attempts to cement her position and deflect from the incompetence by use of what appears to many to be fake emotion is indeed touching not because she can’t generate fake tears for people that she doesn’t know but because deep down, we know it is all play acting. Her fake emotion is act one, her sister’s support and condemnation is act two, but the unfinished play can’t generate the crucial third act, the ‘clap for Nicola’.

Take away the rose tinted glasses and there would have been less deaths if she has acted faster, planned better and ditch her attention seeking daily TV show.

Nicola Sturgeon hasn’t lead Scotland through this crisis, we the people by following UK Government advice, we have saved ourselves! Scotland has been badly managed and continues to be badly managed. How do we know this? The fact that NHS Scotland controlled by the SNP Government isn’t promoting testing facilities because they are staffed by the British Army is a clear sign of dereliction of duty. The attempt to generate public support by calling for closing the border is a clear sign of dereliction of duty. The fact that services such as dental and other health services are effectively unavailable to the public when that capacity could be re-opened is a clear sign of dereliction of duty.

If there is any silver lining, Nicola’s sheep, SNP MPs are now staying at home; this is done to give credence to Sturgeon’s isolation policy for Scotland. Does the policy apply to non SNP MPs in Scotland?

No!

Will Sturgeon have for example Ian Murray MP arrested if he travels to Westminster,

No!

What we have is Sturgeon trying to get people to agree in principle that the SNP control access to the border on the Scottish side.

They don’t!

What we have here is mission creep!

As SNP MPs sit at home, failing to attend the UK Parliament is to act out Sturgeon’s fantasy that she is running an independent country. This is why her petty politics of grievance is wearing thin, with the public, with the press, with the UK Government and even within the Nationalist movement. As stooges take to twitter who tweet how they wish they could have Nicola Sturgeon as PM, we in Scotland just shake our heads, we know the truth, we know the failures, and we see through the hype.

Remember act three, ‘clap for Nicola’, didn’t materialize in Scotland!

As the goodwill now flows away from Nicola Sturgeon, we get the predictable ‘nationalist anger explodes’, the hook to start them off is that TV News presenter Kay Burley was criticised after cutting off Nicola Sturgeon mid-sentence to shout on Matt Hancock. Her followers see this as an insult, but the episode shows how sensitive the Nationalists are to their attention seeking leader. The manufactured backlash online after cutting off Nicola Sturgeon is nothing new, but is shows how Nicola Sturgeon is viewed in the wider UK.

Nicola Sturgeon is a regional bit player.

Having been asked to curtail her answer for a few seconds, there came the sign of annoyance from Sturgeon, the ‘headshake’, disbelief that someone in the world is more important that her. Outside the Scottish bubble, there is no red carpet, no applause;, no adulation for the SNP leader. Sturgeon fails to grasp that her spotlight only shines because of her authority, once that is gone, she merges back in the background.

After Kay Burley returned to Nicola Sturgeon, we managed to get a sense of how bruised her ego was after being halted from speaking.

Burley said:

"Sorry about that Ms Sturgeon the Health Secretary just arrived and he tells us we will hear more from the Prime Minister later on. I'm sure you will be very keen to hear what he has to say."

Sturgeon replied: 

"Actually, I was keener to continue to give a message to Scotland."

Classic Sturgeon, unpleasant and boorish!

In the aftermath of the incident, criticism online led to some people calling for Ms Burley to be sacked as a result. There will be no sacking of Kay Burley, if you haven’t been cut off in your life, then you need to get out more. It isn’t a hanging offence; it’s called life.

Finally, we are seeing seepage of bad news concerning the antics of the SNP, all self-inflicted, a blip came on the radar, the Independence for Scotland Party, (ISP), this shows how many see the SNP camp as a growing thorn in the indy ranks. The ISP seem to have the same idea as the Wings Party, fight for regional seats, led by a former SNP member, how many more will this new party claim from Sturgeon. The Sturgeon shine is gone, as one tweeter aptly summed up the current SNP:

“Too many selfish egos in the #SNP each with their own agenda. Trans activists, misogynists, anti-Semites, gay activists, bullies, groomers, debauched behaviour, with king and queen Salmond and Sturgeon who just want to be powerful and untouchable. Independence gets in the way”.

