Hampshire members of the Women's Institute say they are in shock after their fight to legalise brothels was rejected by their national body.
In a major blow to their high-profile campaign, the National Federation of Women's Institutes did not include decriminalising prostitution on a shortlist of issues to debate at next year's AGM.
The announcement came as Hampshire WI mourns the death of stalwart Shirley Landels who led the fight with fellow member Jean Johnson. The 73-year-old grandmother, who earlier this year trawled the world's brothels to highlight the plight of working
girls, died suddenly on October 3
Mrs Johnson last night vowed to continue the battle they started last October: I honestly don't know why it was rejected. It's really, really disappointing, but the campaign continues. It might have been too risqué for them, but I found the
list of six proposed resolutions peculiar because Government is already taking action on some of those issues. The purpose of a resolution is to have an informed debate. We called for the decriminalisation of prostitution – which is actually something
you can debate.
The controversial proposal was knocked back earlier this month by a panel of 23 WI members who represented different counties scattered throughout the country.
The motion – to make a safe and legal working environment for prostitutes and stop it from being driven underground – received almost unanimous backing from Hampshire's 7,000 members and sparked a media frenzy.
The campaign was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary in August after a television production company took Mrs Johnson and Mrs Landels on a round-the-world, fact-finding mission.
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