Charlie Dacke Saving You From Lap Dancing in Portsmouth

After reading through Charlie Dacke's comment against Elegance and Wiggle in Portsmouth, I decided to test my theories about Objects campaign methods to see if they were correct. Object like to encourage people from all over the country to pile in to a localised campaign so as to ensure it has weight. Also when making comments, activists prefer to write as concerned members of the public and keep their organisational affiliations hidden. Certainly, Charlie Dacke didn't mention her affiliation to the Solent Feminist Network in her comment to the on-line edition of Portsmouth.co.uk.....

As we can see, Charlie has a fairly entrenched viewpoint on the matter and even believes that Fareham Councils Pole Dancing for Fitness exercise classes should be stopped. Apparently Charlie has seen what the women that turn up for the class wear ('heels and hot pants') and even disapproves of that.

Furthermore, Charlie has been very busy raising support for an on-line petition....

It seems that Charlie is quite determined to see every club in Portsmouth closed down. The petition appears on www.change.org and if you wish to add your name to a petition, you are asked to join and state your geographical location. As we can see from the recent signatories below, we only have two that actually live in Portsmouth. We can therefore see that people from all over the country have been taking part and that certainly implies Object involvement...

But what kind of comments are people making, lets have a look at some of them...

Sorry Jennifer Hartman, morality is not a basis that any Council can consider when pondering a 'Nil Policy' and furthermore, what gives you the right to impose your morality on the rest of us?

Anthea Brandon is no longer resident in the UK, but still feels able to impose her views on those that she left behind. We also see the usual line about coercion, its a pity that Anthea fails to understand who is actually coercing who. This campaign is designed to close clubs and therefore 'coerce' the dancers and other staff into being unemployed, but of course that is a price worth paying for everyone to feel empowered and maybe they can get a nice little job in a shop somewhere...

Hey.....Object activist Stephanie Poyntz. If you own a newsagents in Portsmouth, be careful if Stephanie is around. So we can see now the first link to Object and it makes me wonder exactly how many other Object members are signing up to this petition.

Charlie is an interesting person though because she is seriously involved in Unison .....

and if I am right......

Yes I am right, Unison are affiliated to Object...

That said the most amusing fact about Charlie is that she works for Fareham Borough Council.....

Charlie was really keen to see the end of Fareham Councils Pole Dancing Exercise Classes and given that Charlie works for Fareham Council it must make her wonder what the world is coming to. But there is another issue as well and that is a council employee fighting to influence another councils Licensing Policy. Makes you wonder if she has any contacts inside Portsmouth Council?

So in summary, we see in Portsmouth what we have seen in Hackney and recently in Harrogate. Countrywide input from Object that seeks to interfere with a local issue. Furthermore we also see local contributions from people that appear to write as 'concerned locals' that are in reality pursuing a prohibitionist stance and I cannot say how many of them even live in Portsmouth.

I would like to leave the last word to the manager of Wiggle, who made a very pertinent comment, in a recent article on Portsmouth.co.uk...

Jessef, the issue is that in my opinion, the source of the comment came from somewhere else. Maybe it came from here, where I revealed that Object had encouraged their activists to claim that they had been harassed outside clubs by customers.

In the same article, Charlie makes another point...

Actually Charlie a number of people have suggested that lap dancing clubs are to blame for sexual assaults, have you never heard of the Lillith Report. You can read about it here, its rubbish, but that supposed link between clubs and sexual violence has been the foundation of the entire prohibitionist campaign.

Furthermore, if the clubs close, how will it be the 'residents of Portsmouth have decided democratically that they want the nil cap', when the petition on Change.org has signatories from virtually everywhere apart from  Portsmouth.

Finally, we saw the age old tactic of protesters standing outside clubs, hassling customers, shouting out chants and probably frightening the dancers as well. I have only one thing to say about that and you can read it here.