Tesco condemned for selling pole dancing toy by COLIN FERNANDEZ Daily Mail Tesco has been forced to remove a pole-dancing kit from the toys and games section of its website after it was accused of "destroying children's innocence". The Tesco Direct site advertises the kit with the words, "Unleash the sex kitten inside...simply extend the Peekaboo pole inside the tube, slip on the sexy tunes and away you go! "Soon you'll be flaunting it to the world and earning a fortune in Peekaboo Dance Dollars". The £49.97 kit comprises a chrome pole extendible to 8ft 6ins, a 'sexy dance garter' and a DVD demonstrating suggestive dance moves. The kit, condemned as 'extremely dangerous' by family campaigners yesterday, was discovered by mother of two Karen Gallimore who was searching for Christmas gifts for her two daughters, Laura 10, and Sarah, 11. Mrs Gallimore, 33, of Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, said yesterday: "I'm no prude, but any children can go on there and see it. It's just not on." Dr Adrian Rogers, of family campaigning group Family Focus said yesterday that the kit would "destroy children's lives". He said: "Tesco is Britain's number one chain, this is extremely dangerous. It is an open invitation to turn the youngest children on to sexual behaviour. "This will be sold to four, five and six-year olds. This is a most dangerous toy that will contribute towards destroying children's innocence." He added: "Children are being encouraged to dance round a pole which is interpreted in the adult world as a phallic symbol. "It ought to be stopped, it really requires the intervention of members of Parliament. This should only be available to the most depraved people who want to corrupt their children." Tesco today agreed to remove the product from the Toy section of the site, but said it will remain on sale as a Fitness Accessory, despite the fact that the product description invites users to "unleash the sex kitten inside". Also on sale on the Tesco website is a strip poker game, "Peekaboo Poker" which is illustrated by a picture of a reclining woman in underwear. The card game is is described as a game that "risks the risque and brings a whole lot of naughtiness to the table. "Played with a unique pack of Peekaboo Boy and Girl playing cards, the aim of the game is to win as many Peekaboo chips as possible and turn them into outrageously naughty fun." The pole dance kit is the latest item to fuel allegations that major retailers increasingly sell products which "sexualise" young children such as T-shirts with suggestive messages. In recent years Asda was forced to remove from sale pink and black lace lingerie, including a push-up bra to girls as young as nine. Next had to remove t-shirts on sale for girls as young as six with the slogan "so many boys, so little time." And BHS and others came under fire for selling padded bras embellished with a "Little Miss Naughty" logo and t-shirts with a Playboy-style bunny that said "I love boys...They are stupid." Tesco last night denied the pole dancing kit was sexually oriented and said it was clearly marked for "adult use". A spokesman added: "Pole dancing is an increasing exercise craze. This item is for people who want to improve their fitness and have fun at the same time." Comment: Tesco's happens to be one of the largest UK supermarket chains and is also Jewish owned. "So what?" We hear you say. Indeed, no big deal, but it is always interesting to see how the vested interests of religious and political groups end up infiltrating many areas of public life. Consider the following articles for example...

Flashback: Tesco cooks up Jewish hot star bun for Easter Telegraph March 1999 Tesco's will this week launch a range of Jewish hot cross buns for Easter, substituting the cross with a star of David. The move follows a request from a Jewish group to the Tesco store in Colney Hatch, north London. Talks were held with the Jewish Board of Deputies and officials from the Church of England before the go-ahead was given. The buns will initially be sold only in the north London store but will be introduced to other shops if they prove popular. A spokesman for Tesco said: "We wanted to make sure it would not offend anybody. The Board of Deputies is fine with the idea as long as we don't sell them during Passover, the weekend of March 31, when it is forbidden to eat anything with leavened bread." The buns will be available before and after that date. News of the hot star buns received a mixed reaction last night. Officials at the Church of England privately described the the idea as "mad', but Rabbi Pini Dunner, who runs the Saatchi Synagogue funded by the advertising brothers, praised the scheme as "imaginative and innovative". He would not be eating them himself, however, because they were not "kosher". A spokesman for the Church of England said: "This is a complete waste of time. The point of hot cross buns is that they mark Good Friday when Christ was crucified. Hence the cross. You cannot put a star in its place. There seems to be a trend against faiths having their own traditions." The Council for Christians and Jews, a group set up to improve relations between the faiths, described the move as "quite inappropriate." Jonathan Gorsky, education adviser, said: "I am utterly bewildered. It seems to me that it is part of Christian life. To pretend otherwise is totally absurd. These have no relevance to Jews. I can see no reason to do such a thing."

