AS the clock ticks ever closer to the new millennium, runes are being read, entrails examined and the stars studied to discern what epochal event it will entail.

Yet, those questing for the answer have evidently missed the fact that this momentous, earth-shaking departure has already happened right here in East Lancashire . . . they are letting women join Whalley Conservative Club!

Even now as the stunning news sinks in, the sound can still be heard of blimps spluttering in high dudgeon into their whiskies and soda.

This was the ultimate bastion against petticoat power. The throne, Downing Street and the MCC had already been overwhelmed.

Now, Tory ladies no longer have to sneak up the Con Club's back stairs and stay confined in the committee room when they convene there, but can join the boys at the bar and in a frame or two of snooker.

But historic as this day is for women, for some men the question remains whether any good will come of it.

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