Andy Charlwood on Twitter

I just love Twitter because it allows people to make themselves looks fools by tweeting the most banal details of their lives (because we are just so interested in where they are having coffee this morning) or better still, write things that are utterly stupid that stay in the public domain. Sometimes however we are very lucky and both outcomes happen at the same time. So for the sake of posterity I have frame grabbed this Tweet from Andy Charlwood......

Now, who exactly is Andy Charlwood? Well, his full title is Dr Andrew Charlwood and he is the Associate Professor of Industrial Relations at Warwick Business School. He is also the husband of Rebecca Charlwood, Leeds Labour Party councillor and they are both bestest friends to Leeds MP and Shadow Chief Secretary to The Treasury, Rachel Reeves.

The relevance to this blog is the above three have been central to an ill advised campaign to revoke the legitimately appointed SEV Licenses of 7 Leeds lap dancing clubs. So as you can imagine, Andy has been presenting a strong moral front in this matter and has been immensely supportive of a campaign to make 750 people redundant. So lets have a look at what Andy was saying....

"Dinner at parents.Do I have seconds of pavlova or do I leave space for cheese? This is what Sophies Choice must have been like......"

So for those of you unfamiliar with William Styrons 'trite' (at least according to Andy Charlwood) novel, it concerns the experiences of three people in America in the late 1940s, one of whom, Sophie, is a survivor of Auschwitz. The choice relates to the decision she had to make upon her arrival at the camp, where she had to chose which of her two children should be gassed immediately so as to allow the other to live on in the camp.

So according to Andy, dessert options have the same gravity as choosing which of your children must die, but later according to Andy its not really, because when he's challenged he ascribes his comment to a incredibly subtle moment of literary criticism.

Its fun to see how Andy just cannot cope with anyone picking him up on his comments, when challenged by Susan Press, the only response that Andy can muster is along the lines of if you don't like it, don't subscribe to me. We  also can see that Andy now considers this done and dusted and when his response is criticised again, he rolls out his literary criticism excuse and encourages Susan Press to 'jog on'. In other words, 'go away and stop bothering me, do you know who I am?'

Andy clearly finds himself hilarious, although I find it amazing that his inspiration made him want to leave the dinner table to make his crass Tweet that equated dessert issues with killing children in death camps. But actually it wasn't any of that at all, the dessert choices put Andy in mind of the way that a novelist wrote about industrialised child murder.

Andy is just so deep.....

Now Andy is close friends with Rachel Reeves, in fact I understand that they went to The London School of Economics together. Now I am guessing that Andy forgot that Rachel is a member of Labour Friends of Israel and in fact was part of a group of MPs that visited the country last year. Protip for Rachel would be not invite Andy Charlwood on your next visit because you don't know what he is going to say next.

I wonder if Andy has form for these kind of comments? If he does, it makes me doubt Rachel Reeves judgement even more than I do now, that said she is offering an internship as a prize in a magazine competition.

I also seem to remember Andy spinning the upside of Leeds losing its specialist childrens heart unit. You can read about his reservations regarding the competence of the surgeons in Leeds here.

I would love to be a fly on the wall at the Charlwoods when they next invite Rachel round for dinner. I wouldn't advise Rebecca to prepare pavlova (you just know she does the cooking, because Andy is always too busy marking papers or preparing abstract intellectual comments for use on Twitter) because Andy will end up wearing it......

Finally, did you notice that Andy can't even spell the authors name correctly....its Styron, not Styrom.

Now, if like me you find Andy Charlwoods comment to be infantile and grossly offensive, you can visit him at his university home page here and you'll find his email address. Just in case he decides to delete everything, you can see his tweet here.

Actually, I've had a better idea....what about a petition calling for a public apology or maybe even a resignation? Andy after all is very keen on petitions calling for people to lose their jobs, especially if they're lap dancers....

Maybe later he can be Rachel Reeves new intern, it would be just like the old days at LSE....