Do you recognise the current SNP?

No surprise that Kay Burley wanted to get a word with Matt Hancock over Nicola Sturgeon!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

When is a New Era, Not a New Era; Jennie Formby steps down as Labour's General Secretary, as the Labour Party embarks on a reshaping exercise, it seems no one wants to talk about the ‘elephant in the room’, can the Labour Party be reunited under Keir Starmer in the wake of the Labour Report on antisemitism, 2014 – 2019’ because ignoring this report isn’t a viable strategy for unity or to be seen as a government in waiting

Dear All

In politics, one thing is constant, that is resignations after a change of leadership happen, now that the Corbyn era of left wing politics is over, it almost seems natural that Keir Starmer would want a clear out. You might think this represents a fresh start, but you would be wrong, two opposing ideologies sit uncomfortably in the Labour Party. On one side you have the left, portrayed as ‘the hard left’ and on the other the right wing of the Labour Party who typically are referred to as Blairites by some and ‘moderates’ and ‘progressives’ by themselves and the media. The Labour Party with a new leader hasn’t had a ‘Starmer bounce’ in the polls but it could be rationalised that due to coronavirus normal politics are some way off.

Normal politics for the Labour Party are even further away, because of one document, the internal report titled; ‘The work of the Labour Party’s Governance and Legal Unit in relation to antisemitism, 2014 – 2019’. Running to 851 pages, it is a document worth reading as it shows how elements in the party, and employed by the party sought to damage and destroy the chances of a Labour Government in the 2017 election.

You would think such an explosive report would demand an inquiry, and you would be right, but rather than address the issues, instead we will get an inquiry into how the report was leaked and by whom. For Keir Starmer, this report is #Watergate because it gives the left a legitimate platform of grievance. So, what about the people named in the report connected to serious current figures in the party, what happens to them?

Nothing!

And this is the crux of the matter, you see in order for the Labour Party to become electable, both sides of the party have to be able to work together, or at least compromise for the greater good. If you have read the report, do you see that happening? A question which follows on is, ‘if there isn’t trust in the party can anyone who is the leader sell a disunited party to the country as a credible alternative to the current Government’?

Basically no!

The problems of the Labour Party are further compounded by the fact that the Labour Party in Scotland and Wales needs a revamp. Scotland is particularly bad in terms of representation at both MP and MSP level when it comes to first past the post seats. There is one Labour MP in Scotland re-elected in 2019, Ian Murray, his success is based on local issues and convincing people to switch to Labour from Conservatives and Lib Dems. But before you ask, his seat has affluent areas which reject the SNP; this is what has pushed him over the line. Murray was staunch anti Corbyn right from the start; he was part of the drip drip effect early on who attempted to push Corbyn towards resignation by refusing to serve in his Shadow Cabinet.

Murray is on the right wing of the Labour Party.

So, what happened to the Labour Party? To understand this properly you have to look at Scotland back in the nineties and early 2000’s. The party was taken over by middle class careerists, some straight out of Universities who ended up as candidates. At this point in time, the party commanded huge majorities. We are talking thousands and thousands and thousands of votes in working class seats. At this point, imagine you are a punter with a problem, so you go see your Labour MP or your MSP for help. So, you have a middle class university careerist along with their middle class careerist staff, or family waiting to help you. But despite having a case, they don’t help you, but the majority for the MP or MSP is so huge, what is the lost of one vote or a family of voters. Over time, being ignored and being humiliated and treated like dirt and basically shat on by a UK Labour Government saw the Labour vote in Scotland to utterly collapse.

