|
15th December |
Crocodile
Tears... |
| |
 Murders
remind of the dangers of forcing sex workers into the cold
Comment
from Paul
Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart
Gull said police chiefs were "emotionally overwhelmed" after learning
five prostitutes had been found dead. He said there was "stunned
silence" when a meeting of police commanders was given the news.
These tragic events have clearly overwhelmed us... emotionally,
said Mr Gull, who is leading the hunt for the serial killer targeting
women in the Ipswich red light area.
Maybe they'll think of that when they are persecuting sex workers in
future
Comment from The Times,
by Alice Miles
How we let Gemma and
Tania down
The case for legalised prostitution is clear
What a shame that all the prostitutes murdered in Ipswich were not the
product of broken homes. It would have made a solution so much simpler,
at least to propose if not to enforce: marriage for all, home by nine,
in bed by ten. Unfortunately one of the girls at least appears to come
from precisely the kind of nice middle class two-parent happy family
background that is supposed by many jumping on the Conservative Party’s
new-old bandwagon to preclude drug taking, poverty and misery.
One thing I can predict with utter certainty: neither the Conservative
nor Labour parties will propose the sort of steps that would have
protected Gemma and Tania and Anneli and, as looks grimly inevitable,
Paula and Annette. The solutions are too unpalatable for polite
politics, which relies on middle-class votes in “nice” areas like
Suffolk for election.
First, brothels: proper, clean, large-as-you-like, licensed knocking
shops, with medical checks and protection for the girls. And tax credits
too. Not all prostitutes would want to join one, but at least they would
have a choice. At the beginning of this year Labour launched a
“prostitution strategy”, after the most thorough review of the law in
half a century. It abandoned ideas for managed zones in non-residential
areas and instead prescribed a crackdown on kerb crawling, early
intervention, efforts to tackle demand and new attempts to help women to
escape from the lifestyle. It would be laughable if it weren’t so
serious and so sad: a pathetic range of tried and failed “policies”. The
only promising proposal was to allow up to three women to operate from
the same premises in sort of mini-brothels without facing prosecution;
but there has been no sign since of the legislation needed to implement
it.
What there has been in a concerted focus on kerb crawling, with
zero-tolerance zones and the increased use of ASBOs — recently
introduced against women working as prostitutes in Ipswich — which have
forced the women into ever darker corners and more quickly into strange
men’s cars in order to evade arrest. And that, according to prostitutes
in Ipswich and elsewhere, has left them more vulnerable than ever. Funny
how silent Home Office ministers have been this week; it normally takes
but a headline or two for John Reid to pop up flashing a stiffer
sentence or a fundamental review.
And that would be easy compared with addressing the drug issue: Gemma
Adams, like many of the prostitutes on the streets of Ipswich, was a
heroin addict. How much evidence does the Government need before it
concludes that heroin should be prescribed on the NHS for addicts to
short circuit the personal and public chaos an addicted life generates?
It doesn’t mean that society condones heroin use, any more than it
condones or condemns the use of Prozac or benzodiazepams; but it does
mean recognising addiction as a physical condition and not just a moral
failure.
We can only hope that Mr Cameron heard the London prostitute interviewed
on the Today programme (with a sort of “we don’t do this very often”
apology from the presenter by way of introduction for listeners of a
moralistic bent). She explained eloquently how she turned to
prostitution because she needed money to raise her children, and didn’t
want to work long hours in a supermarket never seeing them. Money, Mr
Cameron: it is the basis of general wellbeing if you haven’t got enough
of it, and any family in a low-income bracket needs it, married or not.
It didn’t require the deaths of five women to tell us any of this. Nor
is there a society on earth that can prevent the violence of the
occasional serial killer. What we have done is offered up the street
girls as easy prey while turning up our noses at them and their way of
life and turning our backs. Despite the rest of the country talking
about the murders in Ipswich, the Prime Minister had nothing to say
about them at his press conference yesterday.
If these deaths have helped to shine a light on the desperate world that
exists outside our front doors and under our eyes, well at least that is
something. Not much of a consolation to their families and friends, is
it?
|
|
17th December |
Update:
Unacceptable Politics... |
| |
Blair
blocked safety measures out of fear of headlines
From The
Observer
Downing Street blocked moves that
would in effect have legalised prostitution because the Prime Minister
was so concerned that 'hostile headlines' would wreck plans to make sex
workers' lives safer.
In a passionate article in today's Observer, Katharine Raymond, a senior
adviser to the former Home Secretary David Blunkett, reveals that he
wanted to liberalise the law, allowing 'managed areas' for prostitutes
similar to those in mainland Europe. Experts say that such areas would
mean that sex workers, such as the five women killed around Ipswich over
the past month, would be at less risk of attack.
Today Raymond, who was one of Blunkett's trusted special advisers
overseeing prostitution policy for more than three years, calls for the
legalisation of prostitution and argues that current policy is 'a
disgrace' caused by 'political cowardice' and public indifference.
The uncomfortable reality is that, while these pitiful girls and
women cater to an eternal consumer demand, their lives are being put at
greater risk by the lamentable failings of both government and law
enforcement, she says.
Raymond's attack is significant because it is the first account from
inside the Home Office of how attempts at liberalisation foundered. She
worked closely with ministers in drawing up a consultation paper called
'Paying the Price', which she said was designed to trigger a 'serious
debate' about legalised brothels and red-light zones managed by local
councils.
Raymond says there was 'opposition from Number 10, which was terrified
of a hostile media response'. The paper eventually surfaced only because
Blunkett wanted what he called a 'grown-up debate'. However, a few
months later he resigned and the issue passed to his successor, Charles
Clarke. The result, says Raymond, was a 'watered-down series of
proposals' that has still not been implemented.
Blunkett insisted yesterday there was no pressure from Downing Street
and blamed the previous reticence of many commentators now advocating
reform for the fact that it came to nought. A spokesman for Blunkett
said: His only regret is that insufficient contributions were
forthcoming from so many of those now commenting on the circumstances
surrounding the tragic murders in Suffolk and, had they done so at the
time, it may have been possible to have had a sensible debate about the
issues then.
When the paper was eventually published in July 2004, it duly triggered
hostile comments from media and, more crucially, the police. After
consultation the then minister, Fiona Mactaggart, published proposals in
January this year offering only a minor change, allowing a maximum of
two prostitutes to work together for safety from a flat. Tolerance zones
were ruled out.
Home Office sources last week declined to say when the law might be
changed to allow even this limited reform: John Reid, the Home
Secretary, is said to be reluctant to debate the issues while the murder
hunt continues.
Raymond, however, argues that the 'useless' laws governing prostitution
should be scrapped and brothels legalised, with pilot experiments to
show whether managed zones can work, too. Liverpool council had been
poised to start such a pilot in the wake of the Home Office's initial
consultation, but needed a go-ahead from ministers that it did not get.
|
19th September
updated to
9th October |
Executive Intolerance
I wonder if the mean minded politicians are eyeing up
stoning as a possible punishment.
Based on an article from
The Herald
 Around
100 men are expected to be persecuted annually under a proposed law,
published yesterday, intended to put prostitutes' clients on the wrong
side of the law as well as the sex workers.
