A lap dancing club in Basildon,  Essex has become the first in the country to gain a licence to hold weddings.

Katz Gentlemen's Club will set the unusual precedent when it hosts its first ceremony on October 18.

The club applied for a licence last month, after a couple from Chelmsford visited for a fetish night and insisted they wanted their nuptials there too.

Following a three-week public consultation period, and an inspection of the premises by Essex County Council, the licence to host marriages and civil partnerships for same sex couples was approved yesterday.

Nutter MP Shahid Malik has launched a petition against the lapdancing venue Forbidden.

The Forbidden nightclub on Bradford Road was granted permission earlier this month to offer lapdancing, pole dancing and private dancing in booths.

The Dewsbury MP this week started a petition against the club, claiming it could make Dewsbury a magnet for the sex industry. After having campaigned vigorously to regenerate the town centre the prospect of having a lap dancing club would be a tragic set back which would damage the image of Dewsbury. We do not want to cultivate an image of a seedy town but rather a family-oriented town. If this is allowed to develop then Dewsbury could become a magnet for the sex industry, which would be a disaster.

Forbidden, at the former Green's Nite Scene club in Bradford Road, has yet to start trading as a lapdancing club.

Dewsbury South councillors Salim Patel (Con) and Masood Ahmed (Lab) agreed. Coun Patel said: We want to create a good image for Dewsbury and lap dancing clubs aren't acceptable.

Coun Ahmed added: If you open the doors to one of these places, it's an invitation to others. I have my own reservations about lapdancing and I don't want Dewsbury associated with it.

Update: Opening Date

14th December 2009. See article from dewsburyreporter.co.uk

The club in Bradford Road is due to open on 13th December but Mr Malik will speak to the council and police about stopping the club but realised it would be difficult while it had a licence.

Green Party candidates Pete McAskie, Anna Bragga and Sarah Cope backed the Lap Off! campaigners' battle to stop the Music Palace in Tottenham Lane, Crouch End,  from getting its gentleman's club licence. 

The Green Party trio, who will all stand for election in the nearby Stroud Green ward next year, have added their voices to opposition.

Ms Bragga said: We will do everything we can to support the Lap Off! campaign. It would create a no-go area for residents and alter the character of Crouch End.

A petition with 2,100 signatures against the proposal was handed in to Haringey Council last week ahead of the licensing committee meeting at 7.30pm at the Civic Centre, Wood Green High Road, on September 10.

Update: Adjourned

14th September 2009. See article from hornseyjournal.co.uk

Hundreds of protesters packed Wood Green Civic Centre to hear a licensing application by the Music Palace in Tottenham Lane last night (Thursday) - but the hearing was adjourned after two hours because of lack of time.

A resumption date is yet to be set but will have to fit the diaries of more than 19 interested parties.

Update: Rescheduled

25th September 2009. Based on article from muswellhilljournal24.co.uk

The fate of a controversial lap dancing club application WILL be decided on Friday 25th September, says Haringey Council's planning panel.

Nutters will descend once again on the Wood Green Civic Centre from 7.30pm to protest against the club's plans to hold near naked dances.

Update: Proposals Refused

26th September 2009. Based on article from haringeyindependent.co.uk

The proposal for lap dancing and strip shows at a Crouch End club has been rejected by Haringey Council.

Music Palace failed in its bid for permission to turn the Tottenham Lane club into a lap dancing venue, offering £10 strip shows to businessmen.

The licensing committee this evening turned down the bid, with the bollox justification that it was not satisfied club bosses had addressed concerns over having a strip club in a residential area.

The news kept the nutter protesters happy though.

Update: No Appeal

22nd October 2009. See article from hornseyjournal.co.uk

The licence applicant, Serdal Ziya, had until Friday to indicate intent to appeal against Haringey Council, which threw out her bid to run lap dancing at the club until 2am Mondays to Saturdays.

But the council confirmed it had not heard from Miss Ziya before the deadline.

Labour's Ministry of Fun

All lap-dancing clubs will have to apply for a new licence under new rules unveiled by the Government.

The Policing and Crime Bill establishes a new Sex Establishment Licence and all venues, even existing lap-dancing clubs, will have to apply for a new licence.

Local authorities will have the power to set a limit on the number of licences it grants.

