12 Oct 2007

Police probe "homophobic" student


Fergus Bowman is now being investigated by police into comments made in a student newspaper after claims that he made anti-gay and racist comments on the Internet.
Officers at Preston Police's diversity unit are looking into the comments Fergus Bowman made on social networking site Facebook which could lead to a hate crime conviction. Bowman was a second year politics and religious student at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) and is from Catterall, near Garstang. He has quit his position of the Conservative Future Society at the University of Central Lancashire Student Union (UCLan) and been thrown out of the political party following the comments. Police have contacted the university and the company behind Facebook to gather further information about the incident before making a report to the Criminal Prosecution Service (CPS). Sgt Phil Orm, of the diversity unit, said: "The police are aware of the situation and an investigation is being undertaken into it. "A report will be submitted to the CPS following the investigation and they will judge whether a prosecution should be made." In an interview with UCLan student newspaper, Pluto, the student said his comments were "a private joke" between friends.

By the way I searched lgbt, and lesbian and gay on the Conservative Future website and it did not come up with anything. I did find this quote from a member who was speaking about NUS Conference though "Going to the NUS conference has given me the opportunity to promote Conservative policies in student politics, however much of the week is dominated by irrelevant left-wing debates that do not reflect the genuine concerns of everyday students who we seek to represent".

On Facebook there is a group L.G.B.Tory which amongst it's aims include to support the Conservative party in decisions which directly help better the lives of members of the LGBT community and to dispel the stereotype that Conservatism means homophobia by increasing our profile by helping to support LGBT candidates in politics. Difficult tasks face the group I think. And by the way the group is open to anyone - you don't have to be Tory or LGBT.

I think I will stick with LGBT Labour because ONLY LABOUR CAN DELIVER EQUALITY AND HAS DONE SO FAR.........

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