Many more could be dissuaded by new guidelines
for councils, encouraging them to use security cameras and registration
plate recognition software, through which warning letters can be sent to
suspected kerb crawlers.
The proposed Holyrood legislation will make it
an offence for clients to pay prostitutes for sex, while those selling
sex on the street will be committing a specific offence – if they are
judged by police to be causing a nuisance, alarm or offence. That is a
change from the current law, which does not treat prostitution or kerb-crawling
as illegal, but it does make it an offence to solicit for sex.
The proposed reform follows from the findings
of an expert group. Although it recommended police action should only
follow a third party making a complaint, the proposed law will not
require a complaint to be made.
George Lyon, the deputy public services
minister, said the Prostitution (Public Places)(Scotland) Bill replaces
an "outdated and unfair" law and goes further than ministers' previous
promise to target kerb-crawling, in that any client can be charged,
whether or not in a car.
There is a need to redress this balance to
protect communities from anti-social behaviour arising from street
prostitution, whether caused by the seller or purchaser. The new
offences created as part of this Bill will tackle the nuisance caused by
those looking to buy sexual services either on foot or by kerb-crawling
in cars.
According to executive estimates, based on the
workings of English law on kerb-crawling, around 100 men will be caught
and prosecuted each year in Scotland. But Ruth Morgan-Thomas, manager of
the Scottish Prostitutes Education Project, said that is a conservative
reckoning. Margo MacDonald, the Lothian independent MSP who has been
campaigning for a more liberal approach to prostitution tolerance zone,
said she was disappointed ministers have not gone as far as the expert
group recommended.
|
|
8th October |
Update:
Crawling Towards Mean Mindedness
Based on an article from
The Scotsman
Kerb
crawling
will not be outlawed under new prostitution legislation, despite the
Scottish Executive promising to do so, MSPs said recently.
Civil servants have admitted men who repeatedly drive slowly around red
light districts will not be committing an offence under the proposed
legislation. MSPs have questioned whether even men stopping to allow a
prostitute to get into their car would be breaking the proposed new law.
And one leading defence lawyer has suggested the Executive needs to be
more bold in the way it frames the legislation.
When the Executive published the Prostitution Bill last month, Deputy
Public Services Minister George Lyon said the aim was to tackle the
nuisance caused by those looking to buy sexual services either on foot
or by kerb-crawling in cars.
But when the Scottish Parliament's local government committee began its
scrutiny of the Bill, the absence of a law against kerb-crawling was
raised.
The Bill makes it an offence to cause "alarm, offence or nuisance" by
"soliciting" or "loitering" - and that applies equally to the buyer or
seller of sex. But it specifically excludes the possibility of
prosecuting someone for "loitering" in a car.
Alison Douglas, head of the civil servants in charge of the Bill, told
the committee: The difficulty is proving the intention of someone
driving slowly round an area is for the purposes of buying sex. There
would have to be an approach from somebody from a vehicle - ie,
soliciting behaviour - for an offence to be committed.
Shameful
Scottish Nationalist MSP Fergus Ewing said: It seems to me the punter
is going to escape scot free again and again and that's not what we
want. He said he planned to table an amendment to shift the emphasis
of the Bill to make it an offence to buy or attempt to buy sex.
|
|
9th October |
Update:
Nutters Asked to Back Off 1
Metre
Based on an article from
The Herald
Ministers
will today reject calls for an effective ban on lap dancing.
The Scottish Executive will say a proposal which would have forced
performers to dance at least one metre from their customers is
"unworkable". Instead, ministers will support a comprehensive licensing
system for adult entertainment which closes loopholes in the law and
improves the security and working conditions for dancers.
The one-metre rule was suggested earlier this year by a government
working group, which examined the risk of sexual exploitation to lap
dancers and strippers. The proposal, which conjured up images of council
inspectors brandishing tape measures, was ridiculed as being
unenforceable. MSPs were also lobbied by lap dancers. Veronica Deneuve, who has been
dancing in Scottish clubs for four years, compiled a dossier after
talking to other performers around the country. She said: Who's
going to buy a dance a metre away? Our earnings are going to plummet. I
know a few girls who would turn to prostitution and I don't want to see
that happen to them.
In its April report, the Adult Entertainment Working Group recommended a
stop to dancers touching themselves and set out a graphic list of
simulated sex acts which should be forbidden. Ministers are expected to
back such a ban when they give their formal response today.
The executive also intends to strengthen licensing law which lets pubs
put on lap dancing on the basis of a liquor licence alone, by arguing
dancing is not their main line of business. Five of the seven venues
offering erotic dancing in Edinburgh are using this approach.
In future, the activity, rather than the venue, will be licensed. This
will then include stretch limos and fake fire engines used by hen
parties are included.
The AEWG report said there should be increased use of CCTV in venues to
protect staff. Ministers are expected to agree. An executive source
said, with the exception of the one-metre rule, most of the AEWG
recommendations had been "basic common sense".
Other proposals included a minimum age of 18 for all staff and
performers in venues, a national licensing system and council discretion
over the degree of nudity in each club.
However, the executive is thought to have deferred a decision on another
controversial idea in the report – a proposed ban on private booths in
lap-dancing clubs on the grounds these could be used for prostitution.
|
6th September
updated to
3rd October |
A Step Too Far
Based on an article from
This Is
York
 |
|
Church approved steps |
York's first lap-dancing club has asked licensing bosses for official
permission to open.
A detailed operating schedule for the club, set to open above Ziggy's
nightclub, in Micklegate, on September 15, has been handed to City of
York Council and the police.
John Lacy, the council's licensing manager, said:
The police and
council have been served with an operating schedule. We have looked at
it and there are some issues which still need to be discussed. Senior
licensing officers from the council and the police will be meeting with
the club next week.
The Press told last week how seven lap-dancers had already been employed
to strip for customers for £10 a time on the opening night. A reporter
applied for a job and was invited to an audition. A pole and stage where
girls will perform sexy dances is already in place, while booths for
private, fully nude dances are still being put in place.
But the planned club, which is expected to open every Friday and
Saturday night, has already been criticised by nutters. The Archdeacon
of York, the Venerable Richard Seed, said the lap-dancing club was
morally a "step too far".
Ziggy's did not need to apply for a full licence for the club because
the premises already have an entertainments licence.
|
|
16th September |
Update:
York Council Make Up Their
Own LawSo what gives with a council law to
prohibit 18-20 years olds. Sounds like they are making up discriminatory
bollox as they go along. On what grounds can they arbitrarily ban adults
from entertainment.
Based on an article from
This Is
York
|
|
|
Church approved steps |
City of York Council has finally granted permission for "exotic dancing"
at Ziggy's nightclub in Micklegate.
The club's owner Andrew Elliott said one of the main reasons for turning the
club into an adult entertainment venue was because of a loss of trade since
pubs were granted later opening hours: Things have moved on and new
licensing laws changed things because some of our existing customers moved
on to other venues now pubs are open until two or three in the morning.
He said all nightclubs had suffered a loss of trade as a result.
Sixty guests have been invited to the opening night on Friday and the
dancers have been employed.
The council and the police have attached a number of strict conditions to
the club's licence, which they say are to protect performers, the
premises and the public.