The Government has admitted this could lead to a small number closing altogether but said an automatic grant of a licence would be contrary to the intent behind these reforms, which is to give local people greater say over the number and location of lap-dancing clubs .

There will be a transitional period of 12 months for clubs to apply for a licence. Existing and new clubs can apply in the first six months, at the end of which local authorities will decide how many licences to grant. Applications for new licences in the second six months will be considered on an individual basis if quotas have not been filled.

Local residents would be able to make representations against the granting of a sex establishment licence on the grounds that it is an inappropriate location or that the number in the area is already too great.

Trade unions are calling on ministers to review plans to cut the number of lap dancing clubs, warning it could put many performers out of work.

Under proposed new laws, the clubs will be reclassified as sex encounter establishments , with owners having to pay up to £30,000 for a licence.

But the actors' union Equity has said dancers should not be put into the same category as sex workers. The TUC conference in Liverpool backed a motion urging a government rethink.

Equity has said its members who work in such clubs fear the proposed new law will reduce their employment opportunities and make them more vulnerable when they do work. The union has also voiced concern that the new rules could have an impact on popular musicals and shows in which performers take their clothes off, including burlesque shows, which have become popular in recent years.

Pursuing her private pleasures on expenses?

The Treasury has denied firms receive tax breaks for corporate visits to lap-dancing clubs after 'Equalities' Minister Harriet Harman denounced it.

Harman petitioned the chancellor to end tax relief on such events which she argued exclude female employees. However, the Treasury said corporate entertainment of any kind was not deductable for tax or VAT purposes.

Firms can claim back VAT for trips which were genuinely related to developing staf", a spokesman said. He said HM Revenue and Customs would likely have to examine whether such a visit to a lap-dancing club had been wholly and exclusively for the benefit of business, and would more likely be seen as a "gift" or perk.

Harman told a meeting of extreme feminists of the Fawcett Society on Thursday: I will take up the issue of tax relief, because there is a whole host of rules around tax relief. For example you can't get tax relief for childcare, which is necessary for you to go to work. Why should you be able to get tax relief for a night out at a lap-dancing club where effectively you are discriminating against women employees in doing so?"

A Treasury spokesman said it appeared Ms Harman had been misinformed: Corporate entertainment of any kind is not deductible for corporate tax or VAT purposes. Knowingly claiming for corporate entertainment is tax fraud and those who try to evade their legal obligations will face penalties in addition to paying back any evaded tax.

Nutter campaigners 'find' that the sex industry is undermining equality between women and men at work

the Fawcett Society claim that the use of lap dancing clubs and display of pornography in a work context is a major new threat to women's equality at work.

Their paper, Corporate Sexism: the sex industry's infiltration of the modern workplace, was launched at an event hosted by BT, with Harriet Hatemen, Minister for Women, the key-note speaker.

The nutters’ 'findings' include:

• 41% of UK lap dancing clubs directly target employers through marketing on their websites
• 86% of lap dancing clubs in London provide ‘discrete receipts’ which enable employees to claim back expenses from their employer without it being evident the money was spent in a lap dancing club
• Lads’ mags are displayed for sale purposes in over 50,000 workplaces. A content analysis of leading titles revealed all contained pornographic imagery. Yet there are no independent, compulsory guidelines regarding the display and sale of pornography, and no major retailer has a policy of covering up lads’ mags or putting them on the top shelf

Fawcett claims that the use of lap dancing clubs and display of pornography in a work context is seriously undermining women’s status at work and is in violation of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.

Their recommendations include:

• Implementing independent regulation of sexually explicit print media
• Covering up lads’ mags and putting them on the top shelf when displayed in shops
• Implementing robust workplace policies and procedures to prevent pornography and lap dancing clubs being used in a work context

Kat Banyard, Campaigns Officer at the Fawcett Society said:

While the days when it was deemed acceptable to hang ‘girly calendars’ on office walls may be long gone, the presence of degrading imagery of women in UK workplaces has never been more endemic. Pornographic lads’ mags are openly displayed in over 50,000 retail shops – each one of them somebody’s workplace. But displaying these magazines in this way is in violation of the Sex Discrimination Act, so it is crucial that retail employers cover up pornographic newspapers and lads’ mags and place them on the top shelf.

