World news and comment from the Guardian | theguardian.com

Sydney Festival highlights: 10 things to see and do

Vicky Frost — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 03:17:09 GMT

From art you can bounce on to having a beer while enjoying a concert in the Domain, Sydney Festival is all about having fun. It begins today and runs until January 26

Vicky Frost

Asylum-seeker turnback: Indonesia conflicted on Abbott's hardline policy

Daniel Hurst — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 03:17:01 GMT

Indonesian ministers disagree with military chief's claim of an agreement with Australia on turning boats back

Daniel Hurst

Union fears over safety at Barangaroo building site after man dies

Bridie Jabour — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 03:16:00 GMT

CFMEU official says mentoring and supervision on the project is inadequate as workers walk off the job

Union officials say there is inadequate supervision at the Barangaroo building site where a man died on Thursday after reportedly falling about 30 metres.

The man, who had been working on the site for only a couple of weeks, fell about 8.30am. Workmates performed CPR on him until paramedics arrived.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police were investigating the possibility he had suffered a medical problem before he fell.

The NSW secretary of the Construction, Forestry and Mining and Energy Union, Brian Parker, said about 500 workers had stopped work because of the accident. They would meet again on Friday morning before deciding if they would return this week.

Parker said: "The injuries were horrific. I think he was already dead when they were attempting CPR."

Parker said the man, who he believed to be of Indigenous background, had started work on the site for a contractor a couple of weeks ago.

"He was well away from his work area when he fell," he said. "We are concerned about the lack of supervision and mentoring on the job."

Parker said people had stopped work before union officials arrived and counselling was being made the top priority.

A NSW police spokeswoman said they were called to the scene in Hickson Road about 8.40am. There are conflicting reports about the man's age; police were saying he was 30 and the union was saying 26.

"Officers have been told the man fell from scaffolding," the spokeswoman said.

Lend Lease, the developers of the site, released a statement confirming the death.

"We are co-operating and working closely with the relevant authorities," the statement said.

"Our thoughts are with the worker's family and friends. We are investigating the circumstances surrounding this tragic incident."

Police said it was possible the man had suffered a medical problem before he fell and Workcover NSW will prepare a report for the coroner.

Acting NSW premier Andrew Stoner released a statement saying the government was saddened to learn of the death.

"Our sympathies are with the worker's family, friends and colleagues," he said.

Barangaroo is the site of a controversial waterfront development on Sydney's harbour which will include commercial offices, apartment buildings and a casino funded by billionaire entrepreneur James Packer.

Bridie Jabour

US energy secretary calls off India visit as diplomatic row escalates

Thu, 09 Jan 2014 03:16:00 GMT

Moniz mission postponed and New Delhi closes ex-pats' club in dispute over arrest of official in New York

Big W joins Aldi by taking 'Australia Est. 1788' T-shirts off the shelves

Daniel Hurst, Bridie Jabour — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 03:03:10 GMT

Shopping chains bow to social media pressure after complaints that the shirts were offensive to Indigenous Australians

Daniel Hurst

Bridie Jabour

Alleged Brothers for Life gang members arrested over shootings

Thu, 09 Jan 2014 02:32:17 GMT

One of the men is Farhad Qaumi, alleged leader of gang faction which police claim has played a role in most of the shootings in Sydney in the last three or four months

When it comes to questioning Tony Abbott, less is Moore

Thu, 09 Jan 2014 02:32:00 GMT

The prime minister's first interview of the year had no hard questions but plenty of easy answers

There are a lot of questions most journalists would like to ask Tony Abbott right now.

The last chance to question the prime minister was a press conference on December 18, and immigration minister Scott Morrison's last "weekly" Operation Sovereign Borders briefing was on December 20, so there are quite a few unanswered questions about the coalition's asylum policy, for example.

Such as: are you towing boats back to Indonesia? What is your assessment of the impact this might have on the bilateral relationship? What safeguards are in place for the safety of the asylum seekers on board the boats? Has anyone been injured? What is your response to allegations by some on board the boats that they have been roughly treated? What advice do you have about how this practice sits with Australia's international legal obligations?

Andrew Moore, filling in for Alan Jones on 2GB, was graced with the first prime ministerial interview for the year on Thursday morning. He took quite a different tack.