The rules are:
- No-one under the age of 21 will be allowed to enter that part of the
premises while dances are taking place
- No exotic dancing will take place before 9pm
- No exotic dancing will take place on Sundays.
All performers must be over 18 and CCTV had to be installed in all areas
where dances take place.
The club will not be able to advertise using photographs outside the
premises which show nudity or sexual performances take place there, and
dancing must not be visible from outside.
Dancers have to be given separate changing rooms away from the public.
A City of York Council spokesperson said: We have not had any
entertainment of this nature in York since the early 1970s and, whilst there
is no legal basis to prohibit it on moral grounds, we can put as many
measures in place as possible to limit the impact on the general public and
to protect performers.
A pole and stage where girls will perform sexy dances is already in place,
but will be taken down on week nights.
Five booths for private, fully- nude, dances have been installed, with red
carpets and fake zebra skin coverings. They are fitted with microphones to
ensure the girls are safe. A flat above the club has been converted into
changing rooms and lockers for the dancers.
|
|
3rd October |
Update:
Licensed To Make up the Law
Surely the new law on age discrimination should apply
here and at least remove York's arbitrary 21 year old age restriction.
Based on an article from
This Is
York
|
|
|
Church approved steps |
A total of seven city businesses have inquired about opening lap-dancing
clubs in York.
City of York Council has revealed that the recent relaxation of licensing
laws has seen a number of inquiries from businesses interested in opening
venues which provide exotic dancing.
Next week, members of the council's licensing act committee will meet to
discuss the performance of exotic dance. The council is looking to advise
its members of the operational implications of the new act in relation to
the performance of exotic dance and "entertainment of a sexual nature".
Members who attend the committee meeting, on October 6, will be told that
while the licensing authority cannot object to the establishments on moral
grounds, it can take into account the increased risk to licensing
objectives.
A report, written by Richard Haswell, the council's head of licensing and
regulation, writes that the authority would not normally grant licences
where operating schedules would involve such "entertainment" near schools,
churches, hospitals, youth clubs or other places where significant numbers
of children are likely to attend.
It states that suggested conditions attached to the granting of licences
could include:
- A requirement that no exotic dancing will take place before 9pm
- CCTV cameras being installed, maintained and operated in all areas
where dancing takes place
- No-one under 21 being allowed in areas where performances are taking
place.
Shameful Clifton ward councillor Ken King, a member of the licensing act
committee, patronised: I don't have a problem in principle with these
establishments, although I do sometimes feel sorry for those people who feel
they need to go to them.
I wouldn't want to see York being saturated with these types of
establishments. It is possible, depending on the location, that we could
accept the odd one.
Seven would be too many. That would seem a lot for a place the size of
York. I just can't imagine there would be the clientele within the city to
make that many viable. I can only imagine that people would come in from
outside.
|
|
7th July |
The Only Coercion & Trafficking was the forced Deportation Ordered by the
Court
Thanks to Alan
There was a recent police raid at Cuddles massage parlour
in Bearwood, Birmingham. This was reported in sensationalist papers such as
The Scotsman
as follows:
 Nineteen
women believed to have been locked up and forced to become sex slaves
have been freed by police after a raid on a massage parlour.
Fifty officers from West Midlands Police, including 25 women, stormed
the premises on Thursday evening and arrested two men and a woman who
are believed to be the managers. A sawn-off shotgun and three extendable
batons were found on the premises, which has an electric fence at the
rear.
The girls, who come from Greece, Latvia, Turkey, Poland, Italy, Japan
and Hong Kong, were also questioned by police with the help of
interpreters.
Police were looking into allegations that they were brought to this
country after being promised jobs as nannies and waitresses, and said
that immigration officers had been informed.
Detective Inspector Mark Nevitt of West Midlands Police led the
operation at the massage parlour. He said: Cuddles massage parlour
was targeted as part of intelligence gathered through Operation
Strikeout, which targets robberies and violent crime. We went to the
property to execute a warrant in human trafficking, and intelligence
suggests the girls were brought into the country under false pretences,
sold on and held against their will. These girls could be subject to
violence, sexual assaults and forced to work as prostitutes. There were
19 women in there in total and they were obviously very distressed so
the female officers also helped to calm them down,"
Now that the court case has ended, it has transpired that
the women weren't coerced or trafficked, but were working for a well-managed
brothel. The only "coercion" or "people trafficking" that has taken place is
the deportation of the non-EU prostitutes.
The salient features seems to be:
- It took the local constabulary about three years to realise that a
massage parlour called "Cuddles" was a knocking shop.
- They then raided mob-handed with a bus-load of coppers, with the
following apparent results:
a. The tarts didn't back claims of "people trafficking".
b. The British and EU working girls were turfed out of a safe and
evidently well-run brothel to the hazards of the street.
c. The non-EU women were sent back to pick spuds in Romania or wherever,
rather than earn a reasonable income and remit money to their families
back home.
d. The female defendant is reported by her neighbours to be terrified of
going to prison, wondering "what will happen to my cats?" (Seriously
dangerous criminal, yeah?)
From a relatively sensible
comment by Bob Piper, a local councillor at the time of the raid:
We went to Bearwood Jazz Club last night and we heard the police
sirens screaming out on our way down there. This was over 50 of the
finest the boys in blue could muster, including a number of armed
officers. Suddenly, the whole world's news media now seems to have
descended on to our sleepy suburb. Instead of a peaceful out of town
commuter spot, we find ourselves host to an international sex
trafficking trade with girls from across Europe locked into the
Cuddles massage palour during the evening to work, and taken away
during the day and locked in a house.
The excitement continued through to this morning when a man
claiming to be the 'cleaner' arrived in a 4x4 Mercedes and found
himself "assisting the police with their enquiries."
Interestingly enough, although The Birmingham Evening Mail
carries banner headlines about last night's raid headed "Police
swoop in battle to stamp out vile trade" in the same edition they
carry their own advertisement for.... Cuddles Massage Parlour!
|
3rd July
updated to
10th July |
Battle Royale
Based on an article from
Halifax Courier
 The former Theatre Royal was converted to a nightclub in 1999. It is now
proposed as the second lap dancing club in Halifax.
The owners face opposition from police over the new licence for the former
Club Platinum, at Ward's End, because it supposedly does not make sufficient
provision for preventing crime and disorder.
The application by Provence Commercial Properties, of Bolton, is due to be
heard by Calderdale Council Licensing sub-committee next Thursday.
David Drucquer, Calderdale police licensing officer, said:
There are
crime and disorder concerns regarding the extent to which lap-dancing will
take place, access by people under 18 and the provision of regulated door
supervisors.
Halifax's first lap-dancing business, La Salsa, in Silver Street, opened in
2003. Initially there was considerable opposition to the club and
councillors rejected a bid for it to be allowed to remain open until 3am,
but they eventually relented.
The licence application for Club Platinum indicates that it will be open
Sunday to Wednesday from 9am until 2am and on Thursdays, Fridays and
Saturdays until 4am.
|
|
10th July |
Update:
Morality above Legality
I find it hard to
believe that a lap dancing club appealing to an older or mixed age audience
can be considered as more likely to cause disorder than a club targeted at
drinking youngsters.