This disengagement from the public wasn’t just by the left but also the right wing of the Party elected officials to public office. And, while the party held public office, there was no interest at all or mechanism to fix it because the party had power! With the elected representatives in Labour Party abandoning the working class, up pops the SNP, right time; right place to take the vote assisted by the Westminster expenses scandal. This was a tipping point, because it allowed the SNP to wrestle Holyrood from Labour control. Once gone, between the years of 2007 to 2011, the Scottish Labour Party wasn’t an effective opposition which led to an even worse defeat. You could go on and on about Scottish Labour defeats from 2007 to date and how bad their campaigns were, how out of touch the leadership were, but it is all a matter of record. In Scotland, regardless of whether the leader was from ‘the left’ like Richard Leonard or ‘the right’ like Kezia Dugdale, it made no difference.

Latest polling at present will see no improvement in Scottish Labour from being the third party of Scottish politics at Holyrood. The Labour Party has a slogan, ‘For the Many, not the Few’, but in the years from 2007, ‘Could do, won’t do’ is what many felt the service of elected representatives meant. Incidentally, although the ‘For the Many, not the Few’ is catchy, it is unrepresentative of the party’s choice of candidates; middle class university educated, these are the people who become leaders or senior in the party. The point of what I have written above is that the Labour Party has lost its way; it has also split into two distinct camps that are as much apart as they could be politically.

Keir Starmer couldn’t wait to wholesale remove Corbyn allies in the Shadow Cabinet. When this type of thing happens, the narrative is not about who is kicked out but rather about ‘the new team’. I would ask is the new Shadow Chancellor better than the previous one? Or was his removal part of an ideology of what is basically about a purge. If ‘the left’ have no place, where is their incentive to work constructive or even work for or on behalf of the party? In the wake of the new leader results, Jennie Formby, a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, has now stood down as Labour's General Secretary. She said now is the "right time" to resign as Keir Starmer begins to reshape the party.

I recently spoke to someone maybe involved in the reshaping of the party, which won’t be an easy task, because the whole project is ruined. How that reshaping exercise will pan out we will see in a post coronavirus world. But changing structure is as equally important as changing policies, and changing structures must also apply to Labour HQ staffers who put fractionalisation ahead of the party. Like a jigsaw, if the reshaping of the party doesn’t address all the issues, then no prizes for guessing the next set of Labour Party election results at a UK level. This issue of Scotland must also be addressed, but the noise of federalism is the wrong message to sell to pro UK Scots. One thing early on I realised is that Keir Starmer doesn’t get Scotland, if he goes the route of federalism solves everything, the party in Scotland wouldn’t garner seats in order to put him into Number 10.

To fix Scottish Labour is a huge task, there have been claims particularly by Jim Murphy when he claim to have done it which I didn’t believe, and as the 2015 Westminster election showed, neither did the public. 12 weeks out from that election, I wrote a post, basically called, ‘fucking it all up’. It was rather apt because that campaign started badly and when downhill faster. Is getting a drink at a football game, the most pressing injustice in Scotland? Add to it, it was a Westminster election which meant, no matter how many Labour MPs were elected they couldn’t change the law in Scotland. This is what I mean when I say that the Scottish Labour Party where treating people with contempt; the party was to be wiped out at the ballot box returning one MP.

Finally, in politics, we sometimes hear of the phrase ‘steadying the ship’, but in the departure of Jennie Formby has her resignation achieved that, I think not. As long as there is an ‘US and Them’ mentality in the party, and the Labour Report I think establishes that, the road back to power doesn’t look good. In leaving as Gen Sec, Jennie Formby said her two years in the role had been a "huge privilege" and wished Sir Keir the "very best of luck" in leading Labour into the next General Election. Her time as General Secretary had been a turbulent period for the party as it was rocked by anti-Semitism claims and rows over Mr Corbyn's leadership. What ‘the left’ didn’t have was a legitimate grievance, in the Labour Report, they do, and although there is an inquiry, Starmer can’t kick that can down the road and quietly do nothing about the contents. If the party can’t find a way forward together, the reshaping exercise will become another exercise in futility.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University