"I understand the decision taken by the immigration minister and your government not to run a daily commentary on boats arriving here, because you don't want to encourage people smugglers obviously in Indonesia," he began. Hmmm, perhaps he was taking the soft entree/ hard questions later approach.

Not one to miss an opportunity, Abbott cut in right after the soft entree: "And we don't want to give rise to a whole lot of mischief-making. And I'd rather be criticised for being a bit of a closed book on this issue and actually stop the boats. And that's the point; the point is not to provide sport for public discussion. The point is to stop the boats and I am pleased to say that it is now several weeks since we have had a boat and the less that we talk about operational details on the water the better when it comes to stopping the boats."

Moore began again. Surely now he would ask questions.

"The only thing I would put to you is why not announce or talk about the fact that you have sent boats back if you have? Whether it is one, two, five, 10 or none? Because does that not serve the purpose of not commenting daily on boat arrivals in terms of being the opposite effect of promoting it for people smugglers saying this is what is going to happen?"

No actual question about whether the government had towed boats back, just a high lob about why they wouldn't say so if they had.

A gleeful Abbott hit that one out of the park: "The important thing is that the measures have been put in place which have dramatically slowed boat arrivals – that is the important thing. Not to have a micro-detailed discussion about every last particular measure given that having that discussion just causes unnecessary fights. The only fight I want is a fight with the people smugglers and I am pleased to say that just at the moment, I am not declaring victory, I'm really not, it is far too early to declare victory here, but just at the moment things are going much better than they were."

In answer to a different question, Abbott said there "appeared" to have been a conversation between the head of Indonesia's military, General Moeldoko, and the chief of the defence force, General David Hurley, which seemed excessively coy since Moeldoko has reportedly confirmed the discussion.

Yes, the government has a right to seek to implement the policy it took to the election. But surely voters have a right to know how it is being implemented, and with what consequences for the asylum seekers, the relationship with Indonesia, the navy and Australia's international reputation – especially since the election policy involved an explicit commitment that Australia would not "tow" back boats at all.

Heck, voters might want to know a whole lot of "micro-detailed" things, such as how the government intends to implement its policy to repeal the carbon tax, since Labor and the Greens appear intent on blocking it, and Clive Palmer is keeping schtum about his intentions. Not to mention how it actually intends to reduce Australia's emissions.

Moore didn't get far on those ones either.

He asked: "It's hard to work out where to start because there are so many issues. You mentioned the carbon tax which Australians want rid of and you promised to repeal … How frustrating has that process been that Labor and the Greens in the Senate still won't let it go …?"

Needless to say the prime minister finds it quite frustrating, but is determined to do it anyway.

So there we have it. Policy questions lead to "mischief-making". Public discussion of major issues is an unnecessary "sport". Asking basic questions can lead to unwarranted "micro-detailed discussions".

The policy goals justify silence about the means. And for that reason the government, which believes so fervently in free speech, thinks it is reasonable to withhold basic information from the national policy conversation.

Indonesian indigenous groups fight climate change with GPS mapping

Thu, 09 Jan 2014 02:00:00 GMT

Tribal rights advocates and rainforest defenders are using community mapmaking to protect ancestral land

Indigenous communities in Indonesia are using GPS technology to demarcate the boundaries of their ancestral lands, a move many believe could also help mitigate the negative effects of climate change.

"Community mapmaking has been a successful tool to show the government that we are here, and that we want to protect our lands," says Rukka Sombolinggi, a spokeswoman for the Indigenous Peoples' Alliance of the Archipelago (Aman), a Jakarta-based secretariat representing more than 2,000 communities.

Indonesia's dense forests are home to an estimated 50 million-70 million indigenous people, and 10% of all known plant species, according to Aman and the Rainforest Action Network, a non-profit international environmental advocacy group based in San Francisco.

"Indonesia's forests are recognised as important, not only at local and national levels but also at the global level, as they include some of the world's most important forests with the highest values for biodiversity and carbon," Gustavo Fonseca, the head of the natural resources team for the Global Environment Facility, told IRIN. GEF is a funding mechanism for the UN convention on biological diversity and the UN framework convention on climate change.

More than 600 cases for land rights have been filed in Indonesian courts by indigenous communities in the past three years, according to the Philippines-based Tebtebba policy research foundation. These advocates of sustainability and tribal rights hope the 2D and 3D maps will help the thousands of diverse aboriginal groups to guard the health of the environments they depend on for survival.