Based on an article from
Halifax Courier
The
owners of one of Halifax's biggest clubs have dropped plans to turn it into
the town's second lap-dancing nightspot because of police supposed fears
about disorder.
But they have been given a new premises licence for Club Platinum at Ward's
End, to be run as a conventional nightclub, open until 4am at weekends.
Calderdale police licensing officer David Drucquer said there were crime and
disorder concerns regarding the extent to which lap-dancing would take
place, access by people under 18 and door supervisors. But following talks
with the applicants, these concerns had now been resolved.
He said:We had no objection to erotic dancing as such, but where it was
combined with a nightclub and there was no separation of these functions,
the licence requirements could not be met.
|
|
26th May |
Estimating the Glasgow Sex
Industry
Based on an article from
The Herald
 Men
in Glasgow spend an estimated £6.6m a year on prostitution, visiting saunas,
private flats and escorts.
Peers and MPs were told that despite the efforts of the police, council and
voluntary organisations, the sex industry in the city was expanding with
lap-dancing clubs and other services opening up.
Giving evidence to Westminster's joint committee on human rights, Ann
Hamilton, of the corporate violence against women section at Glasgow City
Council, said it was difficult to build a true picture of the extent of the
problem because the sex industry was very much "underground".
[Where mean minded people put it!]
However, Hamilton said one analysis suggested 264,000 visits to prostitutes
at a cost of £6.6m a year on saunas, flats, escorts . . . and other
take-away sex services, an average spend of £25.
She said as long as there was a market for sex in Glasgow, there would be a
market for trafficking vulnerable foreign women into the city.
We know of 112 foreign women involved in prostitution in Glasgow, and
that will certainly be an underestimate, she said. We know a lot
about how the women suffer. What we don't know a lot about is the men who
are buying their services, Hamilton said.
The committee, which is conducting an inquiry into human trafficking, heard
how Glasgow was one of the leading cities in its approach to tackling human
trafficking. Three years ago, the council established an inter-agency
working group involving the Scottish Executive, Strathclyde Police, the NHS,
immigration services, Women's Voluntary Network, Scottish Refugee Council,
and Glasgow asylum support service.
|
25th April
Updated to
9th May |
In the Lap of Prudes
Based on an article from
The Herald
Lap-dances should effectively be banned in Scotland, with dancers made
to perform at least one metre from their customers, an official report
to ministers will say today.
To force the industry up-market and reduce the risks of prostitution,
there should also be a ban on all private booths in lap-dancing bars and
clubs. In addition, lap-dancing, pole-dancing, stripping and other forms
of live adult entertainment should be controlled by a new national
licencing regime, regardless of where it occurs. The report says dancers
should not be allowed to touch themselves, and sets out a graphic list
of simulated sex acts it says should be banned.
The changes, which are designed to stamp out adult entertainment, are
among 11 recommendations being made to ministers by the Scottish
Executive's Adult Entertainment Working Group.
[Which
predictably contains nobody to represent customers].
In survey work, it found around three-quarters of the public were in
favour of regulation rather than a total ban on the activity, which it
defined as the performance in a public place of any activity which a
reasonable person... would consider to be for the purpose of sexual
gratification or titillation. One of the supposed problems it
identified was the current licensing regime allows pubs to put on
lap-dancing without an entertainment licence. Five of the seven venues
in Edinburgh are in this category – trading on liquor licences alone by
claiming lap-dancing is not their main line of business.
Introducing a new type of licence will require primary legislation at
Holyrood, but as an interim measure licensed premises could be covered
quickly by attaching new restrictions on licences.
To create a national standard for adult entertainment, the group also
recommends what dancers and strippers should not do. Allied to the ban
on booths, which is meant to limit the opportunity for prostitution by
ensuring no activity occurs out of sight, the report says there should
be CCTV in all venues, although the degree of surveillance will be a
matter for local authorities. Councils will also be able to decide
whether full or partial nudity is appropriate in each venue.
The recommendations will now be considered by Tom McCabe, the minister
for public sector reform whose remit includes licensing. The most
controversial idea is likely to be the minimum of one metre between
dancers and customers. It will effectively end up-close lap-dances for
which punters pay a premium of £10 to £20.
|
|
28th April |
Update:
Nutters Drooling
over New Repression Opportunity
Based on an article from
The Scotsman
Edinburgh's
lap-dance clubs are to be asked to sign up to a voluntary code of conduct
which would have them follow tough new rules ahead of a change in the law.
Strip clubs would have to remove all private booths and fit CCTV cameras in
a bid to protect lap dancers from being forced into doing anything illegal.
The code would also ban performers dancing within one metre of customers and
make sure clubs do not employ performers under 18.
Most of the measures were proposed earlier this week by a Scottish
Executive-appointed working group which is looking at changing the law on
strip clubs. The legislation needed for the new licensing system proposed by
the group is unlikely to be completed until 2008 or 2009.
Tollcross councillor, the
shameful
Lorna Shiels, who served on the group, has won the backing of the city's
Labour administration for a motion to next month's council meeting to
consider a voluntary code. Shiels said she hoped a voluntary code could be
introduced within months.
And she said she was optimistic most of Edinburgh's seven lap-dancing venues
- six of which are in Tollcross - would be willing to make the changes ahead
of a new law. She said most of the clubs in Edinburgh did not have CCTV
cameras.
She said: What I'm looking for is a voluntary code they can sign up to
now. We've been assured by the operators' representatives we spoke to that
the good operators would embrace this because it helps differentiate them
from sex-industry outlets.
Cllr Shiels accepted some of the clubs might refuse to sign up to the code.
But she said: They will stand out as sleazy joints that don't want to
promote women's safety and don't care about the community. And they will be
competing against other venues promoting entertainment rather than sleaze.
Steve MacDonald, of Big Daddy O's on Lothian Road, criticised the move and
said the industry is being unfairly attacked. This is a continuous,
relentless onslaught.The rhetoric of councillors and MSPs is absolute
nonsense. We are not operating in a cavalier attitude - the fact is we have
a licence, and therefore the kind of behaviour some people thinks goes on
just doesn't happen. Working conditions in these premises are already
exemplary.
|
|
9th May |
Update:
Dancers Distance
themselves from Scottish Prudes
Based on an article from
The Herald
Proposals
to ban close-up lap-dancing in Scotland will slash dancers' wages and could
drive some women into prostitution, MSPs have been told.
The move could also expose women to greater risk of physical and sexual
assault by driving stripping underground, with dancers working in unsafe
environments such as private parties and hotel rooms.
The claims are made in a 17-page dossier sent to MSPs by a group of exotic
dancers in the first signs of a fightback from within the industry.
The reaction follows a report last month by the Scottish Executive's adult
entertainment working group.
After a year of visiting strip clubs and lap-dancing bars, the group said
there should be a ban on all private booths used for close-up dances, with
women forced to perform at least a metre from customers.
Veronica Deneuve, who has been dancing in Scottish clubs for four years,
compiled the dossier after talking to other performers around the country
and canvassing industry opinion via her website.
Her report says some of the group's ideas on better working conditions in
clubs are sound. However, it claims that the proposed ban on lap-dances is
misguided and moralistic and betrays an ignorance of what dancers do and
want.