Moralist Olympics in Leeds - Liberte

So, for those of you that have been following the current 'situation' in Leeds, here we have the first of the reports that will cover the Licensing Committees deliberations on how many of the cities clubs they plan to close. Mondays hearing focussed on Liberte and due to the councils commitment to open government, we can see what has been going on.

So the numbers are as follows, Liberte received 33 objections (out of a population of 798,000) so in other words the existence of Liberte is of concern to .004% of the people of Leeds. Next we have to consider where the objections actually came from and I can say that  in many cases the objectors details were redacted. But I can report that 5 of the objections came from local MPs and councillors. You may also recall that every feminist group in the City had made available template letters so that people could object without having to think too hard about it. There were three template letter variants received that accounted for a further 19 objections.

So, if you take the 5 politically motivated letters and 19 templates, you are left with 9 letters that someone actually sat down and thought about.

Is there any fun stuff? Yes of course there is.......

Cllr Bernard Atha doesn't actually seem to get around to objecting at all, in fact  he seems more upset about the fact that he cannot object on the basis of his personal morality. Anyone that knows anything about the business of objecting to lapdancing clubs knows that moral objections do not count.

So clearly Bernard doesn't know the legislation.

It is good to know about the fact that he is 'extremely hostile' to clubs and how they excite the 'baser instincts of men in a corrupting manner', so no moralistic value judgements from him then. What is really interesting is that he is a qualified lawyer, so maybe he should do a little more research for himself maybe.

Bernard is the Honorary President of the Northern Ballet and its good to know that he has taken an open minded view on the subject of making almost 750 people in Leeds redundant.

What else is there?

Well as you can see, Cllr Kamilla Maqsgood gave considerable thought to her objection and clearly she feels she is so important that she doesn't have to state why she wants to see them all closed. You must of course remember that politicians are very special people and their views are superior to ours.

I left the best objection until last....

This is one of the template letters and it appeared three times. Note the emotive use of language....

"....In traditional strip clubs women are objectified by having (italics mine) to strip for men for money...."

No that's wrong. No one has to strip for money, because no one has to be a stripper, if however you are a stripper, it is expected that you will remove your clothing at some point and no one is going to do that for free.

What do the authors mean about 'peculiar rules'?

Also note how the letter insults dancers by stating that they 'solicit men', the dancers are dancers, not prostitutes so can the author please keep their morality where it belongs. Next we see a whole raft a bigoted value judgements taken straight out of the Holsopple report when we red that man 'shout abuse' at the dancers. Once again, the writer spares not effort to insult dancers when they are once again compared to 'prostitutes' and that they job is technically speaking 'licensed rape'.

We also see the trend to ensure that no matter what else happens, 'Red Leopard' and 'Wildcats' are closed down. I am unsure why an award winning bar (Wildcats) has created suck hatred among the 33 people that have objected, but I am sure that things will be clearer as the week progresses.

So what do we have so far?

Some designer feminists writing templates because their members are too lazy to object unless the letter is written for them, some vote and profile hungry MPs who hope that no one notices that they plan to make 750 people (500 of them women) jobless and some God driven moralists. On the basis of what we have seen so far, it should be a walkover for the clubs (or it will be when it gets to the High Court), but we will have to wait and see. Remember, this is the Morality Olympics and some one is going to have to win some gold medals, but the issue is who?

Oh, before I forget, Rachel Reeves objected. But you already knew that......

Rachel Reeves - Global Leader

I found this morning that another blogger has a focus on Rachel Reeves. On reflection I should not have been surprised that she has form and the blog provides us with a very useful account of the absurdity that Rachel seems to spout on an almost weekly basis.

If I was a voter in Leeds I would be heading straight over to Rachel Reeves - Global Leader right now in order to get a more informed view about the kind of person that Labour HQ parachuted in from London with the aid of an all-female selection list.

