According to today's Guardian, the Government is exploring the possibility of criminalising payment for sex, and a minister is to visit Sweden to examine how the system works there. It is thought that such a law would help to crack down on sex slavery and forced prostitution, but sex workers' spokespersons maintain that it would lead to increased violence and extortion, and that the proper way to proceed is to legalise and license brothels instead of driving prostitution still further underground and making prostitutes even more vulnerable then they now are.
Memories are very short, and the dire social consequences of Prohibition in the USA during the 1920s seem to have slipped from most people's minds. One salutary bi-product of outlawing payment for sex, though, might be to make London a less attractive venue for unsavoury visitors such as Saudi princes - though they would doubtless claim diplomatic immunity if caught in the act.
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6 comments:
I can't resist purloining this from the inimitable Zola-Ink-Spots:
UK GOVERNMENT DOES NOT WANT HUMAN BODY AS COMMODITY
The NuLabor latest. The UK human body must not be for sale.
Incredible this considering that this NuLabor is prostitution par excellence.
THIS Sort of thing should go far to make it clear, that government is just a (primitive!) phase of early humanity....
[As asked by AC]
The "prostituttion laws" here in Sweden is a complete and utter faliure.
There's no less prostitution. It has just gone underground. Buissness is being made over the internet rather than on the streets, but nevertheless buissness is being made!
But prostitution is not the problem. Trafficking is!
And just take a guess who the greatest culprits are there...
Morally, I just don't see anything wrong with two consenting adults exchange money for service. But when you chase them underground, it will be that much harder to control what's going on.
Summa Sumarum:
We have not got any less prostitution- only more prospective criminals.
If there's a demand, then there WILL be providers.
Thanks, Pela. Your comment bears out my own understanding of the matter. The moralistic idiots who seek to 'protect' the vulnerable - whether prostitutes or drug addicts - by criminalising the market in which they operate only make matters worse.
The common-sense solution to all these 'vices' is to provide genuine legal protection by controlling the market and stamping down hard on racketeers who, because the transactions are criminal, make excessive profits and have no regard for life.
But common-sense solutions are the last thing governments and politicians who like to be seen 'doing something' want.
I must say that the oldest profession in the world has never been controlled by whoever or whatever. Perhaps a way to control it would be by applying an ample social security to persons without any kind of income.
Nobody up high cares to speak about this lack of protection which is the real problem and has been at all times.
Ahh- Yes!
I "know" a "Lady of negotiable affection" (via forums on internet- mind you), and she argues that the prostitution laws actually has risen the trafficking. East European girls and boys aswell as South-East Asian and African girls are shipped in as merchandice, just to be tossed away when they have "done their job).
Because they are illegaly smuggeled in to the country (because of the prostitution laws), they have no chance to stay here and many of them just dissapeares. Where to? Who knows!
Nobody (the press) is talking loud about this.
While the lady I "know" is very happy with what she's doing, she hate to see théese girls- often juveniles- being used by... Well just let's say Asian Youth gangs and somewhat older Russian ones.
A parlell can be made to the Usa in the thirties and the prohibition laws against alcohole (don't you just love that "Alcohole" is an arabic word)- and we all now what a success THAT was...
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