Packing them in

Off to Embra for a final burst of pontification, this time not at the Uni but at the Morningside Justice and Peace Society: a formidable audience especially when talking about the merits (?) of the war in Iraq. And it will be a large turnout as well.

So I will not need my ice breaking story of the man who turns up at a meeting to find the room empty apart from a single person in the front row of the hall. No chairman in attendance he nevertheless, nothing daunted, delivers his talk and sits down warmly applauded by the sole member of the audience. Starting to leave the podium the guy in the stalls shouts out

'Please, don't go I am the second speaker'

I told this to a smallish audience at a Women's Guild meeting in the Borders to make them feel better about a 9 person turnout-quite good by their standards apparently. There was a puzzling lack of appreciative reaction and the Chair suddenly stood up as I was just about to launch into my talk. She glared around the room as the members quailed before her: 'Come on. Own Up. Who thinks they are the second speaker?'

Labels: Morningside Justice and Peace Society, Public talks, Women's Guild

  ¶ 10:10 AM (2) comments

 
WI launches crusade for licensed brothels

is a head line in The Times On-line-reflecting the Thunderers tabloid approach to most stories. It opens:

They are better known for making jam, selling cakes and stripping off to make calendars for charity. Now the Women’s Institute has started a campaign to license brothels to protect women who work as prostitutes.

The village of Holybourne in Hampshire is the unlikely birthplace of this crusade. Members of the WI branch there were deeply moved by the events last December when five street prostitutes were murdered in Ipswich.

The branch made licensing brothels the subject of its motion for debate at the autumn meeting of the Hampshire WI Federation, which has 6,000 members. The motion received almost unanimous backing and Hampshire WI will now go to the national organisation and mount a lobbying campaign to try to persuade local councillors and MPs to change the law.

Apart from wondering if 'crusade' is quite le mot justein this context ( 'Richard Coeur de Lion in Jerusalem Harlot Horror' to quote a 12th Century Sunne-page 2) we can only wonder if the Scottish equivalent of the WI the Women' Rural Institute will now follow suit. One, can, I suppose, speculate about brothels in the Borders but Huttonian does not want to fall into the trap sprung on a visiting CofE bishop to New York when asked for a view on the City's houses of ill repute replied, innocently: 'Oh Are there Brothels in New York?' fed the headline in a local Tabloid ' Visiting Brit Bish in search of Brothels''

No, Randy of Reston this is idle conjecture, not the start of a research programme, much less the launch of the XIth Crusade. All I do know is neither the Hutton Think Tank nor Fishwick Special Branch are 'into' local vice, as it were, nor am I aware of Sex Workers being asked to talk about their industry at meetings of local Probus, Knit and (K)Natter, Rotary, University of the Third Age, or other bodies (no pun intended) generally desperate for speakers-as Huttonian knows judging from the amount of times he has been asked to speak. Pity. Might liven up some rather dull afternoons, Knit and Knatter always excepted. Nor does prostitution seem to feature in the Duns Sheriff's court unless there is a gagging (no S or M implication) order on the cub reporter recording the cases for the Berwickshire
So we must assume that Whores and their safety is not an issue north of the Border and south of Glasga. When it is I will watch the agendas for forthcoming meetings of the Women's Guild with


Great interest.

And another thing: Members of the Women's Guild have yet to strip off for making calendars or for any other purpose-

as a group, I mean.

As far as I know, that is.

(The image of a sex worker demonstration is thought not to be from the Borders)

Labels: Borders, crime Borders., Sex Workers, Women's Guild, WRI

  ¶ 10:32 AM (0) comments