A Plymouth lap dancing club has had its no-touching rule re-enforced after police saw CCTV footage of contact between private dancers and customers.

Under licence conditions, lap-dancers at T2 – also known as Temptations – were banned from physical contact with customers during private dances.

However, in July police seized CCTV footage which allegedly showed dancers and customers touching during private dances inside the club. A police officer had attended the scene of a serious assault which occurred outside the club.

A licensing committee was told the officer was assisted by the club in gathering evidence of the assault – but, while looking at the footage, the officer saw some of the private dances which were taking place and also recorded on CCTV.

The committee, after taking more than three hours to hear the case and come to a decision, opted not to revoke the owner's licence but to modify it instead.

Solicitor Anthony Daniel, representing the club, said, during the hearing: This has been a minor blip. Daniel said there was no evidence of physical contact being repeated on any other occasions than that on the CCTV and measures had been put in place since to ensure it did not happen again.

The committee modified the conditions of the licence, adding measures including continual monitoring of the dancers' whole performance on CCTV, all customers being advised of the 'absolute prohibition' on physical contact and information leaflets enforcing that prohibition to be produced in different languages.

Following the hearing Jeana Stone, the designated premises supervisor, said the modifications were fair. She had said in the hearing that she was very shocked to discover physical contact had ever occurred.

A nightclub in Watford won permission to offer customers striptease and lap dancing, despite the council's nutter aspirations to create a family friendly town centre.

Members of Watford Borough Council said the decision to grant Vogue permission to host adult entertainment felt like wearing handcuffs, tied by the Licensing Act 2003.

Under the law, applications can only be rejected if they are judged to be in violation of four licensing objectives. These are the prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, the prevention of public nuisance and the protection of children from harm.

Speaking against the application, Neil Fitton, of Elm Court, whimpered: Because of the large number of people who already visit Watford to various other establishments, I think this will cause additional visitors in an overcrowded area where it could give rise to alcohol-related violence. Due to the nature of activities, it could also give rise to intimidation and harassment of other females that are out in town.

However, Julian Skeens, representing Opal Leisure and Neil Campbell, owner of Vogue, offered to reduce the venue's maximum capacity to 150 people from 240, and said it would not be a place where people get drunk, referring to its minimum pricing policy for alcohol, where a beer costs £4.

Skeens revealed that at the venue, all patrons will be seated at all times, with waiter service at the bar. There will also be private dancing booths and a VIP area with a dancing pole, alongside the main stage.

Conditions were imposed on the licence. These include those contained in the premises' operating schedule; a code of conduct for dancers drawn up by the venue; that the licensee shall not allow distribution of flyers containing photos or other images which suggest that strip tease or similar entertainment takes place on the premises and which may be offensive; and the maximum capacity of the premises shall be limited to 150 whilst adult dancing is taking place.

The Eleanor Rigby Hotel, in Liverpool city centre, is looking to host erotic lap dancing in its basement bar, the Daily Post can reveal.

Owner Patrick Gannon, says it is not earning enough money in its current form: It [the bar] doesn’t do anything at the moment – you couldn’t earn a living out of that hotel bar. We’ve tried jazz but it never worked. People don’t want jazz here.We’re hoping it will be a quiet little venue. It’s nothing exciting – I hope I’ll earn some money out of it.

On fears punters may be tempted to lure dancers back to rooms in the hotel, Gannon aid: It’s not going to be a brothel – I go to Mass, I’m strictly above board. I don’t need a brothel because the place is quite full as it is. It’s something to try to make an income from. Gannon said the new club will be distinct from the hotel, with a different entrance to the rear.

Cllr Sharon Sullivan, whose Central ward covers the city centre, told the Daily Post she was reserving judgment on the application, but questioned if Stanley Street was the best place to host lap dancing. She unimaginatively said: It would be better in another part of the city.”

Glasgow Council is taking action against cabbies in the local area who feature advertising for lap-dancing clubs in their vehicles.

A ban has been issued by the authority which prevents any of its workers from using a taxi which displays advertising for the establishments, reports the Sunday Mail.

The council explained that it has decided to initiate the move as part of its ongoing actions against Glasgow's lap-dancing industry, which it described as a form of commercial sexual exploitation.

Council deputy leader Jim Coleman, who announced the ban via letters written to each department, has stated that taxis in the area which promote the clubs will therefore no longer benefit from the authority's custom.