In 2011, the Indonesian government granted forest concession licences covering 57.84m acres of forest land to extractive industries and agribusiness companies, notes a 2013 report by the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), a UK-based charity dedicated to aid for forest dwellers worldwide.

The FPP says this has led to a growing number of land conflicts, rising to 8,000 disputes in and out of court in 2012, according to Indonesia's National Land Agency (BPN). "Mapmaking has helped them to assert their claims to the land by identifying exactly the areas they have lived since time immemorial," says the head of the Tebtebba foundation, Vicky Tauli-Corpuz.

Indonesia has more than 1,000 indigenous groups who have been participating in mapping for the past two decades, according to Aman and the FPP. Marcus Colchester, senior policy adviser for the FPP, says new technology increases the speed at which this can be done.

The digitised maps, which include spatial elements (physical geography of land formations and resources) and non-spatial information (sacred cultural and ritual sites), cover more than 5.9m acres of indigenous areas, from Sumatra island to Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

How well the maps are used, and how effective they become, depends on the organisation within communities, and the balance of power with authorities in each area, Tauli-Corpuz says.

A man submitted 256 maps to the national Geospatial Information Agency on behalf of aboriginal communities in mid-November 2012, in accordance with the government's One Map Initiative (OMI) launched in 2012.

Caretakers of biodiversity

"They have accepted our maps, and are considering and acknowledging them [on a policy level]," Sombolinggi says. "It is critical evidence for our land rights."

Amendments to the 1999 forestry law, based on a court ruling last May, removed the classification of customary forests as "state forests", and this "was helped along by the submission of the maps", Tauli-Corpuz says.

Land rights are intrinsically linked to sustainability, and to mitigating climate change by preserving the Earth's forests, which are seen by many as the lungs of the planet.

"Recognition of indigenous peoples' rights is an essential plank in this policy reform, which will not only slow deforestation but will also secure community livelihoods, reduce land conflicts and foster local food security," Colchester says.

Maintaining biodiversity aids adaptation by "[removing] carbon dioxide from the atmosphere ... and reducing emissions from forest degradation", says the convention on biological diversity, an agreement signed by 150 leaders at the 1992 Rio Earth summit.

Indigenous people have high stakes in protecting biodiversity because they depend on its survival for their own, hunting and gathering non-timber forest products for their daily needs, according to Nicole Girard, Asia programme co-ordinator for Minority Rights Group International, a UK-based charity.

"Once their resources are threatened by either development projects or climate change, the impact is felt more directly and more acutely than by those in cities," Girard adds.

Over the generations they have learned to live sustainably and have a keen understanding of a forest's limitations, making them the ideal caretakers of forested land. For example, a traditional fire-prevention practice preserves eco-system functioning by creating barriers to contain flames, protecting the deepest and most essential parts of the forest, Tauli-Corpuz explains.

Fonseca points out that "indigenous peoples' rights to forests have long been recognised as a crucial component to maintain the environment and address climate change."

If Australia is plagued by violent machismo, it starts from the top | Jeff Sparrow

Jeff Sparrow — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 01:57:41 GMT

Jeff Sparrow: A moral panic over drunken violence is a convenient smokescreen for the real brutality taking place in Australia's name

Jeff Sparrow

Australian super funds report best performance since 2007

Thu, 09 Jan 2014 01:18:35 GMT

Industry-wide rate of return for the year to 30 June 2013 was 13.7% as the nation's superannuation pool grew to $1.62tn

Derailed oil train still on fire after crashing near Canada/US border

Thu, 09 Jan 2014 01:12:50 GMT

150 people evacuated from homes but no casualties as latest accident raises fears over freight train safety

The high cost of being a legal immigrant in the US: $465

Jana Kasperkevic — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 01:01:18 GMT

For some undocumented immigrants, applying for temporary relief and work permits comes at too high a cost

Jana Kasperkevic

Qantas downgraded to junk status by credit ratings agency Moody's

Thu, 09 Jan 2014 00:46:19 GMT

Agency cites a sharp deterioration in the airline's core domestic business, due to aggressive competition from Virgin Australia

Alcohol-related violence: numbers don't always tally with media attention

Nick Evershed — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 00:39:50 GMT

