Message for Club Owners and Managers

I wasn't going to write this piece, but after reflection if I don't and a club closes because of a consultation that take place in the future I would feel guilty about the whole issue. I have noticed that the talk has shifted from should they close clubs to how many. Which the antis can answer none but everyone else's answers is split! The lesson the anti's learned from Leeds is split how people respond and you can close clubs, in the future we could see a new consultation from Leeds intending to cut more but we will watch for that.

So this blog entry is aimed at the group of people I don't normally talk to or about or for. Club owners/managers this is aimed at you more than anyone else, normally as a customer I would be all about the dancers or all about the customers, after all the clubs can look after themselves? Well that was my thought but having seeing a couple of consultations and knowing that more are to come I feel that to ensure that the clubs are not shafted they need to approach these consultations very seriously. And the clubs need to approach the consultations in an unusual way!

The fact is when the consultations come out they ask how many clubs should be allowed Zero (always put first) and then up to the number of existing clubs. They may add one more than the existing number and they include there should be no limits. And what happens is the antis have their zero and everyone else is split over how many. Now I am sure the clubs will feel okay keep it as is, which is great for a club if it stops more competition but there comes the issue of just what happens if the public are split over how many? The council can use the split to limit/close or block clubs even though the majority are for the clubs.

Lets say there is only one club and 40% want no clubs and 30% want it as just 1 whilst 30% want as many as the market can bear. The council COULD claim that the majority want the clubs closed, I would not ever say a council would be awkward about the truth about how clubs are dealt with after a consultation but better safe than sorry in my opinion. Now the clubs have hundreds of people passing through each week, yet the consultations seem to hang on a handful of people making the effort. So clubs here is the point of this piece, when you find out about a consultation then you need to engage with your customers and dancers to get involved.

And by involved I would suggest that we get everyone to go the same way and push for no limit. There will always be those who will want the market to decide how many so rather than split opinions lets mobilise and push for no limit on every consultation from now on. The York consultation I was busy with trying to get more people involved but club owners you have so much more in the way of reach than me as a blog. I would ask customers/dancers/staff to point out this to club managers, I would hope that people would e-mail me with the contact details of the chair of any SEV licensing committee that is going to consultation, I want to be able to pick up and follow what is going on. We are still waiting on York to publish their results and I have no idea if the people I approached made any effort to complete the consultation.

So for once this is not about anything other than club owners please mobilise your customers and if possible I would like to get involved in terms writing to councils and publishing pieces about what is going on. My e-mail address is the one at the bottom, that is the one I will respond to fastest. And I know you may not want any more competition but given that or no club well you need to have a think about it!

TonyN (tonyprince@acdcfan.com)

Bournemouth No Moral Judgement (of course)

Well time to head off to the sunny South Coast and join the Cherries down in Bournemouth, now I haven't been down that way for a while and it has taken a bit of brushing up to figure out exactly what is going on. The talk is that Poole and Bournemouth are possibly going to form a super council which means people are trying to make their names. And by claiming the whole raft of issues are nothing to do with morals while creating an image of a moral councillor lining up his next role the clubs are going to face some challenges.

Looks more like a B n B would anyone really know?

First up Wiggle has asked to create an outdoor area behind a gate and wall for people to drink and smoke. Which considering the number of bars, pubs and food venues with outside seating does not seem in the least unreasonable. From reading local online papers the majority don't even notice the bars and they are far less of a nuisance than the "normal" bars and club. Given that Bournemouth has a reputation for stag and hen do's SEVs appear to be part of the key for attracting night time economy. But of course we have Brute's favourite issue "What about the Kiddies?" so a venue that looks like any other bar from the outside that kids can't get into. So what is the issue? Seems certain people are worried about how to explain the venue to their children. Now forgive me for being an awful guide to parents but explain it how you explain a bar or pub. Most kiddies wont ask the questions these misguided "parents" are so worried about just a cause of parents trying to impose their moral values on their kids before the kids are even able to form an opinion.

Now of course this is not the end of the story, it seems the councillor most in the news about all this is Cllr Andrew Morgan who has been involved in a discussion about moving all the clubs out to a sex industrial estate. Now forgive me but that sounds very much like the sort of thing a  cllr making a moral judgement might want. Given the history of Bournemouth and the fact it took 35 years just to show Monty Python's Life of Brian you do get the impression that the council has some right wing Christians in the midst of the council, Andrew Morgan did say to the BBC is was high time but you would think anyone saying any different in 2015 would have looked a fool (Here). There was even time to joke that moving the clubs to Poole might be a solution. A solution it seems to a problem that doesn't exist, but don't let facts like the police have no issues and people walk past the venues without noticing (in line with the research by Phil Hubbard). And was interesting to see the reaction of a Poole councillor.

