cabaret performers lash mayors rape crisis let down

Cabaret performers lash mayor’s Rape Crisis let down.

PRESS RELEASE

The campaign calling for London Mayor Boris Johnson to save the capital’s only remaining Rape Crisis centre – as he promised in his election manifesto – will launch with a star-studded cabaret show at hip, underground venue the Resistance Gallery, on Thursday 4th June, 8-12pm.

Boris Keep Your Promise , a campaign organised by the London branch of the Fawcett Society 1, seeks to remind the Mayor of his obligation to London’s 3.9 million women, of whom statistics suggest one in four of whom will be sexually assaulted.

The staff and volunteers who run the last remaining centre 2 work under the constant threat of closure as the centre’s core costs must be met by funding that is erratic and cannot be guaranteed from year to year.

Boris Johnson’s pre-election campaign material made a great deal of his promise to pay for three new Rape Crisis centres and fund the existent centre for at least four years 3 which may have won him many floating voters. But more than a year has passed since his election and his silence, and even the possibility of reneging on his promise 4, has been noted.

Surely the charity event of the year, the campaign’s Cabaret Show will feature the comedic talents of Josie Long (Perrier newcomer ), Fancy Chance, (Alternative Miss World), Andrew O’Neill (Saxondale), Miss Behave (Olivier Award winning member of La Clique), The Stillhouse Orchestra, Ophelia Bitz, Amundsen and Slade’s Sonic Sideshow. Many other acts are yet to be confirmed.

The event takes place on Thursday 4th June at the Resistance Gallery in Bethnal Green, and is free. In the best theatrical tradition, it will be “All right on the night,” as organisers are asking show-goers to write a letter at the venue to their London Assembly member and the Mayor 5 expressing their displeasure, and to also donate £2 a month to London Rape Crisis 6. The campaign team will be on hand to assist with letter templates, paper and pens, and will collect the letters for sending at the end of the evening Campaign organisers, Matty Mitford & Stephanie XXXXX of North London Fawcett Society, or comedian Lucy XXXX7 are available for interview or comment, as is Yvonne Traynor, director of RASASC Croydon . Please contact for print quality jpegs of any of the images.

With public anger towards apparently pocket-lining politicians who promise much and deliver nothing running feverishly high at the moment, it is time to begin to hold our representatives to account – starting with Boris.

28) http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/feb/13/boris.london08