The issue is a serious one, but the idea that such assaults are becoming more common is misconceived

Nick Evershed

Man dies after fall at Barangaroo development site

Thu, 09 Jan 2014 00:39:04 GMT

Bystanders administered CPR, but ambulance officers pronounced the man dead after he had fallen "an extreme distance"

Former Nazi guard charged in France with Oradour massacre

Kim Willsher — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 00:38:48 GMT

Unnamed man suspected of being a member of armoured SS division that killed a total of 642 villagers

An 88-year-old former SS guard has been charged with taking part in one of the most shocking massacres carried out in Nazi-occupied France.

The man, who has not been identified, is accused of the cold-blooded murder of 25 people and with being an accomplice in the murder of hundreds of other civilians at the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in 1944.

He is suspected of being a member of the armoured SS division that killed a total of 642 villagers in an atrocity that is etched on French memories.

"The prosecutor's office in Dortmund has charged an 88-year-old pensioner from Cologne over the murder of 25 people committed by a group, and with aiding and abetting the murder of several hundred people," said the Cologne regional court in a statement.

The man, who was 19 at the time of the slaughter, is among six suspects still facing possible prosecution for war crimes in Oradour-sur-Glane. He has denied the charged and has been given until the end of March to appeal.

"He acknowledged that he was in Oradour-sur-Glane at the time and was a member of the SS, but disputes any involvement in the murders," Andreas Brendal, Dortmund's state prosecutor said.

Oradour-sur-Glane has been left abandoned its blackened ruins preserved as a memorial to the slaughter of the villagers, 254 of whom were women and 207 children.

The SS armoured division marched into Oradour-sur-Glane on 10 June 1944 in retaliation for the alleged kidnapping of a German officer by the French resistance. The village was sealed off and its inhabitants rounded up in the market place where the men were separated from the women and children. "The men were then divided into four groups ... and taken by execution squads to four barns to be killed," read the German charge sheet.

The survivors were finished off with pistols or killed in fires lit by the German soldiers who then herded the women and children into the local church, locked the doors and set fire to it. Anyone trying to escape through windows was shot.

"It's important that we find someone even if it's 70 years afterwards," Robert Hébras, one of the six survivors, told French broadcaster BFMTV.

Oradour is an ambiguous symbol because it represents not just the atrocities committed by the Nazis but also a post-war failure to punish the perpetrators.

Heinz Lammerding, the Waffen SS general in command of the unit that committed the massacre, was captured by allied forces but never extradited to France and was sentenced to death in absentia by a Bordeaux military court in 1951. He died in his bed in Bavaria in 1971.

The presidents of Germany and France, Joachim Gauck and François Hollande, visited the village in September and held hands with one of the few survivors of the massacre, in a symbolic moment of commemoration and reconciliation. Germany opened a new war crimes case into the massacre in 2010, when documents implicating six suspects, now in their 80s, were discovered.

Kim Willsher

Arianna Huffington announces launch of World Post news website

Dominic Rushe — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 00:31:13 GMT

Arianna Huffington and billionaire Nicolas Berggruen announce launch of new media venture that will also host novice contributors

Dominic Rushe

India cracks down on US embassy club in diplomatic row

Jason Burke — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 00:21:00 GMT

India says US embassy must cease commercial activities benefiting non-diplomats, after Indian envoy's arrest in New York

India has ratcheted up the pressure on US diplomats in Delhi as the deadline nears for the indictment of an Indian envoy in New York charged with visa fraud and underpaying a maid.

Washington has been told that restaurants and other facilities at the social club in its Delhi embassy will have to close to non-diplomats and that inquiries into the tax affairs of US staff will be pursued aggressively.

The arrest last month of Devyani Khobragade, the Indian deputy consul general in New York, enraged Indians and has prompted the biggest crisis in relations between Delhi and Washington for many years.

Tensions rose further when the prosecutor handling the case in New York issued a hard-hitting statement accusing Delhi of turning a blind eye to exploitation of domestic workers serving its envoys overseas.

The latest move is "simply in line with a policy of strict reciprocity", a senior Indian official said.

It was announced later on Wednesday that the US energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, would no longer travel to India as planned next week.