I wouldn't be sitting outside in this weather

So now we move onto the future, Bournemouth Council is planning on a SEV Consultation and given the comments by Councillor Morgan we can expect something similar to Leeds/York rather than Hackney. It will be interesting to see if it is only for residents or it is also for tourists who use the town for holidays. Certainly if they open it to non residents then we hope that our readers will take part. If it is only for residents then please reach out to people in that local community to take part. So we can expect yet another moral driven agenda hidden behind a what about the kiddies storyline that no one of sound mind can possibly see as valid. If the child is old enough to know what happens at Spearmint Rhino chances are (s)he knows more than his/her parents. So we face the usual situation of councillors trying to be crowd pleasers by following others but just using the same tired rhetoric. Just for once I would love to read about a councillor who has taking the whole thing seriously and read the research!

I will be keeping an eye on this but welcome to 2016.

TonyN (tonyprince@acdcfan.com)

We Wish You A Merry Stripmas

So I haven't written for a few weeks, seems the battle has gone a bit quiet but I am still here and still ready to produce work. I went a couple of days ago to the Horns up by Old Street which has turned into my new haunt, needed one since the demise of the Queen Anne and this is starting to feel very comfortable. Wonderful girls who seem to enjoy their work especially at the busier time of year and have to thank especially the girls who did private dances for me, I wouldn't normally but it was a Christmas present from a friend. And there in lies one of the great mysteries on why some guys go, I saw a friend I haven't seen since the Queen Anne and we had an absolute blast catching up on old times. So it reminded me of why I write and what I write for and that is freedom of choice. Dancers and customers both are exploited in some ways by the industry, we know this, we accept this and we don't mind. I can choose to go and dancers can choose to work and if you have the money you can choose to open a club. Also I had a chance to catch up with Chasmal and we had an interesting discussion.

So in the last few months we have seen no activity from Object, facebook, twitter and tumblr have now been inactive over 4 months. Now I may go quiet for a few weeks at times but we are talking months and maybe we are seeing the end of the current spate of stupidity. Now don't get me wrong, the fight is not over, we will always find those that want to create a fuss and try and force their opinions on others especially when it comes to forcing their moral opinions on people. But for the time being the loudest voice against the clubs has been silenced and we can only be grateful for all those who stood up and stood against what was a reincarnation of National Viewers and Listeners Association. Only with a change of focus of course. We will remain vigilant and be ready to fight any and all who come forth with invalid arguments and lousy research.

York Town Hall, one wonders when the word will come out

Many of us will remember the fiascos in terms of consultations over the years. Hackney where the council ignored the two thirds of people who didn't want a nil policy and imposed anyway after a consultation. Tower Hamlets where after a succession of consultation, deliberations and craziness nothing happened including waiting for what seemed like forever for the results the council didn't like. And of course Leeds where when the first consultation was in favour of the clubs the council change the question style to a how many and used that to close clubs and enforce their moral opinion. And now we are waiting for York to come forth with their results, which after more than 3 months since the end of the consultation still are not available. This blog did raise the issue of the style of questions and did get in contact with people in York over this, which is why I am interested in the results as after posting on several forums I was told by more than a handful of people they would be completing the consultation. Now looking at the meetings and agendas etc. for the committee that would deal with the initial discussion about the results we are looking and mid Feb at the earliest which would be around 6 months after the consultation. I have asked the council for a quote about this but at present I haven't received a reply about why the delay, as/when and if this changes obviously I will be happy to let people know.

Apparently one of two beacon venues in Leeds

Now everyone remembers the issues we have had over the years with the constant fight to close clubs in Leeds. That is until now! It seems the renewal of Licenses for Purple Door and Liberte have gone through with absolutely no objections. Paddy Whur, an experienced licensing lawyer who represented Purple Door at the hearing, told committee members: “It’s the first time I have appeared before you without facing any objections. Those who have objected vociferously previously in this particular location have obviously decided this licence doesn't cause any offence.” Approving the application, sub-committee chairman Coun Jack Dunn said: “It would be wrong to probe or to find fault where technically, lawfully, there isn’t any.”. Which apart from the wording seems good news given the history of contentious behaviour in closing 3 venues down. With the failure of Lilith we are seeing the arguments being reduced to opinion pieces and even those have worn so thin that people seem to not want to voice them.

