UK CLUBLAND
This time around, in this year of a promised general election, we focus on conservative clubs and what they offer their members and visitors. Do you have to be an active tory to be part of a local conservative? It seems the answer in most cases is, definitely no! Mark Ritchie has a look at the scene as a whole

At the time of writing the Prime Minister of Great Britain is Rishi Sunak. The general election has now been called, so the electorate will soon have our say. These are turbulent times in politics and we are currently all left guessing at what will happen next in parliamentary circles.
What would Mr Sunak and the billionaire Mrs Sunak find if they ventured through the doors of the average conservative club? I have worked as an entertainer in many such venues over the years, most recently Rawdon and Guiseley conservative club, which is situated in West Yorkshire and where I enjoyed a lovely evening. The Rawdon and Guiseley people proved to be a very receptive crowd and even laughed uproariously when I delivered a gag about the Partygate PM, Boris Johnson.
For the purposes of this article, I had a good dig around and revealed that many conservative clubs offer various forms of live entertainment, while others market themselves to their local communities by letting off function rooms.
Sporting dinners are also popular. For instance, Romsey conservative club in Hampshire recently hosted Southampton FC legend Matt Le Tissier. The evening proved to be a huge success.
Charity events seem to be numerous in such clubs, with some star attractions being invited to perform, as well as dinner events, of which there is literally hundreds up and down the country. Bitterne conservative club in Southampton has a long history of charity fundraising and only recently their club treasurer Jim Gauld revealed that, in the last few years alone, the club has raised almost £150,000 for Mc Millan Nurses and other worthy causes.
There are labour clubs and liberal clubs galore, but I remember having to bite my tongue when I was booked at one conservative club many years ago. It was not long after the miner’s strike of 1984/85 and originally, I hail from a mining community. In fact, I was employed underground for six long years between 1977 and 1983. At this club, a portrait of Margaret Thatcher adorned the walls and everyone spoke very highly of her, possibly due to her at that juncture having famously just been knifed by her own party. The club chairman made an impassioned speech to those assembled audience just before I went on-stage. They were apparently planning to send Thatcher some sort of goodbye present. I remained diplomatically silent, but it really was tough to keep my mouth shut!
We continue to look for area correspondents who could collate and send us information across the national club scene. If you have a Clubland related story to tell, please e-mail all your Clubland information to mark.ritchie@ukcabaret.com