This comes after the body last month announced new plans to install CCTV cameras inside cabs operating in the city in a move to monitor taxi users.

Sheriff Richard Davidson spoke out after jailing a London woman for three months for running a brothel in Dundee.

He said: This particular inquiry was instigated at my request because of adverts in the Daily Sport advertising sexual gratification services at various addresses in Dundee. I have asked the Crown Office if it is not time for the law to be changed so that prosecutions can be taken against the proprietors for assisting in running brothels.

At Dundee Sheriff Court Paula Jean Thomas, admitted running a brothel at the city's Strathmore Avenue between March 3 and 26.

Depute fiscal Emma Stewart told the court that police began a crackdown on prostitution in Dundee in February last year.

They discovered an advert in the Daily Sport offering sexual services. The phone number led them to the house in Strathmore Avenue. Police went to the house and spoke to Thomas, who admitted working as a prostitute but said she was working alone.

Then another advert appeared, giving a telephone number and various names. Police called the Daily Sport and discovered an account was opened by Carol Webster - a name used by Thomas. Police returned to the house in March and Thomas came to the door wearing only lingerie. Officers went in and found a man lying naked in bed. He said he had just paid £60 for sex. Thomas was arrested.

Plans to convert a derelict warehouse in The Strand into an adult club were submitted to the authority last month.

If approved, it would feature a stage with lap dancing poles, three dancing podiums, a naked dance area and a number of bays for one-on-one dances.

The applicant is Fantasy Lounge, which runs a similar club in Cardiff's St Mary Street, employing 40 dancers.

The vicar of St Mary's, in Swansea, Andrew Vessey, challenged the council to show it had standards and said the club would be an inappropriate use of space and of the female body: What people do with their own money and time is up to them...BUT...when it's clearly open to the public in a city centre that has already got quite enough venues, there is a concern by those of us who have standards and ideals that this is inappropriate. It's an inappropriate use of space and inappropriate use of the female body.

He said the club would be degrading and was purely about making money: Many of them are not doing this for fun, but because they have to for money. I think there comes a point where the public needs to be protected from people. It's simply about making money. There must be a point where we say enough is enough.

People who seem to be dependent on that kind of stimulus have got plenty of outlets already. We have a fine city and we have some great traditions here, by way of enterprise and creativity. Do we want Swansea to be synonymous as a place to watch lap dancing? There's already a plethora of nightclubs in Swansea. There must come a point where public concerns about standards have to be listened to.

Update: Licence Approved After Council Receives No Objections

25th August 2009. Based on article from walesonline.co.uk

A pole and lap-dancing club has been given the go-ahead after critics didn't formally object to it. Plans by Fantasy Lounge to convert a derelict warehouse in the centre of Swansea into a plush club featuring topless women met a 'barrage' of public criticism.

The vicar of Swansea’s city-centre St Mary’s Church, Andrew Vessey, complained the club would be an inappropriate use of space and the female body. The vicar was supported by letters in a local newspaper and on websites but Wales on Sunday can reveal the club has been cleared to start putting up its poles because no-one objected in writing.

Ioan Richard, chairman of Swansea Council’s licensing committee, said: We had no option but to agree the licence as there were no public or police objections on file.

A lap-dancing club has opened in Watford following a scarcely attended consultation with residents.

Vogue, in The Parade, has been billed as Hertfordshire's most exclusive gentlemen's club and officially opened for business on Friday.

The club is yet to receive a permanent licence but held a consultation with concerned residents last week. Despite receiving widespread opposition, only two residents turned up to a meeting organised by the premises’ owner Neil Campbell on Thursday evening.

Speaking to the Watford Observer, the owner of the club, Mr Campbell, said: The evening was a success, despite only two people turning out. Once I had explained exactly what Vogue was all about and how it is going to operate those who attended were more than satisfied with it. This is not going to be some seedy strip joint. It’s a trendy bar.”

He added: I’m a little disappointed as I wish all those who have allegedly been kicking off about it had attended. If they feel so strongly about it why did they not turn up?

Writing for the Watford Observer, Reverend Tim Roberts, from Watford Community Church, said he was worried about the erosion of sexual dignity in society.