Second Beacon Venue would love to see what they are doing right!

So heading into the new year we have the fall of Object and the surprise of venues not facing objections. We can only hope that the fight we have fought over the last few years has started to ease, however I have no doubt there will be a new back lash in a few years when I am expecting the same tired arguments to resurface but to be honest we know that people will try to push their morals on others and cover that up with designer fad statements. And every time we see a consultation, a license renewal or campaign we will be there to fight. Now on a personal level I would like to see more done to standardise the industry and work to ensure the fair treatment of dancer and customers along with the protection of well run clubs.

Have a wonderful Christmas in case I don't get a chance to write another piece before hand.

TonyN (tonyprince@acdcfan.com)

Well Nothing Exciting Happened BUT

Firstly sorry for being so quiet, I have been working on a pet project that I thought was going to be easy and turns out it is the most impossible concept I have ever had. I will keep working at it but not sure I will ever get an answer that I will be comfortable with sharing. However I felt today I needed to put a couple of things out there, so it has got me back into the flow of things. It is nice to get my head back round the day to day stuff rather than trying to fix the world.

So firstly good luck to @ethicalstripper who is up for a sexual freedom award, this is for her work with ELSC to mobilise change for dancers. She recently gave a view to a parliamentary committee discussing this and other things including Decrim of sex work. Because of the issues with licensing and social stigma it has been almost impossible for dancers to stand with their sex worker sisters because of the stigma that attaches and would feed back to the clubs. In the UK the strip industry has become more and more challenged and a minority of very loud voices has created an environment where clubs cannot allow any touching so clubs police their dancers. On a personal level I would say that any choice a person makes should be treated as valid and not policed by the moral minority.

We should stand together and fight to achieve personal freedoms but the way the industry is policed it makes it a major challenge. I can't think of a dancer I have met over the the last 25 years who would go ewwww and look down on prostitutes but because they don't want to have issues with the clubs they can't come out and say it. All sex workers are stigmatised to one degree or another and many cannot come out and say what they feel because of the judgemental nature of society. So yes TonyN stands up for Decrim because the right for a person to decide what they do with their body is a human right in my very no so humble opinion. Society is busy trying to divide various aspects of the sexual entertainment /adult businesses because they are easier to control if they are fighting each other.

So to all those workers out there no matter what aspect of the sexual entertainment industry you are in remember a divide front is a lot easier to combat. It will put words into others mouths to create a situation where people who should share common ground are pushed apart.

The strip industry needs to have its business practices and regulations reviewed, how this might be affected by Decrim I don't know but both parties dancers and prostitutes share more common ground because of stigma and portrayal by the press and other forms of media. Supporting Decrim should not preclude supporting change in the strip industry given the regulations clubs and dancers currently face. And certainly supporting reviewing and changing the strip industry legislation should not preclude supporting Decrim. I am just a humble man who feels the world has changed but we are still guided by laws written in a time when the church and it's morals had way to much influence on society. If people want to follow a religion I would never deny them that right but society has changed and it is time we recognised that and moved forward.

TonyN (tonyprince@acdcfan.com)

Leeds Redux Mumsnet Strikes Back

So this was a piece I was intending to write after the ELSC exhibitions and performances. However certain feminists have been busy commenting on my flying penis avatar on twitter, which of course would be very easy for me to comment on and mock. But to be honest the way these feminists have been carrying on they need no help from me on creating a highly amusing set of comments. So who are these warriors of truth, justice and the feminist ways? Well it is our good friends on the Mumsnet feminist boards, you know the ones who raise a hue and cry based on beliefs rather that facts. No apologies for the length of this piece nor on the lack of images.

As people who read the blog regularly know I have a fascination with crime figures and when I did a comparison on the Lilith report with a control being Wandsworth and allowing for population changes which Lilith didn't do the figures changed a tad with rape falling over 12 years in Camden and increasing in the control being Wandsworth. So we were seeing pointers towards the fact that any claims of links to sexual violence were in fact a little off. Add to this the figures produced by a local paper in Newquay after a certain Inspector Drummond opened mouth and engaged foot and any claims about the fact that SEVs cause sexual violence seem to have disappeared. However facts can never keep a good Woozle down.

