Portsmouth Dancers Speak Out - 4

Big love to all the Portsmouth dancers from us up here in London! We are fighting the same ill informed policies. We achieved a compromise in Hackney and kept the clubs open.

Keep going!

Love and strength from London.

Comment from 'Edie' - Portsmouth Dancers Speak Out -1

Here we are with another testimony from a dancer in Portsmouth. Please remember that the reason that I am doing this is to ensure that hopefully enough people get to read the views of those that will be most affected by the proposed 'Nil Policy'. As we can see from the above comment, many are watching what happens in Portsmouth (and Tower Hamlets as well) and we can hope only that reason, sense and humanity will prevail.

As a dancer at wiggle in Portsmouth, I feel I'm fighting against the very people that claim to be trying to protect me in order to save my job.. A job which I willing do and enjoy doing.. I was a manger of a hair salon for 8 years and chose to leave that profession in order to become a dancer.. I was in no way forced or 'trafficked' in as implied by the woman's right group.. 

I use the money I earn to support myself, my 6 year old daughter and I also help care for my grandma.. If the club closed I would be forced into searching for a new career and in the current state of the country with million out of work I fear claiming benefits is a likely outcome.. Claiming benefits is not a choice I would like to make and would be considered a last resort.. But it seems like that choice is about to be taken out of my hands..

I have worked for Elegance and I have worked for Wiggle from the day it opened.. I have never once felt unsafe and I am always protected to the highest level. The club is clean, and there is never any trouble, between the girls or the customers.. There are never customers hanging about outside ready to 'pounce' as also implied by the group and doorman walk us to our car/taxi to ensure we get home safely...

I haven't ever experienced drug use inside of the club nor excessive drinking... The girls working are not allowed to get drunk.. So to assume we're all drug users that need to drink in order to get us through a night working here is extremely small minded.

Finally. blog readership continues to expand, we have now been joined by readers from New Zealand, Latvia, Malta, China and India

Camden Council in 'No Evidence of Crime Problem Around Lap Dancing Clubs" Shock Finding!!!

Alan, a comment contributor to this blog pointed me in the direction of the above document, which essentially states what many of us knew already - that there is no causal link between clubs, crime and violence. The fact that Camden Council analysed three years worth of data and used a 10 metre and 40 metre radius for their analysis, makes things even better (please note that TonyN used a 50 metre radius for his analysis in Portsmouth).

Object and its supporters love to quote The Lillith Report. As we know, Lillith is rubbish, a biased opinion piece written by someone who has no understanding of statistical analysis that also cannot use a calculator. Lillith has been demolished by Dr Brooke Magnati and I had a look at it as well. The above report puts the final nail in the coffin as we can see that the violent behaviour that Object made such claims about, either never happened or was not linked to the nearest lap dancing club they could find on a map.

It is my view that what stands for Camden, stands for anywhere else in the country. At the moment we see an intense battle in Portsmouth, where the Solent Feminist Network are trying their hardest to get every club in the City closed on the basis of anything bad that they can think of. The final decision however rests with the Council and 'Appendix E' must  be considered in any licensing hearing as should TonyN's conclusion, that the presence of Wiggle in Sydney Street has reduced crime by an astonishing 95% in four weeks.

The sad thing is that the basis of the objections will change, as prohibitionists will try to link something else terrible with clubs (wife beating, impotence, bankruptcy, alien invasion, earthquakes, global warming) in order to ensure that they achieve their ultimate aim, which is to exert control over the behaviour of women that they disapprove of.

One day the children of Object and Solent Feminist Network will grow up, lets just hope they don't do ruin too many lives in the interim.