18 june 2010, liquid lunch

I gave an after dinner speech today at what would once be called a gentlemen's club in manchester, the last one apparently. A week ago I was on the beach at the tail end of an outrageous gay pride event, and today I listened reverently to grace, toasts and a vote of thanks. Strange that both can be spiritual experiences. One sensation was a sort of "from the street to the boardroom" elation. Another was a desire to climb the ramparts and throw things, but I fought that, as on thinking about it, my problem was not so much with the club as an institution but rather its make up, which was almost entirely elderly, white, male and middle class. I'm not sure you can get away from the last criteria if you appeal to that section of society that habitually lunches in a wealthy city centre and wants the familiar around it. To survive though, you certainly need to change the first three. Because you need institutions to bring people together, I wish them well.