So if people remember I produced figures around every single SEV in England and Wales back in 2012 for the year 2011. Now the methodology wasn't mine but one used by Bristol and Coventry feminists in the campaign against clubs in those areas. They took an arbitrary 50 metres around each club and assumed any and all violent and sexual crimes were linked to the SEV at the centre of the zone, now I have no idea why 50 metres but it does create an image of what happens around SEVs apparently. The methodology was created by Bristol and they passed the figures for Bristol to Coventry Women's Voices for them to use in their campaign. So I had figures for 2011 for the Headrow in Leeds where 2 clubs closed and now the clubs have been clubs long enough that I can do a comparative analysis of what has gone on since the 2 clubs in the area closed, the clubs were fairly close to each other and created overlapping fields of influence so I have taken the two as a single entity.

Looking back at 2011 we saw a grand total of 15 sexual and violent crimes whilst from August 2014 to July 2015 37 violent and sexual crimes in the same area. So 12 months and allowing for any residual impact of the clubs on the area I worked back from the latest date for one year. Not rocket science and to be perfectly honest I am not sure if proves much other than the claims made by radical feminists in an effort to close clubs are not based on any sort of reality. If I was a victim of sexual or violent crime in the Headrow area since the SEVs closed I would be questioning the council about the fact that no impact analysis was done on the closing on venues and losing bouncers and CCTV. I e-mailed the licensing committee to ask if anyone had thought to consider what might happen if the clubs closed and was told the licensing committee had no interest in doing an impact analysis as they could not see any possible reason. And this is where the ignorance created by claiming clubs cause Sexual Violence people will not think that losing CCTV and door staff could possibly have a negative impact.

The fact is after looking at every venue in England and Wales back in 2012 I can be certain that the only places that have localised issues with sexual and violent crimes are night clubs. So I am certain there will be a backlash from this after all this is only a blog and I don't get peer reviewed as I don't publish papers. What I do is look at claims pointing SEVs as being linked to sex crimes. The clubs are no more linked than banks or even women's centres. The claims were made and the fact is the claims have no bearing on reality, so please if you are going to make claims about the clubs please be aware I will be here to double check any claims. I could pick a woman's centre in a locality that has a lot of sexual and violent crimes close by and make the whole thing look incredibly edgy.

One thing that has had me laughing about Mumsnet boards is that one section of the feminists have basically ignored all evidence including Eaves withdrawing Lilith and still believe that SEVs cause localised sexual violence, this might be called cognitive dissonance? And on the other hand some being accepting of the facts are now trying to justify the attitude of close all clubs because they allow men to let off rabid misogyny and come out of the club worse than when they went in. Now apart from the fact there was almost two separate groups of radical feminists with diametrically opposed points of view the thing that I found most funny (apart from the fact I am supposedly crazy enough to post on mumsnet boards posing as a feminist) was that certain people on the board quoting Lilith and associated gems was on the board when Object were forced to remove Lilith from their resources (well played Sausage) so they surely knew what they were saying had no basis in fact but they just couldn't manage to hold back. So the fact that Leeds has such a dramatic change since the club closed it does raise a question why? I will be going back over my 2011 figures and comparing them to clubs that have closed elsewhere and see if the issue is consistent or does it take a large City for this sort of thing to happen?

Finally I know those who accept there isn't a direct link between clubs and sexual violence are already looking for ways to still blame clubs but now the club is a breeding ground of misogyny that will be brought out of the clubs and will affect women everywhere. Interesting that any time one argument fails there seems to be a rush to find another excuse to back the belief system that clubs are evil and need to be eradicated. I am amazed that the belief system refuses to die amongst those who want to close clubs and that claims still rattle out regularly because to actually realise the claims are based on nothing other than a belief and that clubs are not the evil they imagined.

TonyN (tonyprince@acdcfan.com) for flying penises everywhere!

It Is An Ex Lobby Group, It Has Ceased To Be?

Over the years that this blog has been running there has been one thing that has been more consistent than anything else. The fact that Object Now Ltd have been campaigning about striptease and "lapdancing", usually missing most of the facts, at every turn and about every venue. They even had toolkits full of misguided, ill informed and defamatory statements to send to councils. Well I will admit that I was expecting them to haunt every campaign ever since the Guardian framed Anna as the perfect radical feminist, but is seems motherhood changed her drive, either that or Object couldn't afford her any more.

