From the office of The President; General Communiqué – October 2011

First of all, we have had a computer crisis, which has resulted in our losing all of the distribution lists for this communiqué.
So if you, having read this, would like to continue to receive it on a monthly basis, please email me.

Many, many thanks to all that have been so generous with both computers and time to help rectify the disaster, and prevent
it becoming a catastrophe, especially Richard, Simon, Jo, Mike, Philippa and Darren. Thank you all.

Night of the Cane will take place on Saturday 29th October 7pm - 3am, The Factory, Romford (email ishmael@the-firm.org for the address).
It will include school classes, workshops, and the competition for the Annual Golden Cane Award. And MUCH MORE! And burgers.

Advance tickets £20 from Zeitgeist, Holloway Road, or from Zak at LFF, or online at Joanna Lark or from Zak at the LFF, or by post from
Kane, 13 Riddlesdale Avenue, Tunbridge Wells, TN4 9AB (cheques to I Skyes).
It's good to book in advance. The dresscode as ever is Fetish, Academic, Uniform, Evening Dress. Soft drinks on sale, but bring your own alcohol.

We've got a quite wonderful venue in The Factory, and Romford (while being in Zone6) is only 20 minutes out of Liverpool Street, and the venue is
only seven minutes walk from the station and, with extra space, we have even more scope to make this NOTC very exciting indeed, and it will be
going on until 3am – that's eight hours of caning action, which equates to a very large number of very sore bottoms!

So far, reaction from volunteers and customers alike has been fantastic, with lots of talented, sexy and erudite people coming forward to contribute, as well as a flood of applications for
tickets from as far a field as Germany, but we still need lots more of both, since nothing succeeds like excess; most especially at the moment, we need to circulate our flyers, so
anyone able to help might do very well to get in touch immediately.

Master magician Larry Barnes died in Hackney on July 2, aged 85. As one of the variety theatre's last speciality acts, he was a magician, an escapologist, a balloon sculptor and most
famously a paper tearer. His generosity in donating his remarkable talents to numerous Firm events over the last ten years will not be forgotten. Larry was a true gentleman (and Pearly King).

Eddie, host of so very many wonderful private parties at his home in South Hampstead in the 1980s, 90s and Noughties has just reached the age of 90! I am sure you will join us in
wishing him a very Happy Birthday.

After five glorious years, Isis has finally been forced to close – the very last Isis is to be Friday 14th. Oct. For all details see the Isis website.

The 14th Annual Club RUB Rubber Awards on October 15th on board the HMS President 1918. Over 15 TOP Prizes for those wearing the BEST latex categories. See here.
Club RUB, the fun sexy London fetish club! Plus Latex Workshop.

Have you noticed just how often The Sun decides that stuff on the telly is news? We've got fat, greedy bankers, rioting youth, and policemen taking bribes off the world's biggest crook,
and what do they call news? Bloody stupid moron telly!

When I was at school, we knew that Come Dancing was boring, and that Opportunity Knocks and New Faces were cheaply produced talent shows – in other words they were shit telly
to fill in the gaps between good telly (like Dr Who and I, Claudius) – nowadays they call it 'Strictly' or 'The X Factor', but however much paint and tinsel has been added to the turd,
it is still a turd. And what is 'I'm a Celebrity' but 'Celebrity It's a Knockout'??? That was crap as well, but at least we had Stuart Hall and Eddie Waring, not Ant and bloody Dec!