She told The Herald: Who's going to buy a dance a metre away? Our
earnings are going to plummet. A dancer who's making £200 a night (now) is
going to make £40 (in future). I know a few girls who would turn to
prostitution and I don't want to see that happen to them.
A spokesman for Tom McCabe, the minister who must now consider the group's
proposals, said he had yet to take a formal position, adding:
If people
have strong views, then we would listen to them.
|
23rd April
updated to
4th August |
Late at the Office
From
Morecambe Online
Strippers performed for paying customers in Morecambe last weekend at
the resort's new pole dancing bar. But after a good first weekend of
trade, the leaseholder of The Office says my customers would rather
have lap dancing. Alan Crookall will now apply to Lancaster City
Council for a licence to allow the venue to be used for lap dancing as
well as pole dancing.
The Office opened for business on Thursday night on the site of the
former Oyster pub on Morecambe promenade. Customers were charged £4
admission to see women perform topless dance routines around a pole on a
stage.
It was busy enough over the weekend but the customer demand is for
something more than just pole dancing, said Alan:
The concensus
of opinion was that after watching 20 minutes of the girls dancing
around a pole, the customers, both male and female, would like a full
lap dance and I understand where they are coming from. The lads want to
come in, have a bit of fun and be pampered, and have a chat with the
girls, instead of just standing there and watching them.
The Office is open from Wednesdays to Sundays.
|
|
4th August |
Update:
Staying Very Late at the Office
From
Morecambe Today
Morecambe's
first all-nude lap-dancing club could be open by the end of this month.
Councillors on Monday's city council licensing sub-committee gave
permission for The Office, which currently hosts pole-dancers in its
seafront upstairs rooms, to offer lap-dancing, with women allowed to be
totally naked and make physical contact with their customers.
Under the terms of the premises' licence, it can also, if it wants, stay
open seven days a week, until 4am.
The Office proprietor, Alan Crookall said:
We were basically given
permission for everything we asked for. We have run as a pole-dancing
club for a while now with hardly any complaints at all and we run our
security properly.
|
15th April
updated to
19th August |
Nutters Shake & Quake in
Burnham
Based on an article from
Burnham on Sea.com
 Lap-dancing
looks set to be introduced at a Burnham-On-Sea night club after a request
submitted to town planners got the go-ahead on April 11th.
Shakers night club in the High Street, in a building previously used as a
Quaker chapel, had requested a variation to its licence in order to open
until 4am on Fridays and Saturdays, and introduce occasional lap dancing.
Two formal objections have already been lodged against the proposal. Former
Mayor Louise Parkin said: You have two different sides here - those who
want the town to stay an old, quaint, slightly behind-the-times place and
those others who want it be brought up to the minute.
Town councillors discussed the plan and gave a cautious green light to a
limited extension of trading hours and the introduction of lap dancing.
Shakers had applied to extend its opening hours to 11pm-2am every night
between Sunday and Thursday, and 11pm-4am on Fridays and Saturdays. But
councillors said they were concerned about noise and nuisance problems in
the area. Burnham's Deputy Mayor, Cllr Dennis Davey, said: I have
received a considerable number of complaints from people in Cross Street and
Adam Street with reference to late night noise and general nuisance problems
in this area.
Shakers also wanted to allow the re-entry of clubbers into the club after
midnight in anticipation of the smoking ban. Under the proposal, clubbers
would be able to leave the building, have a smoke and get back in to the
club, but concerns from local residents about noise in the early hours of
the morning led this to be turned down.
Planning Committee Chairman Cllr Peter Clayton said this is "an area of
concern." He added: We don't want partially intoxicated people in the
street in the early hours of the morning in an area where there are lots of
nearby residential properties. I would not want to see alcohol served after
2.30am and feel that a closing time of 4am is just too late.
Cllr Peter Clayton told the council that it only has a limited number of
issues it can use to complain about a licensing application and added: What we can object to here is very limited. We can't simply make a moral
judgement, even if we are against lap dancing.
The committee gave a thumbs-up to the proposal on the condition that:
- In the interests of protecting children, no advertisements of an
adult nature be placed outside the club.
- There should be no variation in the re-entry of clubbers after
midnight, and no external area outside the club for smoking.
- No alcohol should be served after 2am.
- The club should close at 2.30am, regardless of the time of year.
The application will now go to Sedgemoor District Council for a final
decision.
|
|
28th May |
Update:
Nutters, Shakers and Banners
Based on an article from
Burnham on Sea.com
Plans
to introduce lap dancing at Shakers night club in Burnham-On-Sea have this
week been turned down by a licensing panel.
Shakers had requested a variation to its licence in order to open until 4am
on Fridays and Saturdays, and introduce occasional lap dancing.
But at a meeting of Sedgemoor District Council's licensing panel on May
24th, the committee rejected the application after reviewing the comments of
local police, residents and councillors. They were supposedly concerned
about the impact that the longer opening hours would have on the community
around the building.
Town councillors had discussed the controversial plan at their planning
meeting in April - and said they were concerned about noise and nuisance
problems in the area.
Shakers also wanted to allow the re-entry of clubbers into the club after
midnight in anticipation of the smoking ban. Under the proposal, clubbers
would be able to leave the building, have a smoke and get back in to the
club, but this prompted concerns from local residents about noise in the
early hours.
|
|
19th August |
Update:
Shakers on Appeal
Based on an article from
Burnham on Sea.com
Plans
to introduce lap dancing at a night club in Burnham-On-Sea will be debated
again in September.
Burnham-On-Sea.com learns Shakers night club has just submitted an appeal to
Sedgemoor's licensing panel following a decision in May to turn down its
application to introduce lap dancing at the premises.
|
18th March
Updated to
21st July |
Ken's Bollox Revealed
Well at least the councilors aren't in a position to be
tempted to put their own morality above the law which they seem to do with
some sex shop licence applications.
Based on an article from the
London Se1
 On 15 December 2005 Southwark Council's licencing sub-committee granted a
licence to The Rembrandt Club on the corner of Tooley Street and Weston
Street. The licencing application was contested - unsuccessfully - by London
Bridge Hospital and Southwark Cathedral, who engaged legal representation
and ran up a bill of £16,000.
In his monthly report to the London Assembly, Mayor of London Ken
Livingstone reveals that he has approved a contribution of £4,000 from the
GLA's professional witness reserve towards the cost of the Cathedral's
opposition. Livingstone says that he considers the cost appropriate, in
view of the saving made by [the GLA] not making a full objection in its
own right.
Opposition Assembly members have criticised the expenditure:
Ken
Livingstone loves grandstanding at taxpayers' expense and this is just the
latest example, says Angie Bray, Conservative spokesman on culture,
sport and tourism. The Rembrandt Club has already become a political football, with Labour
literature attacking the Lib Dems for allowing the club, and local Lib Dems
blaming the Labour Government for its reform of the licencing laws.
The dispute between Southwark Cathedral and the Rembrandt Club follows the
Cathedral's strenuous opposition to the Wicked fetish club in the vaults
below the approach to London Bridge.
This time round the sub-committee was bound to consider applications on
legal criteria alone, and was unable to take into account moral objections
or wider council policy on the sorts of businesses suitable for the area.
