Stop The Strip Pub Blog

I have put together a very simple blog for the Stop The Strip Pub campaign. There is also a really nice quote from me in the Hackney Post article about Saturday's protest.

Stop Press: Stop The Strip Pub

Got into a bit of real grass roots activism today. Satchmo's - a bar just up the road from my house - has applied for a license to do strip shows. Now I don't really approve of strip clubs anywhere but seriously - it's in a residential area, just between a mosque and two primary schools. It's the most ridiculous idea I've heard in a very long time. So we went along to protest outside and there was a great turnout, 50-100 people just from the few streets around it, including ten from the Turkish Community Centre, six or so from the mosque and a bunch of school children from one of the local schools. Several journalists appeared and interviewed me and others and took photos so hopefully it will attract some attention. I'll keep you posted.

Off to Million Women Rise now - two protests, one day...

A Family Affair

This is a strange issue. J.D. Wetherspoons has announced that it's pubs will serve no more than two drinks to parents who dine in their pubs with their children. And it won't serve families with children (under 14) who don't dine.

Now I actually think that's just silly - I think we have it all wrong in Britain with the pub culture in which children are never seen. It really hurts the children who are seen as a burden because they restrict where their parents can go. You never see cafe's in France which bar children. Parents and children alike enjoy sitting around and chatting or playing games, sometimes eating and sometimes just having a drink - alcoholic or otherwise.

More to the point though - have these decision-makers BEEN to a Wetherspoon's pub (for the benefit of overseas readers a selection of their best-looking clientèle is pictured)? I think we should have a national-level law barring Wetherspoon's customers from reproducing. Could they put contraceptives in the cheap alcopops? Failing that we should DEFINITELY have a national-level law banning all parents from allowing their children to eat the re-heated processed pap that passes for "food" in these places.