MARIA DUARTE recommends a remarkable study of the friendship between a Palestinian and a Pakistani, broken by a hostile state
DURING the second wave of pit closures in the 1990s, a 21-year-old LGBT activist was having an argument about politics and it’s one I have had on many occasions.
That argument, about whether or not gay people of his age were as political as those older than him, rages in the community to this day. When it was suggested that he support the mining communities, his initial response was: “Why on earth would I support them when they don’t support me?” To which his comrade replied: “Let me tell you a story...”
That man was Stephen Beresford and that story was of the 1984-85 miners’ strike and the support given to it by lesbians and gays. And it’s a narrative which writer Beresford and director Matthew Warchus got together to immortalise in the film Pride, which is in cinemas from Friday.
ANGUS REID, FIONA O’CONNOR, JAMES WALSH and MARIA DUARTE review Wham! 10 Days in China, Lesvia, Di’Anno: Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and The Fires
Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners co-founder MIKE JACKSON talks to Matt Kerr about the enduring power of Pride, protest and trade unionism
ANGUS REID and ANDREW JOHNSTONE report on an initiative that we must take this summer



