Great Britain: Mini-brothels get go-ahead to operate on your doorstep

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | January 18, 2006 | Philip Johnston

[Stoat]

Mini-brothels get go-ahead to operate on your doorstep

By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor
(Filed: 18/01/2006)

Your view: time for change?

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," he said. "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 Mactaggart, 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.

Miss 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.

[Stoat]

[Zeroisanumber]

MMmmmm.... Brothelicious!

[Inspector Kemp]

I have a cat brothel on my doorstep.

[sushiman]

Britain continues its inexorable leap into the ash heap of history ...

[Hank Rearden]

I'll leave the porchlight on so I can watch.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

"This should not be seen as some sort of approval," he said. "It is not. We are not legalising brothels."

Here are some condoms, birth control pills, a bottle of liquor and the car keys. But I want you to understand that in no way am I approving of your having sex.

[sure_fine]

they just want to turn their whole country into a nightclub on the taxpayers tab, not alot different than here

it won't be long when they decide, "ah hell, you 'feel' like killing someone that bothers you, go ahead, we don't approve of it, but go ahead its legal now"

[tonycavanagh]

re :it won't be long when they decide, "ah hell, you 'feel' like killing someone that bothers you, go ahead, we don't approve of it, but go ahead its legal now"

Now you are talking complete and utter bollox.

Here is a complete and utter surprise for you there are brothels in America as well, in fact surprise surprise there are brothels everywhere. And there have always been brothels. As long as men want to or are willing to pay for sex there will be women who will provide that service. And paying for sex is a tad different to wanting to kill someone.

And allowing people to transact a business is just a tad different to allowing someone to kill someone

[stuartcr]

Like Nevada?

[sure_fine]

"Here is a complete and utter surprise for you"


and here is one for you too

mans been killing each other since man has been around

and another suprise for you; some kill for hire too, there is the business end of it

[agere_contra]

I'm not happy with this slippery slope Britain is on. I get that this law change doesn't actually legalise brothels but is supposed to stabilise the position of single prostitutes.

But legalising prostitution makes the government a pimp, sexualises society and distorts the relationship between normal men and women. Germany (where prostitution was legalised recently) is becoming more and more sexualised - and also unemployed women on the dole can be forced into prostitution. Why not - it's a legal profession there.

So I hear you Tony about other countries having brothels - but don't let's mentally normalise them - we're better off staying uptight Brits rather than d*ck-led Germans. No offence to any Freeper Germans - I doubt this applies to you.

[SkyPilot]

Bill, Walter, and Hillary are now off sailing to England.

[tonycavanagh]

re :mans been killing each other since man has been around

No not really.

It was your jump that annoyed me, because we are allowing legal brothels it stands to reason that we would allow legal killing.

Its just an example of another the sky is falling chicken licken argument

[Stoat]

Bill, Walter, and Hillary are now off sailing to England.

If only they would stay there when they arrived "wishful sigh" (actually, I have no desire to wish additional troubles upon our dear British Friends)

According to the article, the new law allows "two women and a maid"  to share a "mini-brothel".  Considering the potential for discrimination lawsuits from homosexual prostitutes, I have no doubt that this new law will be 'tweaked' to be more gender-inclusive in it's language.  Given that likelihood, I suppose Hillary could be "The Maid"........

 

[tonycavanagh]

re :we're better off staying uptight Brits.

But even when we were most uptight in the Victorian era, the 30s and the 50s we had brothels that were criminal and underground and were controlled by criminals.

I don't frequent brothels I don't take drugs, but there are those who do, and as it stands in the twilight world of drugs and sex we allow the criminals to operate and control.

Its a kind of I don't care what happens as long as I don't know about it. And lets have a laugh when we get a tom in for our mates stag do.

We all know people who have been to a prostitute I know quite a few business acquaintances, morally upright good capitalists Tory voters to a man.

And it was almost compulsory when I was in the army.

[snarks_when_bored]

I guess we know who's behind these mini-brothels...

[babyface00]

backed away from a more radical overhaul of the laws on prostitution, which have been unreformed for more than 50 years

I minor point, but does anyone else find it alarming that some people assume that there is anything wrong with laws that haven't been "reformed" every couple of decades?

[monday]

"and another suprise for you; some kill for hire too, there is the business end of it"

Murder and prostitution are the same thing as far as you are concerned? You would execute prostitutes, or just lock them away for life?

[Stoat]

backed away from a more radical overhaul of the laws on prostitution, which have been unreformed for more than 50 years

I minor point, but does anyone else find it alarming that some people assume that there is anything wrong with laws that haven't been "reformed" every couple of decades?

Not a minor point at all in my view, but an essential one.  It seems that not only do some believe that our American Constitution is a 'living, breathing document' but that basic tenets of society are also not only entirely flexible but in fact MUST be altered on a regular basis in order to "keep up with the times".  There are some things in this world that are universally and eternally right and some things which are universally and eternally wrong....prostitution is one of those universally and eternally wrong things that should never be condoned by society as being okay and part of "the natural way of things".  Some on this thread seem to be making the argument that just because an evil thing has been around forever that this in and of itself makes it okay and it should be accepted by society.  Evil in many forms has always been around and we have always fought it....there's no reason why this should be any different.