British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has attacked the “bizarre” practice of City — London’s financial district — firms entertaining clients in lapdancing clubs, on the eve of a government crackdown on the sex trade which is expected to criminalize most men who use prostitutes.
Smith said she expected to see some lapdancing clubs, which have mushroomed in recent years, close and fewer new ones opened under reforms triggered by concerns over a seedy culture of sexual titillation creeping across city centers.
She will outline plans this week to criminalize paying for sex with a woman “controlled for another person’s gain.” The new offence will carry a hefty fine and criminal record, which could prevent those caught from getting jobs in sensitive occupations.
The legislation will cover women who have pimps, or drug addicts who work to pay off their dealers as well as the rarer cases of trafficked women. This is expected to include the majority of Britain’s 80,000 sex workers. Ignorance of a woman’s circumstances will not be a defense. Curb crawlers will be “named and shamed,” while those who pay a prostitute knowing she has been forcibly trafficked could face rape charges.
The measures are highly controversial, with critics arguing that men will seek other outlets if prostitution is driven off the streets.
Smith said it was “not mine or the government’s responsibility to ensure that the demand is satisfied.”
“Is this something about which people have a choice with respect to their demands? Yes, they do. Basically, if it means fewer people are able to go out and pay for sex I think that would be a good thing,” she said.
The prostitution review will be published this week, followed later this month by new licensing arrangements that are expected to see lapdancing clubs, currently licensed in the same way as pubs, subjected to the same stringent regime as sex shops, allowing local residents more opportunities to object.
Smith said she believed the law had been “left behind” by the explosion in lapdancing clubs, which were seen as acceptable entertainment for a corporate night out.
“If I were a business person and I were wanting to make the best impression on clients, who presumably are female as well as male, I do think it’s a bit bizarre that you would take them to a lapdancing club,” she said.
The new regime would make it more difficult to open them.
“It’s not a complete ban on lapdancing clubs, but it’s saying you don’t operate in a vacuum, you have an impact on the community around you. I would hope it would make it harder for them to open, certainly in residential areas, and I would suspect that some of them will be closed when the licences come up for renewal,” Smith said.
The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), which has vigorously opposed the clampdown, says outlawing paid-for sex between consenting adults will punish women who find this more lucrative than menial jobs.
Forcing the trade underground would mean that “the risks they are forced to take will be greater,” a spokeswoman said.
One anonymous lapdancer who provided a statement for the ECP said she could earn £250 (US$371) in four hours of dancing.
“Nine out of 10 women turn to prostitution or lapdancing because there’s not enough money to survive. Recently my mum couldn’t afford a pair of school shoes for my brother and sister. When I worked a day job I couldn’t help her, but now I can,” she said.
“If the government is offended by the work we do, then give us the financial means to get out,” she said.
She said that there was “no pressure to have sex with men, only opportunities,” in her job.
Under the new offense, men would not be able to claim in court that they had not known the prostitute had a pimp or a drug habit.
“It won’t be enough to say, ‘I didn’t know,’” Smith said. “What I hope people will say is, ‘I am not actually going to take the risk if there is any concern that this woman hasn’t made a free choice.’ It would be quite difficult for a man paying for sex in the majority of cases not to fall under this particular offense.”
She had ruled out a universal ban on paid sex because some women argued they did it out of choice “and it’s not my job to criminalize the demand for that.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in