My focus on Rachel and her colleagues will be maintained over the next week or so, but I feel the need to keep  highlighting her views on a regular basis now, just really to ensure those extra votes that she is anticipating come at nice, high price...

Clubs Threatened in Leeds - Guess Who Started The Campaign?

The internet is a wonderful medium for spreading ideas and doing research because the internet remembers everything. Even if you think you've deleted all traces of your on-line activities, somewhere a trace remains. Now that I am focussing heavily on Leeds, I though it might be a good idea to see who kicked all of this off. Well it only took 5 minutes and you won't be surprised to learn......

Yes its Object.......

So it seems that the roots of all this date back about three and half years and what a full agenda they have to pursue.....

The Miss Leeds regional heat for Miss England was of course targeted, because it involves people capitalising on their looks, which is a big no-no for designer feminists. Hanging round newsagents to see where they stack this months copy of 'Zoo' seems to be a big issue as well, mostly because the magazines feature women who earn a living by their looks and of course the 9 clubs in Leeds were prime target because their staff earn a living that relies upon their looks and personality. I wonder what happened to the 6 sex shops, because as we know they sell forbidden material and should be closed down.

As far as I can see, the only worthwhile objective was their involvement in a campaign for a Rape Crisis Centre in Leeds, which actually opened in April 2010.

Now as we know, Object seem to like to get people to write in to Licensing Departments, but do seem to want to control what people write, so it should be unsurprising that they have produced a template objection letter for each and every club in the City. The letter is about three pages long, but in essence it is as follows.....

We are writing to request the above application is refused on the grounds of location, including premises in the vicinity, the character of the club’s locality, issues that could arise from the location and the number of clubs already in Leeds:


Well yes of course they want it closed, this is after all Object. Interesting that they want 'Wildcats' closed because of the presence of Silks, Liberte, Black Diamond, Deep Blue and Purple Door. The strange thing is that they want Silks close because of the presence of Wildcats, Liberte, Black Diamond, Deep Blue and Purple Door, which strikes me as a kind of circular logic where the clubs cannot win.

Let's look at what else they have to say....

Wildcats is located opposite Leeds Art Gallery, Central Library and Town Hall. The Town Hall, as well as being a wedding venue, is becoming a centre for the arts with the aim to establish it firmly as a natural home and focus for arts across the city.


I am reasonably sure that the council know where Wildcats is, but it is good that Object point out that the council may lose wedding business because of the close proximity of a lap dancing club. That said I cannot see that as being a realistic possibility....

I cannot see the following conversation taking place....

Engaged Person 1.  "Honeybun, we can get married at the Town Hall. It will be marvellous for everyone."

Engaged Person 2 "I don't think so sweetpea, there's that awful Wildcats place opposite and it will be open only 6 hours after we get married."

Is 'Wildcats' open at the same time as the library? Object create the vision of pensioners returning their P.D.James novel being dragged in the club by out of control lap dancers. Its an absurd vision I know, but Object have never been slow to use hysterics to promote their cause.

It is in close proximity to Millennium Square, the City Museum and the Carriageworks theatre. These are locations identified in Section 6 of the Sex Establishment Licensing Policy 2011 as part of the council’s provision of its cultural offer which is described as an “essential aid to community involvement and an increasing sense of common identity”. It is important that the character of this locality, as stated in LCC policy, is protected. The presence of Wildcats in this locality impedes this.


This is a fairly typical Object proposition, which is making statements without any supporting evidence. Exactly how will the presence of 'Wildcats' impede 'community involvement and an increasing sense of common identity'? Its meaningless, but it sounds good.....

Wildcats is located in close proximity to the newly refurbished Victoria Gardens.

Yes we can read the map......

Events for members of Leeds’ diverse population take place or begin in Victoria Gardens, including the lighting of the Giant Menorah, Reclaim the Night Leeds, VE day celebrations, children’s fairground attractions, Leeds Pride, lighting of Christmas lights and Jane Tomlinson’s Run For All to name a few.