The committee imposed a number of conditions on the licence for the club,
which is due to open later this year. It will have to have blackened windows
and security staff on the doors and will not be allowed to stage its nude
lap dances before 9pm. But, after objections from the owners, the licensing
committee has agreed that they can accept assurances from their employees
that they are not engaged in prostitution or have criminal records. No one
representing the club was available for comment yesterday.
Riverside ward councillors - including council leader Nick Stanton - have
made it clear that they do not welcome the club, but complain that their
hands are tied by the Licencing Act 2003.
|
|
25th March |
Update:
Nutter Ken
Absolute Bollox from Ken, the area is right next to
London Bridge station and the surrounding area is basically office space for
City workers. Children would see no visible difference between the lap
dancing venue and any of the many nearby pubs. (Many of which are on one of
my favourite pub crawl circuits)
I struggle to believe that the area could be
categorised as residential, and if there are any resident parents, they
already must have found a way of explaining away the large amounts of drunk
office workers on a pub crawl.
Based on an article from the
London Se1
Speaking at Mayor's Question Time on Wednesday, Ken Livingstone pledged
to continue to oppose the planned lapdancing club on Tooley Street.
Addressing members of the London Assembly at City Hall, the Mayor of London
branded the decision of Southwark Council's licencing committee to grant a
licence to the Rembrandt Club on Tooley Street as "bizarre".
Livingstone told reporters at his weekly press conference that the Tooley
Street site was certainly not appropriate. We have other boroughs
taking a very different line. Westminster City Council has taken a very firm
line. Their guidelines state that 'applications involving nudity or
strip-tease or sex-related entertainment will only be granted in exceptional
circumstances and applications involving nudity or strip-tease will not be
granted in close proximity to residential accommodation, schools, places of
worship, community facilities or other public buildings'.
The reality is that this immediate area is a major centre for tourism and
particularly for family-related tourism. All of us see literally tens of
thousands of families queueing with their children to go to the London
Dungeon, the history of war museum, coming to look around Hay's Galleria,
and of course the Unicorn children's theatre is now constructed virtually
opposite the site of this lap-dancing club and I would assume that there's
absolutely no earthly reason why Southwark Council couldn't have taken the
same robust approach that Westminster City Council does on this.
So I've asked our officers to see whether we can support an appeal
against this - they will know hopefully by the end of today [Wednesday] -
and if that is the case it is my intention that the GLA should underwrite
the cost of the appeal in the hope of overturning this.
|
|
3rd April |
Update:
The Altarboy and Wanker
This is the first time
I have heard of a 'faith area'. This area is located in the financial centre
of London. The local beer cathedral is the 'The Barrowboy and Banker' and it
surely has more adherents than the nearby nutter cathedral, 'The Altarboy
and Wanker'
Based on an article from the
Bloomberg
The dean of Southwark Cathedral, the Very Reverend Colin Slee, and Mayor
Ken Livingstone are aiming to stop the opening of a lap-dancing club near
the church in south London.
Slee and Livingstone are appealing the decision by Southwark Borough Council
this month to grant a license to Rembrandt's, a club that will feature
topless women as entertainment.
Slee is arguing the license should never have been granted or should have
contained more conditions limiting the club's operations. At Livingstone's
request, the city government provided 4,000 pounds ($6,900) to help fight
the case.
It is a matter of great regret that we have to appeal, Slee said in
an e-mailed statement today. We have looked to our local authority to
defend the success and regeneration of the neighborhood as a faith area and
successful area.
|
|
10th May |
Update:
In the Lap of Southwark
Cathedral
Based on an article from
ic South London
The
opposed lap dancing club will open near Southwark Cathedral despite
opposition from The Church and London Mayor Ken Livingstone.
The Church and Livingstone launched an appeal against Southwark council's
decision to allow Rembrandt club to open up in Tooley Street.
But the case has been rejected for "technical reasons"- and licensee Gerard
Simi is claiming victory. He said the club would open up in a couple of
weeks.
Livingstone said: I regret our appeal has been rejected for technical
reasons. It is unacceptable that such a club should be allowed to open so
close to schools, tourist attractions and offices.
Dean of Southwark, the Very Reverend Colin Slee, said:
This extremely
frustrating matter is in the hands of our lawyers to resolve. The Cathedral
is considering lodging an application for judicial review on several counts.
|
|
16th June |
Update:
Nutter Ken Dances
away from a Legal Challenge
Based on an article from the
London Se1
Ken
Livingstone has abandoned his legal challenge to the Rembrandt lapdancing
club on Tooley Street.
Local residents were told at a City Hall meeting that the mayor's legal
advisors had advised him to halt his attempts to seek the revocation of the
Rembrandt club's licence via the courts. Instead he will continue to support
local groups calling on Southwark Council to review its licensing policy.
The Mayor has received legal advice on how to proceed with the case against
the opening of a lap dancing club near London Bridge, a GLA spokesperson
told the London SE1 website.
It has been found that the best way forward is to continue to work
alongside local residents, businesses and other objectors to highlight and
to challenge Southwark Council on its licensing policy, which has allowed an
establishment like this to open so close to schools, tourist attractions and
offices.
|
|
1st July |
Update:
Nutters Wish Burkha
on Southwark Lap Dancers
Based on an article from the
London Se1
A
seven strong delegation was was received in the council chamber where Jilly
Frisch, secretary of the Shad Thames & Tooley Street Association, was
allowed to address the council assembly.
 The
protesters are opposing the opening a lap dancing club near the London
Dungeon in Tooley Street. Jilly Frisch, who said that a petition had
attracted 850 signatures, told councillors that residents were disappointed
that they had not been consulted. She pointed to a recent report which
indicated that cases of rape increase in proximity to such clubs.
She warned that the sex industry could find it easy to open in Southwark and
called for Southwark Council to consider adopting the tough policy pursued
by Westminster City Council. Her five minute plea was met with applause from
the crowded public gallery.
The delegation's call for Southwark to follow the Westminster example was
taken up by deputy Labour leader Councillor Fiona Colley but her motion was
defeated after the Liberal Democrat majority insisted that council ability
to act was constrained by the government's recent licensing legislation. An
amended motion calling for a change in the law, proposed by Chair of
Licensing Councillor Linda Manchester, was agreed.
Labour's Councillor Susan Elan Jones, making her maiden speech in support of
Councillor Colley's motion, revealed that her attempt to research the lap
dancing issue had been blocked by the town hall IT department as the subject
was deemed unsuitable for access by council staff.
The demonstration and delegation was supported by the following organistions:
Boormund Centre, Britain at War Museum, Downside Fisher Youth Club, GLA
Unison Branch, HMS Belfast, Islamic Forum Europe Southwark, London Bridge
Hospital, London Dungeon, Old Kent Road Mosque & Islamic Centre, Peckham
Islamic Centre, Poole of London Partnership, Salmon Youth Centre,
Snowsfields Primary School, Southwark Asian Organisation, Southwark
Cathedral, Southwark Heritage Association, Southwark Multi faith Forum,
Southwark Muslim Council, Shad Thames Residents Association, Tooley Street
TRA, Tower Bridge Primary School and Unicorn Theatre for Children.
|
|
5th July |
Update:
Lap Dancing Derailed
Based on an article from
24 Dash
Plans
to open a lap-dancing club at London Bridge against the objections of the
Mayor of London, local residents and businesses, look likely to be halted.
