Silly Season

THE newsroom is cloaked with a faint heaviness and everyone is feeling weary.

Having survived the not-too-silly-season that was August and after gearing up for an Autumn of hard news, an event we were unprepared for has frozen us in our pace.

We were told at the end of last week that the 137-year-young Enfield Gazette is going to be axed, leaving most of us reeling with shock and disbelief. That, and the fact that one of us is going to lose our job within a month.

There was no warning sign prior to our publisher's announcement but having sat through the ten or fifteen minutes it took her to deliver the news a swathe of nausea swept through the office and all of us had to get outside for some air.

The tragedy of this circumstance is that not only is the decision resulting in the death of a newspaper but one of us is going to be stuck without a means to live.

We are of course fighting the decision, and today went public with it, trying to get as many contacts, politicians and community groups as possible to write to the owner, Sir Ray Tindle in a bid to save it, and save us.

But at the moment I'm feeling pretty numb about the whole thing. And angry that it's all happening too fast.

The Sun - We Love It

AS with most newspaper offices, we have the nationals delivered daily.This means we’ve all read - or at least have looked at almost everything that’s going on around about the time some of our readers are reaching for their cornflakes.
We’re allocated a different paper each month, which I imagine is intended to keep our brains ticking over nicely since we’re not stuck with the same reading matter for two long. Last month I was mulling over the cerebral prose of the Telegraph, which can be a toughie. Not least because of its shape and size. There’s a part of me that enjoys it’s defiant shape - it’s the only paper that’s not buckled under the pressure to re-size.

But it’s a challenge to manage when your desk is already littered with paper. There have been times it’s just been easier to plonk myself on the floor and read it there. Most of us don’t tend to stick to the sole title assigned to us anyway, with loyalties lying elsewhere. If you return to your desk and find your paper’s gone, chances are you’ll know who’s nabbed it. There's a reporter on our sister paper the Barnet Press who has a thing for The Guardian’s G2 - as do I.
A fellow Enfieldian who sits next to me is known for snatching The Sun come lunchtime.

It seems a sandwich doesn’t taste the same without the tabloid punch of a red-top. Now that The Sun’s mine for a month I’m becoming convinced.

And of course, being a London rag as we are, everyone wants the Standard.

Usually all at the same time.

Big Brothel

A REPORT on London’s brothels that I’ve been waiting for was published this week.
The Poppy Project's Big Brothel survey of the off-street sex industry in London punches alarming insight into not only the sheer volume of what's going on in my patch, but also the culture of workings within it.
All of the covert research was gained by investigating sex-services advertised in the back-end of local newspapers. And the Enfield Gazette was one of the papers listed.
Almost everyone is our newsroom doesn’t want those ads in our paper. And yet, advertising bosses don’t look like they’re anywhere near axing them.
The highest number of brothels was found in Westminster with 71. There were 54 in Enfield. Only 8 were found in Southwark, which has admirably banned classified ads offering commercial sex.
To give a flavour of the bleak reality of what's on the menu in the capital's brothels, you can get full sex for £15.
The average age of a woman available for purchase is 21. Most pricey is anal sex in Enfield, which averages between £80 to £200. Kissing, something we thought was off limits is £20. Kissing, oral or anal without a condom can be got for an extra tenner.
The sad fact is that much of the rest of the report's detail won't make the story.
My job is to report the news, keep the facts simple and fill a tiny space on a page, leaving it up to readers interested in the between-the-lines stuff to dig out a copy of the 60-odd-page report for themselves.
The Poppy Project, which exists to help trafficked into the UK for prostitution, doesn’t believe that prostitution should be tolerated, i.e. regulated, a view that is becoming an increasingly popular solution to a growing exploitative industry.
Male prostitutes and both male and female customers aside for a moment, the simple fact is that there is no other way in which, gender inequality is supported more starkly than in the case of prostitution. Here, men and women are constructed fundamentally as, buyer and bought, highly sexed and sexual object, hunter and prey, master and slave.
There are arguments told that prostitution is a choice. Common myths spout that “men need sex”, “prostitutes enjoy sex”, and a most abhorrent view that “prostitution prevents rape.”
Napoleon claimed in 1827 that prostitutes were a necessity because without them, men would attack respectable women on the streets.
And despite this idea that men are seen as innocent victims of their biological sexual desires being sheer bollocks, it is a view still held.
Women are shrouded with shame, seen as dirty and worthless – and we may as well be honest here –meat.
Yes, it doesn’t sound so good put like that does it? But the truth isn’t always.
It’s not clear what will happen in light of the research, which while challenges the situation, doesn’t look likely to spell the end of it.