Everyone scarper, the rozzers are coming

[ArabellaScott]

Dawn Butler's called the polis on us! Quick everyone, namechange and look busy.

https://twitter.com/DawnButlerBrent/status/1737853431413657806

Well, well, well. That was educational.

So it may be unacceptable to physically neuter young cockerels in the UK, then?

*The salvos round here do a lot of good work for the homeless, addicts and low income families. They're a good bunch.

Their motto is 'belief in action'*

Booth's motto was 'Go straight for souls, and go for the worst.'

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain ha ha I've been reading Jack Reacher books and the sentences are ridiculously short.

Tense evening in our house.

Suddenly saw blue flashing lights through the front door, and assumed the Met were coming for me. Quickly called the family together, warned them they would need to stay strong and go on a hunger strike in demand of my immediate release.

This didn’t go down well so I reverted to plan B and reminded them to par boil the spuds before roasting, and braced myself by the front door.

I was half way through We Shall Overcome after a rousing version of I Am Woman Hear Me Roar… when I realised I was preparing for arrest by my own fairy lights.

Indeed. How....thought provoking.

That's the name I'd forgotten!

Wikipedia hosts extracts from William Stead's articles and it can be clearly seen that the manipulations of human traffickers have changed very little. This is the technique sometimes nicknamed the "loverboy method", clearly described over a hundred years ago.

Stead quoted a former brothel-keeper who confirmed the nature of the trade*

"Maids, as you call them – fresh girls as we know them in the trade – are constantly in request, and a keeper who knows his business has his eyes open in all directions, his stock of girls is constantly getting used up, and needs replenishing, and he has to be on the alert for likely "marks" to keep up the reputation of his house. I have been in my time a good deal about the country on these errands. The getting of fresh girls takes time, but it is simple and easy enough when, once you are in it. I have gone and courted girls in the country under all kinds of disguises, occasionally assuming the dress of a parson, and made them believe that I intended to marry them, and so got them in my power to please a good customer. How is it done? Why, after courting my girl for a time, I propose to bring her to London to see the sights. I bring her up, take her here and there, giving her plenty to eat and drink–especially drink. I take her to the theatre, and then I contrive it so that she loses her last train. By this time she is very tired, a little dazed with the drink and excitement, and very frightened at being left in town with no friends..."

"I offer her nice lodgings for the night: she goes to bed in my house, and then the affair is managed. My client gets his maid, I get my £10 or £20 commission, and in the morning the girl, who has lost her character, and dare not go home, in all probability will do as the others do, and become one of my "marks"–that is, she will make her living in the streets, to the advantage of my house. The brothel keeper's profit is, first, the commission down for the price of a maid, and secondly, the continuous profit of the addition of a newly seduced, attractive girl to his establishment. That is a fair sample case of the way in which we recruit.

😂Damn that second bottle of wine.

@NeighbourhoodWatchPotholeDivision The brothelkeepers also used to send motherly looking women to stations to pick up the girls fresh from the country and coming to work as maids to offer them a lodging, where they'd rack up 'bills' they couldn't pay - and of course domestic servants turned off without a reference were another good supply for them.

Stead was on the Titanic and didn't survive.

It's been said before but I'll say it again. The breadth and depth of the knowledge on Mumsnet is truly amazing. I love being on here because every day I learn something. Some of it useful, some of it less so, but so much of it is fascinating.

To all you knowledgeable vipers, cheers and Merry Christmas!!!

I have to say I've been reading up on the passing of the act of Parliament that raised the age of consent before writing a blog, and some of that knowledge I could really do without knowing 😔

But I agree, some of the posts on MN, esp on this board, are both an education and a pleasure.

I knew the salvos were a good bunch but that insight into their history is impressive, and frustrating when you realise how little some things have changed.

I see the BBC are deliberately taunting us again, with both Porridge and The Shawshank Redemption on for Christmas films. Bastards.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b007b8zw/porridge-film

😂😂

I'm watching The Sound Of Music.

I have a very old (well, written in 1965) book about them that deals with their history from before their founding to about 1930. They did amazing work all over the world and often in the face of a great deal of opposition, official and unofficial.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/General-Next-God-William-Salvation/dp/0006241638

So little has changed. It's heartbreaking.

I donate to anti-trafficking organisations, and so many of the testimonies that they publish from anonymised victims involve naive girls from rural areas abroad, who thought they'd got jobs as au pairs. Then once they're in the traffickers' power, far from home, they're told they owe impossible sums to the traffickers.

Wasn't there someone in the debate who objected to the raising of the age of consent on the grounds that 'We've all enjoyed young prostitutes - why would we deny our sons the same pleasure?'. I have a feeling it was about raising the age from 12 years old. Am I remembering correctly?

Wasn't there someone in the debate who objected to the raising of the age of consent on the grounds that 'We've all enjoyed young prostitutes - why would we deny our sons the same pleasure?'. I have a feeling it was about raising the age from 12 years old. Am I remembering correctly?

I think there was, that it was unfair that they should be deprived of the pleasure of deflowering children (virgins commanded a much higher price for brothel keepers). And the argument was also advanced that if men couldn't resort to prostitutes then respectable women (like the wives of MPs) would be at risk of sexual violence.

Yep. Merry Christmas to you soon to be convicts

Welcome Christmas, bring the beer
Cheer to all who lurk on here
Christmas Day is off the brink
For we will not be in the clink
For every cunning green disguise
That baffles brains or puzzles eyes
A mumsnetter will take the mickey
Of them who try to be all tricky
We hold no grudges, are not vile
We take most insults with a smile
Be kind, be better, we don’t quibble
Unlike those who call the dibble
Although it has been fairly shocking
We hope some find humour in their stocking

God bless us, nearly everyone

The rozzers may have turned up while I was at the shop picking up last minute bits but as DP was in the bath with loud jungle music on, I will never know.

I did however amuse myself when putting out the cats' dinner (cod and plaice sachet) by singing 'whoop whoop it's da sound of da plaice'. I don't think they found it was funny as I did.

I think I'll get that book. My admiration for the Salvation Army has increased.

Good to see people bigging up the early Salvation Army here. What they did was remarkable, particularly for women, despite hatred and violence from the public. And they were pioneers of women in leadership too.

Same with Church Army (same era as early SA, but inside the Church of England), and early Methodists. And the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire dramatically reduced levels of female infanticide and raised the status of women. Again despite violence and opposition from the wider public.

I hope the police hurry up. The teenagers are talking about putting on Violent Night. I've already sat through Die Hard and Elf, and even 4 cocktails and all the unwanted double deckers in all the selection boxes aren't making me think that's a good idea.

@DawnButlersGayGiraffe Violent Night is quite good, a bit Home Alone like at times, some good actors. Don't be tempted to watch Silent Night on Now TV though, that's shit.