In news that went largely under the radar, on May 7th the Garrick Club finally voted to allow women members – thus overturning almost 200 years of tradition. The vote, which passed with 60% in favour, came after a relentless campaign by The Guardian to shame the club into changing its membership policy.
The Guardian’s campaign began in March with the publication of a leaked membership list, characterised by the paper as a “roll-call of British Establishment”. The list’s publication undoubtedly caused immense embarrassment for various prominent members, who were suddenly forced to explain to their female colleagues how on earth they could be members of such a sexist, misogynistic, patriarchal organisation.
To give you a sense of how little people cared about the Garrick’s membership policy prior to the Guardian’s campaign, here’s a chart showing Google Search interest for ‘Garrick Club’ in the UK since 2004:
As you can see, the only major spike in the last 20 years occurred in March of 2024.
The obvious argument for maintaining the club’s long-standing traditions – as commentators such as myself, Alison Pearson and Georgia Gilholy noted – is that men and women are different. And so mixed-sex groups are different from all-male groups. This is an undeniable fact.
But dispiritingly few of the Garrick Club’s members have been willing to state it publicly. One wrote a piece for the Daily Mail ridiculing Simon Case and Richard Moore as “a pair of wimps” for resigning under pressure from the Guardian, but he wasn’t willing to reveal his own name. Even the rambunctious and gaffe-prone Boris Johnson, a former member, felt the need to state in an article defending the Garrick that “I would certainly have said that women should be admitted”.
Why? Why shouldn’t individuals voluntarily associate with members of their own sex? After all, the anti-Garrick arguments don’t stack up.
If it’s unfair for the club to exclude women, then it’s unfair for other single-sex organisations to do the same. And the membership policy was already profoundly ‘unfair’ – 99.9% of people could never hope to join due to being too poor and socially irrelevant. As regards the claim that female lawyers and politicians were at some kind of disadvantage, this is highly dubious. The vast majority of lawyers and politicians weren’t members to begin with.
Club convention apparently prevents members from talking about the club (like Fight Club, I guess). But it’s surely possible for them to make general arguments in favour of single-sex organisations. Some of the more right-thinking members, like the BBC’s John Simpson, have been opining in support of women members for years. So why couldn’t their opponents also speak out?
We aren’t privy to exactly what went on at the 7th May vote, but we do know the two-thirds majority required for previous votes to pass was abandoned in favour of a simple majority. (Recall that less than two thirds voted for the recent change.) This speaks of panic among senior members that, God forbid, the Guardian should run another unflattering article.
Why are leading men of Britain being ordered about by a left-wing newspaper? Maybe the Garrick’s roster isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
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“Grant Shapps faces Tory mutiny over hydrogen levy plans”
Not put off by the billions wasted on badly thought out plans to counter the thing that isn’t happening, we’re going to double down, again..?
“Insolent, unproductive and dominated by HR, the Civil Service thinks it rules Britain”
‘Release them back to the private sector’.? They wouldn’t last a morning in the private sector.
“They wouldn’t last a morning in the private sector.”
Absolutely correct. The senior civil servants I came across when I worked amongst them were thick, arrogant beyond belief, clueless job-wise and masters at ducking and diving. Of the scores I cam across only two would have stood a chance working in the private sector.
It and the people are not much different in the large corporation part of the private sector anymore.
Igor has made an interesting discovery using UK data regarding a significant increase in hospitalizations 6 months post Covid booster;
”The most important fact we see is that for people over 50, the most dangerous period after vaccination is between 6 and 9 months after their last dose. Their risk of hospitalization is several times higher than before six months or after nine months. The increase in risk far outweighs a small reduction in the first six months.
So, people who take a Covid booster first go through a somewhat reduced hospitalization risk for the first six months, then go through a dramatically heightened risk of hospitalization, then hospitalization rates “return to normal,” with the normal being very high. Does that look like the vaccine provides any benefit? Not to me!”
https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/ukhsa-boosters-greatly-increase-covid
Neil Oliver
Well said, that man. Much sense spoken.
Just a thought on ULEZ:
Are these prisons being built in preparation for Billy’s next release?
“Catastrophic Contagion” is apparently going to be the big one. How much more effective and targeted would it be if people were closely confined in 15 minute cities?
Excellent point Hux, ref the LTNs especially, something I’ve been ruminating on too.
I also wondered about the power supply required by all that additional surveillance: the local town is just finishing off it’s 2nd ‘smart junction’ and about to start a 3rd, the multiple cameras of which are all cabled. As are the many additional street cameras installed during the lockdowns – all while we’re being told to freeze to death in the dark at home. How’s that supposed to meet Net Zero then?
“I also wondered about the power supply required by all that additional surveillance”
This is where the £37 billion on Track and Trace went, something I have mentioned numerous times – smart junctions, smart cameras. T and T was never just about a bloody app.
Hey don’t forget about ‘Outbreak 24’, the SARS-5 plandemic scheduled for next year.
They’re keeping us guessing obviously. Wow these pandemics really are like buses…
I’ve not heard of ‘Outbreak 24’ Mogs. Can you post a link?
https://rumble.com/v28nqro-outbreak-24-simulazione-della-pandemia-2024-dove-il-virus-sars-cov-5-creer-.html
This simulation was in Italy in 2021. There’s probably plenty more that we’re not even aware of. Obsessive b’stards!
Many thanks Mogs.
“Fake trans applicants ‘could trick universities’”
But but but aren’t straight A pupils – whatever their race, creed or colour – simply a result of white privilege? It’s only your pronouns that count these days…..
…and this just in from down under:
https://rumble.com/v297guk-february-11-2023.html
I was appalled to learn that the Guardian loons had accused Neil Oliver of antisemitism. To accuse someone of antisematism because they talk about global elites and their out in the open conspiracies is disgusting.
Made me feel quite sick
The Groan is a sickening travesty of a publication even by the sickening standards of the MSM.
Interesting take by Craig Murray on the Sy Hersh story. https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2023/02/sy-hersh-and-the-way-we-live-now/
“… But what most worries me about the entire story is the unanimous complicity of the mainstream media in ignoring the completely obvious.
The media line, parroted here relentlessly by the BBC and corporate media, was that the Russians had probably themselves blown up the pipeline on which they had expended such great resources and three decades of intense diplomatic activity, and which was to be the key to Russia’s single most valuable source of income for the next 40 years.
This was always quite literally incredible. You would have to be deranged to believe it.
It actually taught me not just that we truly are in the realm of totalitarianism and the Big Lie, but I learnt something very important about how the Big Lie works.
The secret is not that people genuinely believe an outrageous claim. The secret is that people do genuinely believe that they are in a battle of good against evil, and it is necessary to accept the narrative being promoted, in the interests of fighting evil.
Don’t question, just follow. If you do question, you are promoting evil.
I am sure that is how it works.
State and corporate stenographer journalists are actually intelligent individuals. If they thought about it, they would realise that the narrative that Russia blew up its own pipeline is obvious nonsense.
But they are convinced it is morally wrong to think about it…. ”
There is also the not to be overlooked issue of the No2Nato event on 25.2.in London having to go underground.
That development aloneis actually a confirmation of Peter Hitchens fear already having become reality.
He suggests attending it even if you disagree but are pro free speech.
https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article/edible-insects-european-union#:~:text=In%20May%202021%2C%20the%20European,the%20house%20cricket%20in%20March
A load of crap about…crap.