Well the fact that Reclaim The Night Leeds starts in Victoria Gardens shouldn't be a problem. In Reclaim The Night London, they make a point of marching past Spearmint Rhino and singing abusive songs about the dancers. At least this they can abuse the staff and customers of almost every club in the City in record time.

Victoria Gardens is also home the municipal war memorial, where wreaths and poppies are frequently placed, and Remembrance Sunday parades are held. This monument should be respected and the location around it should remain appropriate. Historically it has been a site for key historic events, such as peace and justice demonstrations, including the pre-war suffragette rallies and anti-war demonstrations over conflicts such as Vietnam and Iraq. It was the venue for the official declaration of Leeds as a 'Fairtrade City', seeking fairtrade between the 'developed' and 'developing' world. Such heritage should be respected.


Object lose points with the above section, in that they copied and pasted large lumps of it from 'Leeds, Live It, Love It' website entry about Victoria Gardens (see below). Once again I have to ask what tangible impact the presence of 'Wildcats' will have?

The location of Wildcats is on a busy main street with bus stops, churches and services close by, including The Women's Counselling & Therapy Service in Oxford Chambers, Leeds Cathedral and The Methodist Church at Oxford Place, for many women who wish to avoid walking past this club will involve such a significant detour as to not be an option and if needing to catch a bus (bus stop Y15 is directly outside) they are forced into a position of vulnerability.


So in other words, 'Wildcats' should be closed because a minority of the population are so against clubs that they cannot bear to walk past them? I am sorry, but I have to ask who owns the problem? Furthermore, exactly how will they be vulnerable if they have to wait for a bus outside the club? The constant presence of security staff means that anyone in the area would a be a lot safer than if they were half mile up the road and at the mercy of every drunk that pours out of the average pub and wine bar....

Recent research from the Local Government Association[ii] identifies that 72% of council officers think that clustering of lap dancing clubs is damaging the local economy.


Just because a group of people think something happens, it doesn't make it the truth, so next time please include the evidence. Also do you notice the inclusion of a figure that implies the presence of a later reference or appendix? Its marked in blue. Yes you've got it, the above excerpt was probably another cut and paste job, because the template letter doesn't  have an appendix. Good to see that Object are taking this campaign seriously.

We would like further consideration to be taken regarding the opening times of these clubs. It is inappropriate that they should be able to operate close to 24hours a day, making the effects of the clubs on the locality an all-day occurrence.


If I am correct, 'Wildcats' is open from 9.00pm to 5.00am, which is 7 hours and nowhere near the 'close to 24hrs' that Object claim, but then again, Objects relationship with the truth has always been tenuous at best.

Now if you are not a resident of Leeds or have never been to 'Wildcats', you may be wondering what the place looks like. If you listen to Object, you may have a vision of a huge neon lit club with half naked girls in the window that is visible from miles away. Well, be prepared for a surprise, because 'Wildcats' look looks like this....

Its hard to imagine anything less imposing. But you see its not the outside that's the problem. From the point of view of the prohibitionists, its what goes on inside that's the issue. The issue is of course that it offends their morals, but morals have no part in this debate, irrespective of how well the viewpoint has been hidden.

In summary, have you noticed that every regional campaign seems to be unique or have its own angle? I also note that as with Tower Hamlets, Object appear to be taking a back seat and letting everyone else get on with the agenda. I believe that the reason for this is that Object find some of their co-campaigners in some way distasteful and I think that this needs to be explored a little further....

Actually, I have a feeling that Leeds is very close to Tower Hamlets in terms of the driving forces and components of the prohibitionist campaign....its about two things that we should never talk about in the pub...religion and politics.

Clubs Threatened in Leeds - The Hypocrisy of Rachel Reeves

Wildcats in Leeds present 'Help of Heroes' with a £1000cheque....for the last time if Rachel Reeves has her way.........