Network Rail, the owners of the premises at which the lap dancing club was
to be located, have now written to the mayor, Ken Livingstone.
They have made clear they have no intention of allowing their premises to be
used for such a purpose and that the leaseholder will be in breach of their
lease if they try to go ahead with the London dancing club.
In correspondence between the Mayor’s Office and Spacia (the trading arm of
Network Rail), Spacia said: The general objections to the proposed lap
dancing club have been noted and I can advise that Network Rail take a
similar view. Under the terms of the lease for the premises consent is
required for the proposed change of use. Network Rail has refused to grant
consent. The leaseholder will not be permitted to use the premises for this
purpose and would be in breach of the lease if the use is carried out on the
premises.
Livingstone said: I welcome Network Rail’s decision. They are to be
congratulated on taking their responsibilities to the local area seriously.
Local residents and businesses have made clear that they are totally opposed
to a lap-dancing club in this area. The result of a similar establishment
caused serious nuisance particularly for women working and living in this
area.
|
|
11th July |
Update:
Interfering Ken
Based on an article from the
ic South London
Rembrandts
Club may start trading soon - despite London Mayor Ken Livingstone claiming
he is close to stopping it.
Livingstone's office has released a statement from Spacia, a property
division of Network Rail, suggesting the club will not open.
Network Rail owns the premises and has written to the Mayor in support of
his opposition to Rembrandts. It reads: Under the terms of the lease for
the premises, consent is required for the proposed change of use.
But Gareth Hughes,the legal representative for club owner Gerard Simi, said:
I understand it will be opening up. In what manner, I do not know.
The police and council have agreed and signed up. It's only the Mayor
continually interfering.
The secretary of the Tooley Street tenants' and residents' association,
Vanessa Shone said: It's excellent news if this is going to stop it
opening, but it's a bit late. Shone believed Rembrandts might open
next Friday to celebrate Dutch master Rembrandt's 400th birthday the next
day. Simi did not wish to comment.
|
|
21st July |
Update:
Interfering Ken
Based on an article from the
ic South London
Rembrandt's
lap-dancing club saga in Tooley Street, near London Bridge, rumbles on. The
council initially gave the raunchy nightspot the go-ahead before public
outrage forced it to change its licensing rules. Rembrandt's is now opening
as a piano bar after the building's owners, Network Rail, raised concerns.
|
|
28th February |
Glasgow in the Lap of Nutters
Based on an article from the
Evening Times
Councillors and church nutters in Glasgow are opposing a bid for lap dancing
at a bar in the the city centre.
Fuse - on Nelson Mandela Place, near Scotland's top shopping thoroughfare -
wants to hold regular topless strip nights.
But the council, which has a policy of objecting to all lap dancing
applications, is to oppose the request to the city's licensing board.
And the minister from nearby St George's Tron church said he would also
object to the application, which, if given the go-ahead, would become the
city's fifth lap dancing venue.
Fuse's owners say pole dancers will perform possibly four times a week and
there will also be private dances in "corporate areas". However, they say
strippers will not be the main business of the aspiring upmarket venue,
which already hosts jazz and comedy nights.
Shameful Jim Coleman, deputy leader of
the council, said the location of Fuse was of particular concern. He added
When will they get the message? This kind of entertainment is not welcome
in Glasgow. It is against the council's policies on equality, violence
against women and prostitution. The message is quite clear - the people of
Glasgow do not want this. We're not going to go down the route of Edinburgh
and the likes and allow the city to be taken over by these sleazy venues.
The Rev Nutter Dr William Philip, from St George's Tron, said:
We have
objected in the past to a similar application elsewhere in the city centre.
We will also object to this - not because it's on our doorstep but because
this is not the kind of thing we should have in this city.
The club owner said:
This is not going to be some sleazy strip joint. The
only nudity, if any, will be toplessness. We attract an upmarket crowd -
media types, like actors from River City. We go to great lengths to look
after the safety of our staff and customers - both men and women. We have
applied for the exotic dancing licence so we can offer that extra dimension
too. We expected the objections and we will work with the licensing board
and take their advice.
The new application emerged less than a week after another city venue,
Destiny, cancelled a one-off strip night after Coleman threatened that he
would object to its licence renewal.
|
|
14th March |
Sending Personal Messages
Based on an article from the
Evening Times
Plans for Glasgow’s fifth lap dancing club have been rejected. But
already the refusal to grant Fuse nightclub, just off Buchanan Street, a
licence for topless dancing has sparked a major row and may end up in the
courts.
The city’s licensing board refused the application following a dramatic
split vote, with those opposing the bid winning by a single vote.
Councillors who sit on the board decided the city already had too many such
venues.
The city council had lodged an objection, in keeping with its policy of
blanket opposition, and hired a lawyer to make their case. The board heard
how lap dancing clubs from London to the US were associated with sex crimes
in the vicinity of the venues, how girls were harassed by customers and that
sex was often offered for sale in such clubs.
The council also argued that opening such a venue just off the city’s main
shopping thoroughfare would be detrimental to Glasgow’s image as a
commercial hotspot. But the board’s chairman, Councillor Gordon Macdiarmad
said applications can only be judged on their own merits and not examples
from other countries. He also asked Superintendent John Farrell of
Strathclyde Police, what problems lap dancing clubs caused in the city
centre and was told they presented less of a nuisance than most
“conventional” bars and clubs. And he insisted there was not a problem with
over-provision of licensed premises in Glasgow.
But despite his concerns with the objection, seven of his licensing board
colleagues voted against the application. Last night, Douglas Fisher, who
runs Fuse in Nelson Mandela Place, said he was “flabbergasted” by the
decision. He said: I thought it was cast iron. We made a very forceful
case and Councillor Macdiarmad didn’t seem impressed with what the council’s
lawyer had to say. We gave all the undertakings and had a very good
application. But we have six weeks to make an appeal and will be speaking
with our legal representatives to see if we have grounds for an appeal.
In the past decisions made by the board have been challenged in court and
overturned. An expert source said: It seems again many members of the
board have voted as councillors and not board members. The council’s policy
of opposing these applications took precedence over the facts of the
application. And that could be challenged and when tested against the law
could well be overturned. My feeling is this will again open a legal
minefield. And if it goes to the sheriff court it will be the council tax
payer footing the bill.
A council spokeswoman said: We are delighted the board has refused the
application. This sends out a clear message that these kinds of
establishment are not wanted in Glasgow. But the authority refused to
comment on the grounds of the refusal.
|
|
18th January Updated 28th January |
No Respect for
those Denying Others a Sex Life
From
The Telegraph
Prostitutes will be allowed to work together in mini-brothels under plans
published by the Government yesterday.
New laws will see prostitutes getting help for drug and alcohol problems
rather than being fined
At present, only a single prostitute working from home or a room escapes
prosecution provided she does not solicit for business. Premises with two or
more women offering sex are defined as brothels and are unlawful.
The Government aims to change the legal definition to allow three
individuals, including a "maid" or receptionist, to work together, thereby
decriminalising small brothels. Ministers said the aim was to make
prostitutes safer from attack.
