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Scottish Parliament and Pornography (8)

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Tue 19 Dec 06, 7:25 PM
druidic
UK(DD), 12 yrs

Scottish Women Against Pornography have put forward a petition to the Scottish Parliament to have all pornography classed as "an incitement to hatred against women". This has resulted in the Equal Opportunities Committee organising a summit for February which will include experts to establish whether or not there is a link between pornography and violence.

This has appeared in the press and is available online Here and Here

There is virually nothing on the Scottish Parliament website giving any further details, other than copy of the Minutes of Proceedings from a meeting on Dec 12th where it states ". Pornography (in private): The Committee agreed its approach in relation to a round-table discussion on the potential impact of pornography." The full minutes of said meeting state that the subject was indeed discussed in private.

I should imagine that this summit and the conclusion it reaches might have a direct effect on whether or not the Scottish Parliament decides to go ahead with the Extreme Pornographic Materials legislation.

As a side issue, it does concern me that one of the experts they are inviting to participate is Ray Wyre who has stated in the past that "pornography creates a climate of thought and belief which influences attitudes towards women and children. Furthermore, the more men masturbate to pornographic fantasies, the more likely they are to put those fantasies into practice." These views, in my opinion, have been formed by his work with sex offenders and not by the law abiding population as a whole.

I eagerly await to see which other experts are invited to the summit.

FIFE & TAYSIDE MUNCH
A seasonal tagline: "Your children need your presence more than your presents."

19 Dec 06, 8:02 PM
goodghirl
UK, 8 yrs

is it open for anyone to attend?

what do you think would be the best next move if any?

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19 Dec 06, 8:12 PM
goodghirl
UK, 8 yrs

I see FAC have commented on this maybe we can get a scottish contact from them

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19 Dec 06, 8:30 PM
Dommy_nick
UK(WS), 6 yrs

Wonder if (from the point of view of various politicians) that means I hate myself as I am a woman?

<Wishes we could lock all politicians in the Scottish Parliament and not let them out until they learned to talk sense>

I know, everyone is entitled to freedom of word and though (good) but hey, I can wish.

Santa, what I want for christmas is....

Dommy_nick

PS: Sorry for hijacking a serious thread, Dru.

19 Dec 06, 8:48 PM
druidic
UK(DD), 12 yrs

goodghirl wrote:
is it open for anyone to attend?

As far as I am aware, no. It appears to be an invitation only private summit. The minutes of the last Equal Ops committee meeting are available for all to see, with the exception of two discussions, one of those being the pornography issue.

goodghirl wrote:
what do you think would be the best next move if any?

I should imagine (or should that be "hope"!) that the list of invited experts will be published in advance. If this is the case then at least we can see if the views being given are balanced ones. If this is not the case then surely there must be some complaints procedure within the Scottish Parliamentary system that we can utilise in that regard.

We could lobby the nine MSPs on the committee, however I am aware that at least three of them are totally against pornography in any shape or form. Additionally, they are all very well versed at playing the "Parliamentary protocol prevents me replying to people who are not in my constituency " card!

Any suggestions?

FIFE & TAYSIDE MUNCH
A seasonal tagline: "Your children need your presence more than your presents."

20 Dec 06, 5:52 PM
gothbiker
5 yrs

Manniq wrote:

druidic wrote:
<snip>

Any suggestions?

Remove the gloves!

One thing that has struck me, increasingly, over the last year or so is the speed with which this government is banning things. At one time, I would have thought that they would ban a few things and then stop....but it seems the more they ban, the more they wish to ban.

Some of those banned things may have been popular moves - but now they are beginning to scrape the bottom of the barrel.

There is not a majority for banning porn. In Scotland, In England. In the UK.

However, if you join up the dots, you start to see a very nasty pattern emerging....a piecemeal closing down of anything that the government considers unacceptable.

It started with child porn....moved on by way of redefining children as 16 and 17 year-olds.... is moving on this year with 'extreme porn'... and behind that in the queue?

Well, John Reid is concerned about graphical representations... or cartoons to you and I. John Beyer wishes censorship extended to remove R18's from our shelves. And the Kent Police Force feels that banning images is not enough: that the written word needs to be censored too.

This is an all-out closing down on porn.

Remove the gloves! Say it!

This government and its allies wish to do away with porn. Not bdsm. Not violent stuff. Not paedophile stuff. But all porn.

And we have spent a good year fannying about with argument and counter-argument about whether this or that interpretation of their proposals is right and whether we should allow that such and such may genuinely be non-consensual and therefore subject to censorship.

The government wish to ban porn. There is as much evidence of that desire as there is of the ludicrous claims they have made about extreme porn - and if you can make clear the government agenda on this issue, then you will find yourself falling over unexpected allies for the cause.

Stop worrying about bdsm. If the government could, they would ban it tomorrow. Stop worrying about the small print.

We are living under the New Puritans - and they will ban whatever they can get away with.

Time to make common cause with the vanilla masses.

Time, too, to start setting our own agenda and fighting back.

Regards,

John

your so right on that one , if it don't fit in the goverments neat lil world then ban it . Blair and Bush religous nutters the pair of them

20 Dec 06, 10:58 PM
estarriol
UK(S), 7 yrs

Well its a good reply to all those who smugly said of the extreme violence, well it doesn't effect me so why should I be bothered.

This was a public service announcement from the Dragons Friendly Society.
I have a clue stick and I am not afraid to wield it.
Never surrender: never accept a caution.

9 Jan 07, 12:17 AM
Kazoo_Virtuoso
6 yrs

Most Voters want Brown to call early election:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-253751...

Edited 9 Jan 07, 12:20 AM by Kazoo_Virtuoso

9 Jan 07, 7:36 AM
The_Dungeoneers
UK(NR), 5 yrs

Manniq wrote:
<snip>

The government wish to ban porn. There is as much evidence of that desire as there is of the ludicrous claims they have made about extreme porn - and if you can make clear the government agenda on this issue, then you will find yourself falling over unexpected allies for the cause.

Stop worrying about bdsm. If the government could, they would ban it tomorrow. Stop worrying about the small print.

We are living under the New Puritans - and they will ban whatever they can get away with.

Time to make common cause with the vanilla masses.

Time, too, to start setting our own agenda and fighting back.

Regards,

John

By George, I think he's got it !

Censorship laws for Adults are repressive and redundant � help repeal them.
The Petition itself : http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/OpposeCensorship/
The Reason behind it: http://www.ukrudegirl.com/petition.html