As someone whose highest spiritual relationships are with books, and for whom libraries are cathedrals, today brought blessings.
In the oh so wonderful Strathclyde campus library, I spotted this board, which accompanied a generous Pride Month book display. It’s a tribute to Polari.
Polari was supposed to be ancient history, but it’s 2025. Hence the board.
Because these are the days when secret languages are needed again.
I hate that they are. But everything old is new again.
When I posted this to the socials, someone responded with a comment asking “Why do you think secret languages are needed again?” The best way for me to answer that question was to delete it.
Now think about that.
For more on Polari, there is an entire book, good fun, summarised here; you can do that or not, but fellow policy professionals really must read that same author’s book on Section 28, which I’ve previously recommended for its uncanny/terrifying parallels to our current raft of online safety legislation “for the children”. Both best purchased in paper at Queer Lit, Great Ancoats Street, Mcr. Someday, when we’re old, we’ll walk in there and buy the book about the new Polari which was born in 2025, because it had to be. Also, here’s a blog post on Polari as the modern data protection concept of data minimisation.