In his on-line blog, Reverend Roberts wrote: Most gentlemen I know love their wives or partners with an honest devotion and the last thing they would think of doing of an evening would be to go out on the town with their mates and sit watching a stranger undress on a table in front of them. Call me old-fashioned but a gentleman should be at home making love not out watching sex.

I’d suggest that we want Watford to be a place where relationships like marriage are strengthened and not eroded, a town where boys and girls grow up as mature gentlemen and ladies who know the difference between a ‘good night out’ and a ‘great life together’.

The nutter campaign to stop Haringey's first lap dancing club opening in Crouch End is back on following a date being set for the council to consider the plans.

Residents' group Lap Off! has vowed to fight the plan for Music Palace in Tottenham Lane.

A Haringey Council licensing committee will decide whether to grant an adult entertainment licence at 7.30pm on Thursday, September 10, at Haringey Civic Centre.

If Haringey Council approves a licence change, the club in the former Salvation Army citadel hall could be open from 11am-2am Monday to Saturday with early closing at 11pm on Sunday.

But nutters fear a double-pronged attack as a planning bid to become a gentleman's club has also been lodged by Music Palace's owners. The campaign has so far attracted 201 letters demanding the council throw out the planning bid and a date for the hearing is yet to be set.

Doctor Johnny Long has a PHD. He is a porn star, and his "PHD" stands for "pretty huge dick". Yes, it's pretty basic stuff, but that's kind of the level in Porn: The Musical one of many Edinburgh fringe shows on the subject of sex and all things related.

Sex is always a hot ticket here: with more than 2,000 shows vying for audience's attention, a poster featuring naked buttocks and the word "porn" is naturally going to get at least a double-take. But this year's fringe is more sex-crazed than ever with:

• The Chippendales
• Jane Austen's Guide to Pornography
• porn star Ben Dover is billing himself innocent till proven filthy
• Ashley Hames, sometime reporter for cable TV sex show Sin Cities, is telling some disturbing tales about his adventures with "sexual astronauts".

For some, this glut of sex-related shows points to increasing commercialism. Richard Demarco, the veteran theatre promoter and one of the festival's founders, has worried that: If it's not careful, the fringe will soon be associated with Las Vegas. But audiences don't seem to mind – there have been queues around the block for the Chippendales, Porn: The Musical and Ashley Hames, whose show opens with a sickening clip showing Hames having his scrotum nailed to a board by a Parisian dominatrix, and moves on to alcohol enemas apparently delivered for fun.

The explicit content has proved too much for some. An entire row got up and left Hames's show after 10 minutes, while others chose to quit Porn: The Musical shortly after the first semi-obscured coupling of Doctor Long and Sanddy with a double D.

Plans to open a lap-dancing club next to a church have been held up after councillors raised concerns about the monitoring of private booths.

Chris Clegg wants to open Paradise Gentleman's Club in Hope Street, Hanley, from noon to 5.30am every day.

Clegg applied for a licence for the venue after shutting down the 007 Gentleman's Club in Bryan Street several months ago. Up to £250,000 will be spent on transforming the former Fusion Bar which would create up to 14 jobs if plans get the go-ahead.

But members of Stoke-on-Trent City Council's licensing sub-committee deferred the application to allow a site visit to take place. Committee chairman councillor Joy Garner said she was concerned about how the rule that customers must stay at least 12 inches away from dancers would be enforced in the club's private booths.

Brian Wain, of Trentham-based Trent Licensing Consultants, who represented Clegg, told the meeting: There will be CCTV cameras inside and outside the club but not in any of the private booths.

Nutters of the Bethel Evangelical Church have predictably vowed to stop the club opening next door. Church trustee Neville Gould said: We run a Sunday School and a Thursday night club for young children at the church. We just don't want this kind of thing going on next door.

Carl Kirkham, who is also a trustee of the church, added: If a licence for a lap dancing club is granted it will result in increased noise and encourage inappropriate behaviour outside the premises.

A 100-strong group - led by the founder of lingerie boutique Coco de Mer Sam Roddick, Ruby Rose of the Burlesque Women’s Institute (BWI), and Lola LaBelle who dances with the Wam Bam Girls - marched through the streets of Camden holding placards reading Don’t be Prude, It’s Not Rude to protest against Camden Council’s decision to treat burlesque as lap dancing.

