Coming towards the end of the year so rounding up the craziness that is Xmas spirit by some councils. The attitude and timing of some of the actions seems an effort to kill Xmas business. Not sure why but hey thats what grinchy councils are there for.
La Salsa in Halifax is due its hearing tomorrow (16th) now it is interesting because the club opened in the same week and same street as WomenCentre Ltd back in 2002. All of a sudden after 11 years of operating now it seems there is a concern of exploitation and that the club could act as a deterrent. strange they have only just figure this out. Of course now that the clubs have the branding sexual entertainment venue it does create a picture that does bear any relation to reality. 3 public objections have been received 2 associated to the women centre, there does seem to be several bars and restaurants in the area so will be interesting to see if any police complaints are centred on the club.
As people have been expecting the clubs in Leeds have decided to fight, Deep Blue and Wildcats have both been given permission to trade while seeking a judicial review. There could end up being 3 of these and each could run up a bill of £1m per review. Time to feel very sorry for the Leeds public who will have to foot the bill given that the council is already talking of cutting services. Add to that the clubs will be trading when the tour de france starts there this is a big slap in the face for Reeves and Charlwood. No doubt the legal people will be looking at the links between the licensing committee and SAR. Just what has been said behind closed doors and why has this been hidden from the public? Should make a good book out of this.
Upstairs in York is due for it's first license renewal, York Feminist Network has go an online petition going. The use an Object banner and claim that the lobby group Object are in fact a human rights organisation. Once again there is a claim that clubs are linked to sexual violence but don't mention lilith. No matter how many times that zombie stat/woozle is killed it rears its ugly head at the next battle. Either none of these groups talk to each other or they just cannot admit their claims have no place in reality. Nearly all the meetings for the last 2 months of the licensing committee have been cancelled so it is hard to actually confirm what is going on. However I will start digging further into this. Nothing like a new group of people to check out and find out what they are up to. I was looking through the signatures for the petition and there is a Dr Grandhighpriest on there once I stopped laughing I started to wonder how many signatures are based in York and it appears that very few do. Still not even 20% towards their target so we can assume it is not going to amount to much.
Worcester will get it's club Black Cherry after all, Ash Patel had dropped plans to open one in a location called the Butts (must not make inane jokes) but dropped it as the location was an issue with a councillor who as we had previously pointed out had been misleading people into believing the objection was from the council. Well now he has taken over the old DNA nightclub which has most of the licenses in place. So looks like at least we will get one new club.
Newmarket's Heaven's Gentlemen's club had its license renewed even though the signage is a little bigger than it is suppose to be, considering that it is co-located with a night club with a really big sign I can see why the sign was allowed, also is is not one of those that would titillate the public. The local press has done the usual anger aspect of reporting even though only 3 objections were sent in. If people had a problem then they should use the established process and not just try and get their names in the paper.
Finally Flirtz in Nottingham renewed it's license in the face of no objections. However it still had to go before the committee. This does beg the question why? Surely if a legal business has no one objecting the license should be approved, if the police had issues it would have come up as an objection so no reason at all really for the meeting apart from councillors trying to look like they are doing something.
TonyN (tonyprince@acdcfan.com)
A good round up to an interesting year.
ReplyDeleteI was looking through some old files on my laptop and stumbled upon a frame grab from what looks like Objects first ever attempt at banning striptease and lapdancing. It dates back to October 2004 and it strikes me that with our current and recent foes such as Rebecca Charlwood and Rachel Reeves, we soon forget the others. People like Charlie Dacke and Anna van Heeswijk seem to faded into the background, but we must never forget who started this whole mess off....
Never forget Jeremy Coutinho and Sasha Rackoff. The original motivators behind Object and the two that lobbied for the law change that lead to the SEV licence. If a club is closed as a result of this legislation, ultimately it all must land at the feet of Jeremy and Sasha.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year......
Chasmal
The names change but the arguments do not. One thing that has struck me is that people climb on the Clubs back in the hope of getting invited to join other organisations. JC and SR have moved on. The most frustrating part is every time a new name appears they still use the 2004 arguments no matter how little sense they made in the first place. Think the constant discussion about all these feral kids wandering city centres at night has got me imagining packs of 6 year old kids trying to beat up bouncers so they can get into the clubs to see what happens inside.
DeleteActually speaking of frustration (and not the horrible board game of my childhood) the whole each council taking individual approaches to dealing with the clubs. Was looking at guidelines for some of the clubs from the no contact except to lead the customer to and from the private dance area by holding hands to the no contact at all which seems to cover the exchanging of money. Obviously some councils feel that a man holding a woman's hand will get her pregnant or turn him into some kind of sex beast.
Councils need to operate on standard conditions with standardised naming conventions and open and honest license reviews. The whole back door not talking to anyone approach worries me no end,
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year although I have a sneaking suspicion some council will manage between now and 2014 to do something remarkably stupid.
On the subject of Dr Sasha Rackoff and Jeremy Coutinho, I note that they're now both heavily involved with an organisation called Stand Up For Women, as Director and a Trustee respectively:
Deletehttp://www.standupforwomen.org.uk/about-us
This is how the organisation describes itself on its website:
"Stand Up For Women was founded in 2012 by a collaboration of charity leaders and creatives.
We were set up to raise awareness and funds for women’s charities - with a heavy emphasis on comedy in the process!
We host comedy fundraisers and other events featuring some of the nation's favourite comedians.
And our buzzing website features alternative role models alongside women and men who are standing up for women in everyday life.
Stand Up for Women is a Trust currently applying for charitable status."
http://www.standupforwomen.org.uk/stand-women
What's also notable is that the landing page for the website contains a banner link for Object...
So on the one hand they are against FGM and other proper issues and on the other hand they link to a bunch of idiots. Don't think they have done themselves any favours.
DeleteI'd be interested to find out whether Object Now paid (and if so, with what) to have their banner link placed on Stand Up For Women's website, or if space was donated to them. As they're not a charity, the latter scenario would raise a small ethical dilemma...
DeleteI doubt if we will find out as they probably don't want anyone to know. Might come out in the accounts but if it is under a certain amount we probably won't find out. I would e-mail them but they probably wouldn't answer.
DeleteIt has been another eventful year, and it has been great following this blog again. Brilliant Job Tony! I have enjoyed reading all of your posts and your comments on the news articles.
ReplyDeleteHappy Christmas and new year all. 2014 could be an interesting one with all those judicial reviews in the pipeline.
.....oh and Shades was excellent at the weekend for our xmas do, never seen it so busy with a very mixed and diverse crowd including many female customers. Let's hope it survives another SEV re-newel.
Good that Shades is there for a great time out. Certainly will be keeping both eyes open for issues.
DeleteThe blog has kept me busy but as more and more of the arguments fall apart the antis are making more silly statements or in the case of Leeds doing things behind closed doors.
Think the feminist arguments took a bash with the pork and alcohol issue at M&S comparing to the Lose the Lads Mags. There were a number of feminists who complained about peoples religion who were not complaining about other beliefs.