"I can confirm that Secretary Moniz is no longer traveling to India next week," an energy department official told Reuters. "We have been in conversation with Indian counterparts about the dates, and we have agreed to hold the dialogue in the near future at a mutually convenient date."

Though John Kerry, the US secretary of state, has expressed his "regret" for Khobragade's arrest, this falls far short of the full apology that India wants.

"The exact words aren't important. But either this was a mistake or a clear indication of how little they value their relationship with India. If it was a mistake, they can say sorry and we can move on," the official said.

Delhi has demanded that all charges be withdrawn and has transferred Khobragade, 39, to its mission at the United Nations. This theoretically gives her full diplomatic immunity, but also implies a change in immigration status which has to be allowed by the US state department.

Khobragade, 39, is accused of declaring on visa documents that she would pay the nanny she brought from India the minimum wage in New York, and then making her work long hours for a fraction of the agreed rate. Freed on payment of a $250,000 bond, she is due in court on 13 January and could face a maximum sentence of 10 years if convicted.

Her lawyer is believed to have applied for the date by which the diplomat has to be charged to be pushed back to allow discussions with prosecutors.

The US embassy club is based in a vast compound located on embassy grounds in the centre of Delhi, and boasts a swimming pool, baseball pitch, stores selling imported US products and a number of restaurants. Along with the American Embassy School, it is central to the social life of families of many expatriate employees of US corporations in India.

"The use by non-diplomats is contrary to [diplomatic] conventions and we believe raises an issue of tax evasion," the Indian official said.

India had already curtailed privileges offered to US diplomats to bring them in line with the treatment of Indian envoys to the United States. Since December, the US ambassador in Delhi can be subjected to airport frisking and most consular staff have reduced levels of immunity.

Concrete security barriers were removed from a road near the embassy last month, apparently in retaliation for the loss of a parking spot for the Indian ambassador in Washington.

India is also preparing to take steps against the embassy school, which it suspects may be employing some staff in violation of visa requirements, government sources told Reuters.

Indian diplomats recently received support from one slightly unlikely quarter – their hostile neighbour Pakistan. "In the entire world, there is only one way … the Vienna convention ought to be respected in letter and spirit by everybody," Salman Bashir, the outgoing Pakistan high commissioner, said this week.

The arrest of Khobragade touches a range of sensitivities in India. Almost all middle-class households in India employ at least one, and often several, members of staff who will undertake tasks from cleaning and cooking to childcare and driving.

With few Indian diplomats paid wages that would allow them to legally employ local staff to perform such functions in postings in the west, the practice has long been for Indian workers to be flown out and paid rates that, if illegal in US and elsewhere, would be generous at home.

Preet Bharara, the prosecutor in Khobragade's case, said last month: "In fact the Indian government itself has been aware of this legal issue, and that its diplomats and consular officers were at risk of violating the law. The question then may be asked: is it for US prosecutors to look the other way, ignore the law and the civil rights of victims … or is it the responsibility of the diplomats and consular officers and their government to make sure the law is observed?"

However, the arrest has outraged Indian diplomats who say none of their colleagues have been treated in such a way since one was handcuffed during the Cultural Revolution in China.

"We have the support of the entire Indian society on this. We are a country of a billion people with a reputation for being independent in our world view but we believe in our relationship with the US and that is why we are genuinely shocked," said the Indian official.

There have been several previous incidents involving senior Indian diplomats in the US and domestic staff brought from India. In 2011 the Indian consul general, Prabhu Dayal, was accused by his maid of forced labour and sexual harassment, charges he called "complete nonsense" and that were later dropped.

A year earlier a US judge recommended that an Indian diplomat and her husband pay a maid nearly $1.5m in compensation for being forced to work without pay and suffering "barbaric treatment" in their luxury Manhattan apartment.

The outrage in India has been fuelled by politicians' unwillingness to seem out of step with public mood with a general election only months away.

Relations between the US and India have long been rocky, though steadily improving since a nadir in the 1970s. Barack Obama received a warm welcome on his visit in 2010. However, there remains deep suspicion of Washington in Delhi, and in India more generally, and many US officials see India as a difficult partner.

