The Mail is getting worked up that people attending a black tie dinner at the House of Commons may later, having left those hallowed halls, enjoy some form of sexual activity.
The newspaper is upset that Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell has sponsored the black tie event in the Commons, after which attendees will go onto what the Mail says is
an ‘After Party’ on a nearby boat where entertainment includes ‘pole dancing, burlesque and erotic performances’.
Needless to say, this is an outrage – the Mail even tracked down an unnamed MP to comment ‘This smutty event is below the dignity of the Commons.’
Any suggestion that having a black-tie meal in the Commons followed by an erotic party elsewhere might well be the sort of thing many MPs themselves have been getting up to for centuries, or that in 2010 an erotic party for consenting adults probably isn’t that big a deal would of course be grossly unfair to this serious journalistic story written for no other reason than to alert the fine upstanding people of Britain to this brutal assault on the dignity of our legislature.
But, as Stephanie Merritt points out in her review of the book City of Sin in today’s Observer, our modern MPs simply can’t compete with some of their forebears.
The 17th-century MP Sir Charles Sedley… once attracted a crowd of more than a thousand when he appeared naked on the balcony of a notorious London brothel, “acting all the postures of lust and buggery that could be imagined”, before dunking his honourable member in a glass of wine and then drinking the king’s health.
Sedley went on to become Speaker of the Commons.
At least the free advertising the Mail has given the event (which will take place on 2nd October if it isn’t cancelled), should ensure the tickets sell like hot cakes. The paper even kindly prints the whole promotional poster on its website.
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14 Comments
Good advertising for that book as well….
£8.98 on Amazon, a veritable bargain.
ps – ‘the diginity of the Commons’…Really?
Oh the scandal – can’t think that anyone in ‘Fleet Street’ will be going along then! Mail are probably miffed because they didn’t get a press pass…
Daily Mail crowd in self-righteous moral outrage shock!
Where can I get a ticket?
Why does Nadine even bother making her rent-a-quotes anonymous? It’s not like nobody can guess.
As to the main story. Pole dancing? “Erotic performances?” Can you hear me back there in the 50s?
ahh, they don’t have scandals like they used to! Good health everyone!
Rosindell?
Was he the unionjackchavdog character from back whenever?
Sounds fun!
just as I suspect the male dominated coilition thinks that the sexualisation of women is ok
You all have to admit thats ironic that the tories only a couple of weeks ago said they didn’t want to have job centres advertising jobs for lapdancers and poledancers,This is what Minister for Employment Chris Grayling said just 13 days ago:
“It’s absolutely wrong that the Government advertises jobs that could support the exploitation of people. We’ve taken immediate action today to stop certain adult entertainment vacancies from being advertised through Jobcentre Plus. We shouldn’t put vulnerable people in an environment where they’re exposed to these types of jobs and could feel under pressure to work in the sex industry.”
It would seem that hypocrisy really is the lubricant of society when it comes to the tories.
It is only a scandal in the Daily Mail’s head.
Hang on a minute. Isn’t Andrew Rosindell a law-and-order, flag-waving, “weren’t the 1950s wonderful?”, family values man? What is this paragon of traditional British virtue doing at an erotic party? Rosindell is a yobbo in the Tebbit mould, so he doesn’t have the excuse that aristocrats are allowed to do things that the lower orders can’t. It sounds thoroughly hypocritical and sleazy. Well, a little bit.
What is rather more interesting than the nasty private tastes of Andrew Rosindell is the fact that the “Mail” has attacked a Conservative MP. Unlike the Murdoch stable, the “Mail” is more British nationalist than neocon and doesn’t always take its orders from Washington.
“Rosindell?
Was he the unionjackchavdog character from back whenever?”
I think you’re meant to call him “my honourable friend” these days …
“What is rather more interesting …”
Well, I think we could have guessed it would be something about a North American conspiracy!