Well So Much for Peace and Quiet.

Well it has been a busy few days and on this blog piece we have a couple of councils that may be actually taking note of what is going on around them rather than applying rhetoric and guesswork to what is going on.

As mentioned in my twittering post Worcseter has been running a consultation. Of course this has got local press coverage but it appears the press have been editting the comments of at least one councillor who I recently wrote to. He replied and a screenshot of that reply is below. And I think most people are concerned about the welfare of the dancers, this blog has no time for anyone who abuses dancers which is why we spend so much time addressing radical feminism. Councillor Udall is quoted as saying trafficking exists in the UK but as we know the striptease industry has not found any trafficking in any venues. So judging by the councillors comments we start to wonder what was said in the interview and what was made up. At this point I intend to try and contact the journalist involved to get a take on his position. Certainly there seems to be a gap between what the councillor says and what he has been quoted as saying.

Now on to Cheltenham where a new club Fantasy has been given permission to open on a vote on the licensing committee on a vote of 5 to 3. Now the antis have kicked up a stink in particular the salvation army and the 655 signatures it gathered. Now I can bet my regular readers are guessing like me what was in the content of the petition would contain moral objections and we all know the guidelines say objections made on moral grounds should be ignored by the council committee. However there have now been anonymous hate mail aimed at the councillors and I do hope the police take action on this. It is strange that the threats all come from the side of the good moralists, whereas us dirty perverts seem peace loving hippies in comparison. What does make this amusing is the councillor applied the letter of the law to the application and are attacked for doing their job, sort of says a lot about some aspects of those protesting who will willing ram the law down people's throats when it suits them but the moment some uses it as intended to grant a license then it is all wrong. That would be assuming they actually understand the legal aspect.

And we haven't said much about Tower Hamlets but they are popping up all over the place on the political front, seems that ejecting a member of the press that doesn't like Lutfur but the one that had me really sniggering was the article in the Telegraph (here) where the sleight of hand for remaining mayor was ridiculous (thanks Brute for this). Whilst our interest is in the venues remaining opening in Tower Hamlets we will keep our eyes on those who seem to be on a course to try and close legitimate businesses.

So considering how quiet it has been we now see a little more cropping up, there is the second club in York applying for a license which I am trying to get more information on certain aspects as our friends the York Feminist Network has popped their heads up even though it seems the university is in favour of clubs. Hopefully I will get some more in depth info.

TonyN (tonyprince@acdcfan.com)

Scotland Home of the Brave?

People may remember there has been a consultation in Scotland about how to regulate SEVs. Well the results are in and make interesting reading (pdf here). In fact in part is shows the bias that the Scottish Government has towards pushing their own agenda no matter what the public thinks.

"In total 1,017 responses were received. Of these 941 were largely identical in substance and reflected a campaign organised by the Scottish Association of Licensed Adult Entertainment Venues. It is presumed that the majority of these responses were from those who work in the industry together with customers."

This is taken direct from the summary of response where 92% of respondents wish clubs to remain open. The way the statement is written has got my hackles up as if it was Object organising a campaign or a similar group I can see that being perfectly okay but the clubs, dancers and patrons decide to write and the council just want to point out what everyone else had said even though it relates to less than 8% of responses. Not sure in the long term how it will pan out but so far not happy.

There are whole areas of questions I could make comments but I want to pick a couple of choice ones that gave me the giggles "the regime would need to be supported by inspection and monitoring arrangements by staff trained in violence against women and gender equality". Now given that Eaves commissioned the Lilith report you do feel that people with this "training" will see violence everywhere. I also loved the comment about the high quality employment Scotland needs. Struggling a bit to not laugh my head off.

I note that the wording across the report seemed to suggest that 92% of opinions were not as important as fleshing out opinions of the minority. Given the fact that the only "report" previously in Scotland is the Bindel one for Glasgow that is totally useless and just a voice for the opinion of Ms Bindel, shoddy methodology but it seems to echo the opinions of a handful who unfortunately seem to be MPs and Councillors. Obviously this was just a summary and we can but hope that when the report in fully is put out the majority view is recognised.

TonyN (tonyprince@acdcfan.com)

Police Raids... And the Rad Fems Were Bitterly Disappointed

Normally I don't post things so close together but something came up and it just has to be put out there to let the world know. What am I rambling on about?

