With just one day to go until Islington Council's licensing committee meet to discuss the future of legendary London venue fabric—which has been closed in recent weeks following the death of two teenagers in drug-related incidents—a local MP has come out in support of the club.Emily Thornberry, the Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury since 2005, took to Facebook to post a lengthy statement outlining exactly why she's fully in favour of keeping the nightclub's doors open. Describing it as "one of the great cultural institutions in our borough," and repeatedly stating the importance of the club to both Islington and London as a whole, Thornberry details the precautions fabric have taken to ensure they work as directly as possible with the police on drugs-related issues.The key point in her statement concerns the need to keep clubs open as a way of aiding with the regulation of illegal substances. As she puts it, "Whilst it is obvious that more must always be done to address the issues facing Fabric and other nightclubs in London, surely the answer cannot be to simply shut them down and drive this culture underground, into the hands of people organising illegal raves with zero oversight, security or medical support. What we need is for club owners and the police to work together, not against each other, in order to make whatever reasonable and appropriate changes are required to mitigate the risks as much as possible."Read the statement in full below.
Keep your eyes on THUMP tomorrow for more news on the fabric situation.