However the existence of Object seems to be a thing of the past as I suppose all good (and bad) things must come to an end. Having looked at their webpages for many a year it was disappointing to go have a look to see what they were up to only to find what is basically an empty page with a log in for the webmaster, now we know that they haven't had much in the way of funding and the money from Joseph Roundtree which covered the money for the CEO ran out this year so what do you do? I was assuming the cost cutting would be so that Object could focus on communicating with the world via facebook and twitter, however twitter and facebook seem to have stopped at the 7th July. I not sure when their tumblr stopped as I have never really tried to figure out timelines on there.

Whoops, well that's not good.

So Object as a company have failed to file both their account and annual returns, the last two transactions were terminations of appointments as directors leaving Roz Hardie as CEO and Company Secretary. I am not sure if Roz has even realised that the accounts and returns are due but given the fact she seems to have sole responsibility for Object as a company I would suggest she is in trouble, not sure that using the same name in both roles apart from the addition of the name Boyd as a director really makes much difference. Does Object even have a future? I am sure that when this is read someone will try to make object look active but over the last couple of years they have had less and less impact and failed to deliver anything other than a jolly to Brazil for Roz, certainly hope that wasn't the last of the funds. And if I donated to Object in the past I would be stopping any standing orders.

Someone needs a new accountant

So who will pick up the slack and become the next object of ridicule? We have seen misleading reports and cherry picked results from various organisations but we are not sure if anyone will take that step forward to become the next voice of stupidity... errrr I mean the next voice of denying women the right to choose... errr the next group to make up stuff to create invalid arguments... errr the next group to running around shouting stuff.... you all get the point. I would put my money on UK Feminista which of course will be the death knell for it as the more object claims were countered the less people wanted to deal with them. The big thing now is all the MPs and councillors who followed Object are going to now wonder why it has ceased to be. Come on Roz make that effort for a couple of weeks. Pretend that Object has some validity left and please file your accounts and returns we dont want you in trouble we want you to lead your followers into battle and shout intelligent slogans like loser and w**ker.

Has Roz been cloning herself?

It is an ex lobby group it has ceased to be, well almost we are waiting on that last gasp.

TonyN (tonyprince@acdcfan.com)

Lets Support 'The Art of Stripping'...

I would be amazed if you haven't heard of the East London Strippers Collective, a group of women, who happen to be dancers, dedicated to fighting not only the negative public perception of the industry, but also highlighting the challenging nature of the work itself.

On 22nd October to 1st November 2015, the ELSC, in conjunction with the Red Gallery in Shoreditch are presenting the 'Art of Stripping, a large scale, multi media event that aims to shed light on the world in which they work. Activities will include....

Costume Making Workshops, Academic Symposium, Life Drawing Classes, Pole Dance Movement Workshop, a Photography Exhibition, Performance and Art Installations but most of all it's going to fun....

It is important to realise and understand that this is a dancer lead event and represents an opportunity for anyone to experience a slice of a cultural phenomenon that has been under attack by the government, by 'feminist' hate groups and by mainstream media as well.

Now, in the time this blog has been in existence, I have not asked anything of any of you. But I am going to now because the event needs sponsorship if it is to succeed. It appears that a number of people made a number of commitments that they were unable to meet and the costs associated with the exhibition have to be met, so I am going to ask you to pause for a minute and consider the following...

Do you support the striptease scene?
Do you support the right of dancers to choose how and when they make a living?
Are you prepared to stand up for your chance to go to one of the diminishing number of venues left in the East End?
Do you agree that the activities of the various 'feminist' groups that have been trying to destroy the scene are completely unacceptable?

If you have answered 'Yes' to any of the above questions, then I want you to follow this link, to an Indiegogo page where you can contribute anything from £2 upwards and help make the 'Art of Stripping' a success.

It is events like this that will help to ensure the pubs, clubs and dancers will remain a feature of the East End, so please make a contribution today. At the time of writing, the campaign has raised £255 out of a target of £8000 and if you think that is a lot, believe me it isn't. The exhibition is going to have the engage the services of a number of professional support services, none of which come cheap.

If you want to know more, you can visit the Red Gallery web page that details the event.

As I said, this blog has never solicited contributions from its readers and supporters. Today, for one time only, we are asking for your help. Let's make this a success and an event to remember...

Finally, in case you're wondering, yes I have made a contribution...

Thanks

Chasmal.