An outstanding piece on Newsnight last night:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03w7wd2/Newsnight_20_02_2014/
From the programme commentary:
Next week a parliamentary inquiry in the UK will recommend we reject legalisation (of prostitution) and criminalise the buying of sex for the first time.
Doubtless the ‘inquiry’ will have been dominated by feminists and their male collaborators. I can’t recall any coverage of this in leading newspapers or elsewhere. These damnable people are expert manipulators of what is supposed to be a parliamentary democracy, as we saw with the whole ‘women in boardrooms’ question. In that case, all members of House of Lords and House of Commons ‘inquiries’ pursued feminist-friendly directions – even the Conservatives, to their eternal shame.
In our public consultation document we call for full decriminalisation of sex work in the UK, along the New Zealand model. After watching this edition of Newsnight, we’ll be looking at the German model. Judging by the programme, it’s working very well for both sex workers and their clients.
There are a number of sections of interest in the programme, which will be available until 27 February. Before then we hope to post an edited version of the programme. The sections:
00:27 – 00:50 Introduction
17:31 – 25:44 Mainly coverage of the position concerning prostitution in Germany, where ‘mega brothels’ are flourishing. Video footage from the largest German brothel, in Stuttgart, is included.
25:45 – 35:05 Studio discussion ably hosted by Laura Kuenssberg, with four female contributors.
The first two contributors were sharply intelligent and highly erudite:
Laura Lee, a sex worker and member of the International Union of Sex Workers.
Dr Belinda Brooks-Gordon, an academic and author of the book The Price of Sex.
In stark contrast were the supporters of the ‘Swedish model’ in which buyers of sex are criminalised:
Mary Honeyball MEP, a dour Labour politician (Harriet Harman could be her cheery sister) who can usually be relied upon to talk utter nonsense, and doesn’t disappoint here.
Dorcas Erskine of ‘The Poppy Project’.
These two women were shameless in delivering their misleading ideologically-driven narratives. Any reasonable-minded person who was undecided about the issues surrounding this subject would surely have been convinced by this Newsnight episode that full legalisation of prostitution is the only way to go, for the sake of sex workers and their clients.