Sadly StrippingTheIllusion cannot be everywhere and I must admit some situations have not been given the attention they deserve, one of these is the campaign in Leeds to close the cities lap dancing clubs. The campaign is headed by Labour MP Rachel Reeves. In case you have never heard of Rachel, she has an impressive track record....

Her first political involvement came when she was the defeated (second place) Labour candidate for Bromley and Chislehurst in 2005. Failing to grasp the idea that doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result the second time is a good definition of insanity, Rachel stood in the same seat in a 2006 by election and this time finished fourth, with her share of the vote reducing from 10,241 votes to 1,925. It was noted at the time that her result was a humiliation for Labour and the worst result for a governing party since 1991.

Clearly someone at Labour HQ decided that she was worth another try and as a result of an imposed all-women shortlist, Rachel won the seat of Leeds West, albeit with a majority reduced by over 5,000 when compared to her predecessor, John Battle.

You would think that someone who has benefited from a pro-active feminist inspired policy would be believe that guarding the jobs of women, especially students as being her first priority. Well it is, unless they are jobs in lap dancing clubs, because Rachel wants them all closed down.

As you may be aware, prohibitionists cannot object on moral or religious grounds against lapdancing clubs, they can only use the unsuitability of the venues location as the basis for their localised campaigns. I find it amusing that Rachel holds the view that the location of Wildcats is unsuitable because its opposite the Town Hall and close to a War Memorial. This strikes me as a great example of throwing mud against the wall and hoping it sticks and I have to question the motivations of anyone that talks about War Memorials in one breath, then spends the rest of her time trying to close a venue that recently donated £1000 to the 'Help For Heroes' charity, that as you know funds assistance for those that have been wounded in the various conflicts our country finds itself embroiled...

But I am sure that Rachel will find a way to step into the shoes that she plans to forcefully empty and find a way to make up for the lost charity revenue generated by Wildcats.

Rachel Reeves is a hypocrite on three counts.

The first is that after securing a seat on the basis of an all female shortlist, she runs a campaign that if successful will cost hundreds of jobs (largely female) in Leeds. Its not just dancers that will become unemployed, its bar staff, its security staff and cleaners as well. Don't forget their dependants either.

Secondly Rachel is a hypocrite because many of the people that work in the clubs are students that will struggle to make a comparable living to fund their studies. We of course remember that Rachel knows all about the issues of funding further education having read politics, philosphy and economics at New College Oxford and finished off with an MSc in Economics at the LSE.

Finally Rachel is a hypocrite because on one hand she makes a point about war memorials at the same time she is trying to close a club that is actually doing something real to support service people that have been injured in military activities that the government that she is part of sanctioned.

If you really want to understand how Rachel thinks, take a look at the frame grab below from her Google Plus campaign regarding clubs in Leeds...

We see that Stephen Rennie condemns that which he has no experience of (apart from his value judgement loaded imagination) when he makes ludicrous comments about 'thuggish establishments' and masturbation. What kills me is Rachels gleeful reaction to Rennies bigotry. In the frame grab we see that her objections are essentially a pose, her issue is not with war memorials or the proximity to the Town Hall or anything else for that matter, its her personal morality that's offended and she simply isn't strong enough to admit it.

Let's be clear bout what is happening here. A Labour MP is running a campaign that could lead to the loss of a minimum of 500 jobs and I gather she has expressed the view that the job losses won't be too much of a problem because the staff can be retrained. If that's the case, lets hope its not A4e doing the training.

The Licensing hearings for Leeds clubs take place next week and we will be reporting on them as soon as we find out what has been decided. We will also be focussing on the situations background and no doubt will be writing more about Rachel Reeves in the coming days...

On a happier note, I learned today that Wildcats in Harrogate were successful in their license application. This demonstrates that Harrogate Council make good judgements and run an effective Licensing Team and that Mrs Clown better use the map we designed for her.