Jason Burke

Rubio proposes big changes to 'war on poverty' as GOP eyes new agenda

Dan Roberts — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 00:01:05 GMT

Florida senator envisions smaller government role in tackling poverty as GOP attacked the idea that federal spending is the best weapon

Dan Roberts

Coward punch attacks: Tony Abbott tells police to throw the book at culprits

Lenore Taylor — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 23:44:37 GMT

Prime minister says, as a father and a citizen, he is 'appalled at what seems to be happening in certain trouble spots' in Sydney

Lenore Taylor

Nauru to increase visa cost for journalists from $200 to $8,000

Bridie Jabour — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 23:19:44 GMT

The new fee, which is not refundable if an application is rejected, will come into force in the next few days

Bridie Jabour

Chris Christie 'outraged and deeply saddened' over bridge closure scandal

Ed Pilkington — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 23:14:14 GMT

Governor Christie says he was 'misled' by staff, but has not dismissed the aide nor did said what measures he would take

Ed Pilkington

Best pictures of the day - live

Mee-Lai Stone — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 23:13:17 GMT

The Guardian's photo team brings you a daily round up from the world of photography

Mee-Lai Stone

In praise of … the Académie Française | Editorial

Editorial — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 22:55:33 GMT

The latest Anglo-Saxon barbarism to incur the displeasure of the 40 lifetime members is the abbreviation ASAP

While the compilers of the Oxford English Dictionary annually capitulate to, and even celebrate, the arrival on our shores of monstrosities such as "selfie", "binge-watch" and "twerk", across the Channel in Paris the guardians of French take a very different view. There, the 40 lifetime members of the Académie Française have been debating and defending the integrity of the language of Molière for almost five centuries, occasionally dressed in the natty combination of long black coat, cocked hat and sword that they wear on ceremonial occasions. The latest Anglo-Saxon barbarism to incur their displeasure is the abbreviation ASAP, which they have dismissed in a new ruling as "modern junk", advising instead the use of the elegant, and more importantly French, dès que possible. Who could fail to appreciate the Canute-like resolve of the self-styled immortels of the Académie to face down the tide of evolution? RSVP.

Editorial

Homophobia in football: kick it out | Editorial

Editorial — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 22:32:47 GMT

Fans know they watch gay men on the pitch, and understand there are various reasons why this is always kept quiet

A boneheaded 2% of football fans told YouGov in 2009 that the reason all of the 5,000 or so professional footballers in England were heterosexual was that "there are no gay players". Thomas Hitzlsperger's decision to reveal he "preferred living together with a man" may not disabuse them. He retired from the game last autumn, and so the Premier League is still without an active player who's officially anything other than straight.

Not long before, Robbie Rogers, who had played for Leeds, said it was time to "step away from football" as he came out, but a signing for LA Galaxy soon reversed this 25-year-old's retirement once he escaped English shores. With John Fashanu insisting that his late brother, Justin, who uniquely outed himself before he took his own life in the 1990s, was not really gay, a determined denier in 2013 could still maintain English football was uniquely free of a disposition that only ever sets in after players have walked away from the top flight.

Of course, Ockham's razor cuts such a wild theory, and so too – the same YouGov survey implies – do the other 98% of fans. They know perfectly well that they watch gay men on the pitch, and understand that there are various reasons why this is always kept quiet. It is an extraordinary state of affairs. England's wicket-keeping has already been entrusted to a gay man, and the country lives under a Conservative-led government that has legislated for same-sex marriage. There is a specific problem with the national game that simply does not apply across an increasingly tolerant country.

Part of the difficulty is the toleration of dressing-room "banter" that would be described as hate speech in other contexts. Mr Hitzlsperger puts it gently, and with remarkable humour, which only redoubles the power of his testimony about sitting round "a table with 20 young men and listen[ing] to jokes about gays". But personal as sexuality is, the bigger difficulty is still what gets chanted in public. Years after co-ordinated efforts began to address the routine racism that once disfigured the terraces, jeers about "rent boys" are often indulged. Could anything be more intimidating for a young man struggling to come to terms with private feelings than a crowd of tens of thousands yelling about these?

With the extension of Kick It Out's remit from racism to wider prejudice, the first steps have at last been taken, but there is still a way to go before referees and stewards react to taunts about "queers" and "faggots" just as fiercely as they do to 1970s poison about "monkey boys". But it is not just the authorities that have responsibility here: it is every last one of the 98% of fans who is not so stupid as to imagine that gay footballers do not exist.

Editorial