Matt in the Telegraph had yet another of his brilliant cartoons the other day. Two old codgers are standing at the bar and one says “I had no idea women’s pension age had been increased, no one mentioned it at the Garrick”.
Which is not just funny but illustrates the point that all mens clubs are anachronistic bastions of male interest and power. The fact that the heads of the Civil Service and MI6 have both resigned from the club after their membership was leaked to The Guardian makes the point even more clearly.
If you have to resign on principle when your membership becomes public knowledge you shouldn’t have joined in the first place. How can you seriously claim to be the benevolent head of a major organisation that preaches equality and equal rights and belong to a male only club? In secret, is the answer.
I took special pleasure from the claim that Simon Case was a member so that he could bring it down from the inside and vote to let women in. Some of you may know by now that I do not regard Mr. Case as qualified to run the Civil Service, he is far too young and inexperienced and apparently only got the job because several better qualified people would not be seen dead working for Boris Johnson.
But to claim he is some kind of Trojan horse for women’s rights is risible. So too is the silence of all the politicians, thespians and lovies who lecture us daily on their commitment to equality before slipping down to their club for some all male company and a claret.
Here’s a suggestion, if they resigned en masse the club would be in danger of going bust and would have to change course. Surely men of principle could do that much for the sisterhood’s cause?
After all there is no shortage of places in London that sell claret to men and women, its not like we are asking them to throw themselves in front of the King’s horse.
If they really cared they could change the Garrick’s membership policy by the end of the year, at the latest.
So why don’t they?
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media
Terrific blast, Jonty
This Guardian campaign conflates 2 issues, equality and the legitimacy of single sex spaces.
Single sex clubs are not unlawful. A quick Google search shows there are numerous women only clubs in London.
On Eventbrite the other day I had quite a job looking for tickets for an event and in the process of searching was struck by the numbers of interesting but women only events.
Women only events are often explicitly for the purpose of networking.
So there is nothing at all inconsistent with being a member of a single sex club and also promoting equalities policies.
Campaigners are in fact explicit that the issue they take with the Garrick is that the men who are members are influential. It follows, it is said, that this is a bastion of patriarchy which must be stormed.
As Gaby Hinsliff wrote in the Guardian this week:
"When men wonder why women won’t just let them have their cosy little clubs in peace, one answer is that we fear the mentality those cosy little clubs can sometimes produce."
Or as the barrister Karon Monaghan wrote, also in the Guardian, members of the judiciary who are members of the Garrick should disqualify themselves from hearing discrimination and rape cases.
I know nothing about the Garrick or its members. But I wonder how much of this is based on evidence?
There is a clear double standard here suggesting that men only spaces are suspect and need to be policed by women. Such reverse sexism should not be accepted at face value.