Following a meeting with protestors, the council published a statement announcing a U-turn. It said: Burlesque performance in its widest form can include various arts forms and this alone would not require a licence. The council’s concern is with any performance which may involve nudity.

The council announced a commitment to work with the burlesque community to seek a clearer understanding of what constitutes adult entertainment, and has scheduled a meeting with the BWI in September.

A Coco de Mer spokesperson described the news as amazing. She explained that the key breakthrough was the removal of the word stripping from the council’s licensing conditions.

She said: The council have acknowledged that although burlesque performers do remove clothes, this very rarely ends in nudity - by legal definition displaying genitalia or nipples. The council have agreed that removing clothes, often for performers from one costume to another, does not constitute ‘adult entertainment’ and so no longer needs a license.

LaBelle said: This was not about a few performers losing a couple of gigs here and there, it is about becoming a part of a society which is ok with its government censoring things without even knowing what they are. Although it was Camden, it could have spread out throughout the country.

The point was reiterated by Rose, who believes that if adopted by other local authorities, the licensing requirement had to potential to wipe out burlesque. She said the BWI would now to working to ensure that the artform was not brought under licensing laws.

Performers have been protesting against a north London council's decision to class burlesque dancing as part of the adult entertainment industry.

Venues in Camden must now apply for an updated licence which is normally required by lap-dancing clubs.

This has led to burlesque performances being cancelled due to increased costs.

Camden Council said it was trying to improve regulations, but demonstrators said its actions were putting the future of burlesque in London at risk.

Dancers, dressed in full burlesque costume, marched from Covent Garden to Camden Town Hall.

Sam Roddick, daughter of the late Body Shop founder Anita Roddick, said: We cannot have laws that are based on ignorance. Burlesque is not part of the adult entertainment industry. Banning burlesque is like banning comedy. It's a genre which contains a wide spectrum of performances which should be judged individually.

Lola Labelle, 24, a dancer with the Wam Bam Girls, said the move was a way of raising revenue for the council. She expressed concern that the change would change the perception of burlesque.

Ruby Rose, founding member of the Burlesque Women's Institute, said that if other boroughs followed suit, it could cause the end of burlesque in the city: We're going to inform the council so they can make educated decisions, because a lot of people are desperately upset about this.

Plans to add some extra spice to a former curry house in Frome have angered nutters in the town.

The owner Abdul Rahim has submitted the licence application asking for permission to serve alcohol until 1.30am seven nights a week, play both live and recorded music, host lap dancing and strip nights and show adult films.

This has prompted dozens of residents and organisations to write to Mendip District Council, which will decide whether or not to issue the licence, to voice their concerns.

Chairman of the Blue House trustees Brenda Hinton said she was very concerned that the establishment may attract unsuitable people to the area.

She added: I have submitted a comment to the board saying I was concerned about the fact that it is to stay open until 2am, and what the noise impact would have on the sheltered housing residents. I also feel it is not in keeping with the area.

Frome's Mayor, Cllr Damon Hooton, who is also chairman of the Frome Town Council planning board, said the board felt compelled to make a comment to the licensing authority after residents contacted the council with concerns: There is no demonstrable need for a private members' club of the type proposed in Frome. We consider that this type of establishment in the centre of Frome would detract from the town centre and would be likely to have an adverse impact of properties near to it.

Mendip's licensing committee will discuss the application on Thursday, July 16, at 10am at Mendip District Council's offices in Shepton Mallet.

Update: Decoy?

26th July 2009. Based on article from thisissomerset.co.uk

A licensing application to spice up Frome's nightlife with erotic entertainment at a private members' club has been withdrawn at the eleventh hour.

The revelation came to light minutes before the licensing board meeting at Mendip District Council was about to begin.

The applicant, Abdul Rahim, who owns the club on the Bridge, decided to scrap the parts of the licence which related to lap dancing, stripping and other forms of adult entertainment after there was public outrage at the plans.

Rahim was represented by solicitor John Killah, who told the licensing committee that his client had been mortified by the outcry over the application and had listened to the concerns of the people who had objected to the licence.

Killah asked for the hearing to be deferred so that Rahim could reassess the application.

There had been more than 20 objections, with the majority of people citing problems of anti-social behaviour, the type of club that was being suggested and that children walk past the premises on their way to school as the major issues.

