Pimps, Parsons....and Politics

I’ve posted before on the efforts of the UK Home Office, aided by ‘God’s own pimp’ (the Rev. Steve Chalke) to change the laws on prostitution. Purely coincidentally (I’m sure) the plan is to push through changes this month in a way that would excuse yet more public subsidy of nice little earners badly disguised as charities that Chalke has been setting up in recent years (See Pimps, Parsons, Police & Prostitution on 28 Dec).
When in Shakti Man last week I was amused to see Stop The Traffik merchandising, based on the efforts of local evangelicals who ‘support’ teachers during ‘citizenship’modules. They pose as womens rights activists but don’t appear to know that Chalke registered the slogan as a trading name even before incorporating the company via a downmarket London company formation outfit and selling it on to some other right wing spookchasers linked to the Alpha cult.
Chalke could easily still be taking a cut, I suspect hiding involvement or possible control by merely acting as a ‘consultant’, not a director. This is the oldest trick in the book, and should fool no-one, especially in an offshore jurisdiction where 50% of the adult population administrate hundreds of such companies. Just goes to show, the folk trying to dictate Manx morality aren’t even bright enough to work as office juniors in the real world.
Thankfully UK churches aren’t managing to bamboozle the politicians as easily as they expected, and may have to wait a lot longer before they get their hands on the loot – if at all.
Witness these three Early Day Motions, for example.

EDM 523 / Prostitution and the criminal law / Tabled by Lynne Jones
‘That this House considers that the measures in relation to prostitution contained in the Policing and Crime Bill, though well-intentioned, are deeply flawed; believes that there is no justification for involving the criminal law in consensual transactions that cause no public nuisance; notes the opposition to the proposals from the Royal College of Nursing and other members of the Safety First Coalition, who call for an end to the criminalisation of prostitution, which they consider makes sex workers more vulnerable to attack; further notes that police evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee has cast doubts on the enforceability of the proposals on paying for the sexual services of a prostitute controlled for gain and therefore opposes these provisions in the Bill; and calls on the Government to make more effective use of existing laws against trafficking and sexual exploitation and to enlist the support of purchasers of sexual services to help expose those establishments that use trafficked women.’

EDM 525 / Definition Of A Brothel / Tabled by Lynne Jones
‘That this House notes with disappointment that the Government has failed to use the Policing and Crime Bill to honour the commitment in the Home Office report of January 2006, A Co-ordinated Prostitution Strategy and a summary of responses to Paying the Price, for an amendment to the definition of a brothel so that two or three individuals could work together from shared accommodation; and is concerned that the omission of this provision misses an important opportunity to allow women in the sex trade to work more safely, to have more control over their work and to make it easier for them to leave the trade should they so wish.’


EDM 524 / Policing and Crime Bill provisions introducing orders requiring attendance at meetings / Tabled by Lynne Jones
‘That this House notes that Clause 16 in the Policing and Crime Bill providing for the introduction of Orders Requiring Attendance at Meetings for those found to be loitering or soliciting for the purposes of prostitution is simply a rehash of the abandoned proposal in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill for compulsory rehabilitation; considers that there is no evidence that compulsion assists in rehabilitation and agrees with the Royal College of Nursing that the proposal will lead to greater detention of some of the most vulnerable, stigmatised and marginalised people in society whose criminalisation helps institutionalise them in prostitution; and therefore urges the Government to concentrate instead on providing high-quality outreach programmes, independent of the criminal justice system, which offer healthcare and support, sexual health advice and drug rehabilitation opportunities that individuals who want to leave prostitution can access.’

With the Labour Party whipping the nation’s godbotherers and jam-makers up into the biggest frenzy over a folk myth since the white slave trade common sense like this is rare to find. But at least some are fighting back, and good luck to them.