Personally speaking, I don’t think GCCF Chairman Gordon Butler could have picked a better day on which to post his statement to the GCCF Website on the future of OUR CATS, i.e. 5th November, a day on which we are urged to remember Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.

The statement, the reasoning (or lack thereof) and the initial plot behind it all sounds like something that Robert Catesby, Guy Fawkes and co could have come up with in 1605.

In this case, the allusion is very apt, because those on the Executive who were behind the plot to oust OUR CATS as official journal of the GCCF have certainly lit a gunpowder fuse which began its slow burn in London at the last Council meeting on 24th October and is all set to blow up spectacularly any day now.

I’ll stop short of saying this was an act of treason, because a slightly-less-than two-thirds majority vote said that the Executive did not exceed their remit to do so (although 63% of delegates voting that they DID exceed their remit is hardly a ringing vote of confidence). So let’s say ‘reason’ instead of ‘treason’.

And the reason for their decision, such as it is, seems to me, from what I saw and heard as an observer at that meeting is simply that some people on the Executive don’t like Vince Hogan (actually I’m a nice bloke! Ed.) and they don’t like OUR CATS. Well, that’s a sound and sane basis for trying to destroy it then, isn’t it? This brings us back to ‘reason’ and whether it was a reasonable thing to do. Clearly it’s NOT the action of reasonable people, no more than the latest statement is, but enough of the semantics; let’s examine a few facts…

Interesting interpretation

Mr Butler quotes from a letter he sent to Vince Hogan, Managing Editor of OUR CATS just a couple of days previously Okay, fair play, OUR CATS has reproduced correspondence from the GCCF in these pages, but at least we waited until we’d had a reply from them before we did so. Still, never mind, but some things only work when they’re done properly. Mr Butler says:

‘I am satisfied, having taken advice from Marshalls, that the result of the vote on item 4 (a) of the agenda upheld the decision of the Executive to terminate the contract between the GCCF and Our Cats, that decision having been communicated to you in my letter dated 1st July 2007. The existing contract will therefore terminate on 31st January 2008.’

Well, that’s a very interesting interpretation in itself. Like I said, it may not have been a two-thirds majority, but it’s hardly a resounding vote in favour of what the Council did, is it? 63% is a LOT of delegates. But okay, democracy is democracy (even if it is pulled into interesting shapes), so let’s concede that they didn’t exceed their remit…

Mr B continues: ‘The result of Council having voted in favour item 4 (b) by more than a two thirds majority requires that the Executive put any future proposals for further progress in this matter before Council for approval.

The first opportunity to begin examining possible ways forward will be a meeting of the Executive on 28th November 2007.’

Now this really is a very, very ‘interesting’ interpretation of the wording of 4(b) (see Box) and how the result is reflected. Most sensible people would read that totally unequivocal wording as the fact that the whole matter of removing the official journal status form OUR CATS is Stopped Dead. Finished. No more. Any further moves to launch an action of this kind MUST be raised in Council, properly discussed and a tendering process gone through. This, incidentally, is what the worder of the proposal, Keith Scruton of the Blue Persian Cat Society meant. Like I said, it’s unequivocal.

But it seems that Mr Butler and the solicitors, having bent the decision of Vote 4(a) to suit purpose, now interpret Vote 4(b) as meaning ‘further progress in the ongoing matter’, i.e. the same ‘sacking’ of OUR CATS.

Now, this isn’t just me stirring things up here, or some devious policy by OUR CATS. I’ve spent the past couple of days since the notice was posted talking to some of the delegates who were at that meeting and to a man (or a woman) they all say the same thing: This is not how they interpreted the vote that was taken. They too believe that the vote was to stop the whole thing dead in its tracks and that it is totally disingenuous of Mr Butler and the legal eagles at Marshalls to try to interpret it otherwise.

Month-by-month

Then Mr Butler asks Vince Hogan: ‘It would be helpful to know in advance of the meeting on 28th November whether:-


(i) if Our Cats were to be asked by the GCCF to continue after 31st January 2008 on an interim “month to month” basis (i.e. one month’s notice of termination being required from either party), Our Cats would be willing to do so;

(ii) if there is any substance behind the rumour that Our Cats is up for sale, what impact this would have on any possible future contract between the GCCF and Our Cats’.

Well, only someone with absolutely no idea of how business is conducted in the real world would seriously suggest that a commercial business be run on a month- to- month basis. Then again, as we know, we aren’t dealing with people who have any idea of running a business in the real world – this much was made clear by delegates at the meeting (see my report in the last issue of OUR CATS).

And is it true that OUR CATS is up for sale? Well it’s certainly an option. And can you blame the company after all the nonsense we’ve had to put up with for the past few months? But just because OUR CATS may be up for sale doesn’t mean that it’s going to fold. It may mean that it will continue, as an entity, as a publication with a new publisher. Simple as that. That’s if it’s sold… and that is OUR CATS’ business. (All options open! Ed.)

So where does this leave us all? Sadly, but not surprisingly, no further forward. Not only has Mr Butler as GCCF Chairman upset a large number of Council delegates by his ‘interesting interpretation statement’, he’s upset a lot of members of the Executive Committee themselves.

I know of four members of the Executive who were not consulted in any way, shape or form about the latest statement. Now, given what came out at the Council meeting last month – i.e. that much of the plan to remove official status from OUR CATS and give it to Fancy That took place behind closed doors and without the knowledge of most of the Executive because they couldn’t be trusted with such sensitive information, you’d think that any sensible people in charge of matters would make a point of consulting with the members of the Executive. But no, no such consultation was made. The lesson has obviously not been learned.

Moves afoot

Since the statement was posted, OUR CATS has learned a few things though and one of these is that apparently moves are afoot for delegates to call an Extraordinary General Meeting to resolve this matter once and for all… and this includes plans for a formal Vote of No Confidence in those officers responsible for this whole sorry state of affairs.

Don’t blame OUR CATS for this though – we didn’t start this whole cycle of events and we’re just reporting what we’ve heard.

In closing, I’ll just revisit the Gunpowder Plot again. After Guy Fawkes was arrested and, under torture, named his co-conspirators, the game was up. Within a few months most of them were rounded up and put on trial. But their actions put the cause of millions of innocent, ordinary, decent Catholics in Britain back for at least 50 years.

Let’s just hope, that whatever the outcome in this whole GCCF/OUR CATS Gunpowder Plot that the cause of hundreds of innocent, ordinary, decent Cat Fanciers in Britain doesn’t go the same way…