Well it seems the police and immigration officials in Scotland "swooped" in to raid 3 Lap Dancing Clubs. The raids took place on Friday 13th in the evening. The clubs Diamond Dolls, Baby Dolls and Club Earth are all owned by Stephen MacDonald. Officers were looking for victims of human trafficking, illegal workers and drugs so we can only imagine the overly aggressive handling of the situation but would be happy if anyone can provide more information on the raids.

So the raid in Glasgow resulted in 2 offences. First was a lady in possession of an offensive weapon, no idea what the weapon was but I would see it as protecting her personal safety however the police obviously need some results after all the money spent. Another Lady was found to be in possession of a small quantity of cannabis, one guesses by the description this amount would normally warrant a cannabis warning but not sure of Scottish law on this either. The fact it was just reported and not an arrest certain suggests no more than personal use.

So the estimate on the number of officers used is around 200 including a raid on Mr MacDonald's home. Now I can't be certain but I would guess if the police hit 3 or 4 night clubs in Glasgow they would have turned up more drugs, more weapons and more likely to have found staff working illegally. Because here is the real result from the raids... No illegal staff arrested and even more importantly NO VICTIM's of trafficking. We hear things around the web and fingers being pointed at clubs for trafficking etc and yet now after these raids, the whole thing turns out to be a myth.

So after that embarrassment for not only the police and immigration but also for any and all "feminist experts" who link clubs with trafficking they now have to rethink their understanding. If any "feminist experts" like Ms Bindel would like to comment I would love to see what they make of the issues raised by the failure of the raids.

TonyN(tonyprince@acdcfan.com)

Hmmm Some Twittering's

So I was pointed at twitter by Reason where Tim Wheeler of the BBC commented on a club advertising on the side of a bus. Now the advert contains images in silhouette (here) and is less suggestive than your average M&S clothes advert. Now unless the advert is braking the terms of the club license I can't see the issue, however things seem to be in people's heads making images dirtier than they really are. The reason being of course is that people apply moral judgments based on their personal subjective opinion. And I do wonder if the BBC should be commenting on censorship considering the way they protected IDS on question time. Journalists trying to censor legal adverts based on a point of view says to me that they need to look at themselves.

And speaking of twitter I have been taking a bit of a break from it as it has a habit of causing me to swear at the computer. However I decided as I was on to have a scan of the Object twitter feed and noticed that a while back a picture was posted saying that as part of the 10 year anniversary they should celebrate the dancers they have rescued. I was a bit WTF at that as the only one I know of co-authored a book with Object to promote their opinion pieces. Just how much did that "save" cost? We have seen grants given to Object but never seen completed projects as Object seem to jump bandwagons every 5 minutes. I tweeted the question at them from that picture but I am expecting the usual being ignored because the question can't be answered.

Black Cherry is applying for it's SEV license in Worcester. At the moment a consultation period is under way and due to end 27th June. Anyone who lives in the area can e-mail the council at wrsenquiries@worcsregservices.gov.uk certainly considering the usual local press hysteria the club may need support. Wouldn't be the same without a scare mongering headline selling the concept sex takes place in the venue. Laughable as readers of this blog will know but nothing like paving your way for a move from the local press to the BBC.

At this point a little sad news  that Victoria pub in Hayes has had it's licenses revoked. The Victoria was raided by the police and cocaine dealing was found leading to the arrest of 9 people. I am saddened that we have lost a venue for the foreseeable future but this blog has ALWAYS been about clubs operating within the law and about the possible beneficial results in the lowering of sexual crimes from venues being in an area. So a message to all venue owners I know that times are hard but if you allow criminals to operate from the venue you face the very real risk of losing your business. Now I have been told that the dealing was taking place from the toilets which people could access without going through the bars. However the license holder is responsible for the building and what goes on in them. Without more intimate details of what happened people will have to make their own judgments but at this point we have to say farewell to one of the more traditional venues.

There is one thing I would like readers of the blog to do if they can and that is to ask just how many dancers they "rescued" on twitter. I am sure there are organisations that gave Object grants that would love to know what the money went on.

TonyN (tonyprince@acdcfan.com)