Hours after the Home Office announcement, Downing Street stressed that the
change did not amount to official approval of prostitution. No 10 is alarmed
at the impact the plan will have on the Prime Minister's respect proposals
aimed at protecting citizens from low-level crime. Tony Blair's spokesman
said that neighbours unhappy about the presence of prostitutes would be able
to call for police or court action to stop any nuisance activities under
anti-social behaviour laws. This should not be seen as some sort of
approval. It is not. We are not legalising brothels.
Downing Street intervened after sex industry campaigners denounced the
strategy as too timid because the Government had backed away from a more
radical overhaul of the laws on prostitution, which have been unreformed for
more than 50 years.
Ministers rejected ideas set out in a consultation paper two years ago for
legalised red light zones, a register of the country's estimated 80,000
prostitutes and licensed brothels - reforms that would effectively have
decriminalised the entire sex industry.
Instead, they outlined plans to help more prostitutes change their way of
life through drug treatment and housing programmes, while encouraging the
police and courts to adopt zero tolerance of kerb crawlers, more of whom
could lose their driving licences or be named and shamed. First offenders
will have to attend a £200 re-education course at their own expense.
Fiona MacNutter, the Home Office minister, said:
I cannot accept that we
should turn a blind eye to a problem that causes misery for people living in
or near red light areas. There is no evidence that decriminalisation or
licensing prostitution would achieve our objectives of reducing
exploitation, improving the safety of those involved and making communities
safer.
The reason that women would be allowed to work together without being
prosecuted was for their safety rather than a deliberate attempt to
liberalise the law.
Mactaggart said: Where women are working for themselves and are less
likely to be managed or pimped on a large scale, in the interim it is
probably more sensible not to use the very serious penalties we have against
people who run brothels. Very small scale operations can operate in a way
that is not disruptive to neighbours. I am not trying, by having a clear
strategy in the street sex market, to move it from the streets to a series
of pairs of women working out of flats and causing a nuisance.
Police will be encouraged to work more closely with charities running safe
houses to help women quit the sex trade. The strategy also includes measures
to encourage them to seek help with drink or drugs problems.
There will be a new penalty for loitering or soliciting for prostitution, so
that courts can direct women into drug or alcohol programmes rather than
fining them. Measures to improve safety include expanding the so-called Ugly
Mugs scheme, which lets prostitutes know about potentially violent clients.
Sex industry campaigners called the strategy "a missed opportunity" to
legalise prostitution rather than criminalising its practitioners. Cari
Mitchell, of the English Collective of Prostitutes, said that police
crackdowns made the streets more dangerous for the women. Clients are
much more nervous and women don't have time to check them out properly
before they get into the car, she said.
|
|
28th January |
Update:
The
Doctor Calls
From
The Scotsman
Prostitution should be legalised to improve the health of sex workers,
British Medical Journal editor Fiona Godlee said.
Dr Godlee said last week's decision by ministers to allow up to three
prostitutes to work legally in a brothel but not to officially legalise
brothels was a mistake because it stopped short of allowing licensed premise
|
|
15th January |
Fiona MacNutter Considers Britain as a Nation of Child Abusers
Based on an article from
The Observer
Men who pay for sex are as bad as child abusers, a senior government
minister warned today, as she unveiled radical plans to protect prostitutes
by targeting their clients.
Under the proposals, schoolgirls will be taught about the dangers of
selling sex, amid evidence that more than half of streetwalkers start out as
teenagers. Police will also be expected to take prostitutes' complaints of
rape seriously while a new database will enable call girls to swap details
of violent and dangerous clients, as the balance shifts from targeting women
who sell sex to the one in 10 men who buys it.
Shameful Fiona MacTaggart, the Home Office minister,
is also considering relaxing laws that prevent off-street prostitutes
working in pairs from private flats, which reformers argue is safer than
working solo.
I don't think most men who use prostitutes think of themselves as child
abusers, but they are, she told The Observer. It could change things
if we changed the view of prostitution from "it's the oldest profession" to
"this is the most common form of child abuse".
Her review of prostitution, to be published on Tuesday, will create a
national database of 'ugly mugs', allowing prostitutes to warn others about
clients they consider dangerous.
With more than 60 prostitutes killed in the past 10 years, police will be
expected to protect women in red-light areas, while kerb crawlers will
forfeit driving licences. MacNutter said it was also crucial to stop girls
being drawn into such work by helping to prevent prostitution being seen
by them as a solution to their problems, either financially or within
their families. Working in schools, particularly with children who might
be vulnerable, is really important, she added.
The government has, however, ruled out legalising brothels or creating
'tolerance zones' where sex workers could avoid arrest, to the sex
industry's fury.
A spokeswoman for the English Collective of Prostitutes said it was
'outrageous' to equate prostitution and child abuse:
It's as though women
didn't know the difference between rape and abuse, and consenting sex. She
is trying to take the decision out of women's hands.
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The National Museum of Photography, Film and Television is trying to block plans for a pole and lap dancing club nearby, saying it would be "wholly inappropriate" next to Bradford's top family attraction.
A Nottingham lap dancing bar has had its licence revoked after a panel found it had breached its licensing agreement several times.
American movie giant MGM has threatened a Stoke-on-Trent lap dancing club with legal action over its name. Solicitors acting on behalf of the owners of the James Bond trademark have written to the team running 007 Gentleman's Club in Bryan Street, Hanley, claiming they are cashing in on the glamorous connection.
A group of glamour girls are lining up to provide motorists in Coventry with a topless car wash. Drivers pay £25 to have their car washed by a team of women wearing bikinis. For an extra fiver they take their tops off.
Paisley's first lap-dancing club has opened for business, with topless girls performing for guys in search of titillation.
Record numbers of men and women are downloading pornography from the internet, making Britain the fastest-growing market in the world for the booming £20bn adult website industry.
Based on an article from
Spearmint
Rhino, the largest table-dancing club chain in the world, will open its
first Scottish venue by Christmas. The firm's UK bosses have
confirmed that they have acquired an existing lap dancing club in
Glasgow, the Truffle Club, and will rebrand it within the next two
months.
Lap
dancing promoter Matthew Haycox is battling councillors in a bid to
bring the eigth naked dance club to Leeds city centre.
Bournemouth
businessman Richard Carr's controversial "upmarket gentleman's dining club"
was granted retrospective planning permission recently.
A
man and a woman were arrested in Barnsley by the Metropolitan Police's
Obscene Publications Unit after more than 1,500 pornographic films were
found at their address yesterday.
JobCentrePlus
has advertised the job, for a "dancer" at an Edinburgh nightclub on its
website, 
Once
hailed as one of London's hottest nightspots and a place for celebrities
to be seen, Stringfellows in London's West End has lost its sparkle,
according to critics.
East
London nutters are up in arms at the prospect of a lap-dancing club in their
Canning Town neighbourhood.
An
application has been lodged to allow Blues nightclub, in Peckham High
Street, to introduce 24-hour lapdancing,music and boozing.
Scottish
ministers are to push through legislation in the next ten months to make
kerb crawling and paying for sex a criminal offence in Scotland for the
first time, it emerged yesterday. 
A
Christian couple have set up a website,