The licensing board will hear the revised application on Tuesday, August 11, at 11am.

Save Burlesque Campaign protest
30th July 2009
Camden, London

Up to 1,000 scantily clad campaigners are set to march on Camden Town Hall in protest at a nanny state crackdown on burlesque performers.

More than 500 people have already signed up for a massive Save Burlesque Campaign protest on July 30 - with hundreds more expected to register on the campaign website in the next two weeks.

It follows a controversial new policy from Camden Council which forces any venue staging a burlesque night to apply for a licence for adult entertainment as lap-dancing venues have to do.

But burlesque performers have defended the artform - saying it is a humorous and titillating theatrical satire dating back more than 400 years.

Campaign organiser Ruby Rose founder of the Burlesque Women's Institute, said: Camden say they are not banning it, but they are trying to brand it as adult entertainment, the same as sex shows or porn cinemas. That in itself will effectively ban burlesque. Where are we going to find £1,000 for a licence?

It's a double-edged sword. You'll have regular bars and clubs having licences for adult entertainment in places where it would never have gone before and it will push acts into places where they wouldn't feel safe.

Camden aren't aware of what burlesque is - there's no touching, it's not £10 notes being stuffed in bras and panties. They just thought it was stripping. They say they're protecting small children but no venues that have burlesque would have children in at 10 o'clock at night. Details of the meeting point for the peaceful protest are being kept top secret as Miss Rose continues last-minute talks with Camden Council.

On Sunday, 200 people flocked to trendy venue Proud Galleries, in Chalk Farm Road, Camden Town, for a campaign fundraiser featuring reverse stripteases to get round the crackdown.

Owner Alex Proud, who was forced to cancel regular burlesque nights at the venue, said: I honestly think what they do is art. We live in a nanny state. Page 3 is OK, adverts for porn on TV are fine, supermarkets selling beer for 20p is fine. But consenting adults watching a woman in underwear? Call the cops - Camden Council to our moral rescue! We are in a recession, is this really what the council thinks matters?

The suspension of Black Lace, the UK erotica imprint by women, for women, brings to an end 16 years of female-penned smut due to declining sales. Sex sells – but apparently not to women.

The internet has also transformed erotica. Women who felt uncomfortable purchasing dirty books in person can now buy at their blush-free leisure. But the wide availability of free content online has led many to conclude books can't compete. Many authors have felt, in the face of this, the imprint's marketing and brand-identity have been neglected, that the line has released too many reprints, or that its women-only author policy is outmoded.

With every industry feeling the pinch, many will view Black Lace's fall as inevitable. But it has recently felt as if the genre was on the cusp of mainstream acceptance. Magazines such as Scarlet and Filament are targeting women with sexy words and pictures. The high sales of Kathy Lette's In Bed With… collection of anonymous erotica, suggests woman are eager to read clit-lit. Sex memoirs are popular in the US; erotica, in particular, erotic romance, sells massively, with ebooks flying off the digital shelves. Why not over here? Are we just too British? Are the books not reaching the consumer? Is there something unseemly about our fiction?

A landlord who transformed his pub into a strip club has backed down after pressure from nutters.

Ken Linwood, landlord of the White Hart Pub, in New Cross Road, New Cross, changed the place into a “gentleman’s club”, in February, saying it was necessary to stop his pub going bust.

But he has turned the venue back into a regular pub after campaign group, Stop The Strip, organised protests outside the club.

He said: Last Sunday, I reopened the place as a normal pub where people can enjoy a drink and listen to live bands. I didn’t have to do this – I am legally entitled to have opened the strip club. But I have recognised the opinions of the campaigners and am now challenging them to come down and have a drink here. For the next month I am staying as a pub, but if things don’t go well then I will have to review my options.

Campaigner Steve Carrick-Davies said: We are delighted that the owner has recognised the importance of returning the place to normal. We have never said what he was doing was illegal, but we don’t think it’s appropriate for the area. Now it’s a pub I will be happy to go down there for a pint and have a chat with the owner.”

Meanwhile, Stop The Strip have submitted proposals through the Sustainable Communities Act to require applicants for lap dancing licences to show it would benefit the community. The act allows people to suggest law changes making their communities more economically, socially and environmentally friendly.