Flashback: Tesco Pull Anti Jewish Publications From Online Bookstore November 2005 CNN British retailer Tesco PLC said Friday it was withdrawing several far-right and anti-Semitic publications from its online bookstore after complaints from an anti-fascist magazine. Searchlight magazine said it was "horrified" to discover books from far-right publishers on the Tesco web site. They included "The Hitler We Loved and Why," "The International Jew" and infamous anti-Semitic tract "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." Mark Gardner, director of communications for the Jewish Community Security Trust, said it was "inexplicable and shameful" that Tesco -- one of Britain's biggest supermarket chains -- would sell such material. In a statement, Tesco said it had removed the books after a complaint from Searchlight. "Tesco.com has over 1 million book titles covering a wide range of subjects," it said. "We are unhappy that titles which could cause offense to some customers have found there way on to our site, and took immediate action to remove them once they were brought to our attention." Comment: Of course, we have to wonder who authorised the inclusion of these titles. After all, it provided the Zionists a great opportunity to promote the bogus claim of a "world-wide rise in anti-Semitism".

A quarter of British children are living in poverty Daily Mail 23/10/2006 Almost a quarter of children in the UK live in poverty, according to an official study. In Europe only Poland, Slovakia and Italy has worst child poverty rates. According to the definition of poverty, a couple with two young children on less than £228 a week after housing costs are deducted are officially poor. The same applies for a single parent with two young children if they live on less than £146 a week. A 100-page report from public health experts found 22.5 per cent of children in the UK and 27 per cent of children in the capital are from households that survive on less than 60 per cent of the median income - the official definition of poverty. This rises to 41 per cent after housing costs in the capital are taken into account. In Britain as a whole, 3.4 million children live in poverty. The number had been falling but this has levelled out. The Indicators Of Child Health report, by the Association of Public Health Observatories, said: "Five of the English regions have significantly more child poverty than the European average." Today, critics hit out at the Government's failure to tackle child poverty, especially in London, which is often linked to a lifetime of ill health, leading to diseases such as TB. Dr Bobbie Jacobson, director of London Health Observatory, said: "Lifting children out of poverty provides the route to better opportunities and health. The finding that London is second worst in the European league confirms the picture of London as home not just to the wealthiest but also to the poorest families in Europe." Lynne Featherstone, Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for London, said: "These figures are a disgrace. It puts paid to the lie that London is somehow rich.î Colette Marshall, UK director of Save the Children, said: "Children in the capital are missing out on basic needs such as living in a warm home this winter, or eating nutritious food. We have to recognise that poverty is on our doorstep.î The report also shows children in the UK are more likely than those elsewhere in Europe to get pregnant, be obese and catch measles after not being vaccinated. On the positive side, they are likely to be breast-fed shortly after birth, probably do not have tooth decay or broken bones and eat plenty of fruit and vegetables.

Childcare gets robotic By Alison Godfrey October 25, 2006 12:00am JAPANESE engineers have designed a novel solution to childcare - a 38cm robot that can send pictures of your child to your mobile phone on demand. The new 'humanoid' robot, called PaPeRo - short for Partner-type Personal Robot - has a camera in each eye and uses image recognition technology to remember and identify people. It can move at 20cm per second to track children around the house or nursery. The futuristic robot also has an inbuilt mobile phone. When a parent calls it will locate the child and start to play with them. Parents can also send text messages and talk to children using PaPeRo's inbuilt microphones and speakers. As part of a deal between computer giant NEC and Japanese telecommunication company NTT the new service will be trialled in a Tokyo nursery school from this week. But the company is also marketing the product to busy executives as a personal assistant. "It checks your email, tunes the TV to your favorite channel, and dances with your children," NEC says on it's website. "This egg-shaped robot named PaPeRo knows your favorite football team and searches the Internet for the day's lineups and scores when you get home. It will also develop a personality depending on how you treat it. Speak to it nicely and stroke its head sensors and PaPeRo will learn to love you." NEC's Multimedia Research Laboratories senior manager Yoshihiro Fujita said the robot has been designed to remove typical 'computer' features like keyboards. "We envision a future with simpler interactions with technology," he said. "You don't need to learn to use PaPeRo like a PC, you just need to talk to it," Comment: Ah yes, since most children are already so well adjusted. Another step toward accepting our robotic overlords.