Harriet Harman is right...

Now I've got your attention!

BBC reports that Harriet Harman wants to ban newspaper adverts for certain escort services:

"Ms Harman said the "ugly" adverts were published in some local newspapers alongside those for skip hire and lost pets.  She added: "You see 'girls for sale - girls from Europe, from Africa, from Thailand, fresh girls every week, 18 to 25'.  What sort of message does this send in the 21st century?  We do know that there is a big problem of people trafficking.""

I agree with her.  Human trafficking is a massive problem.  This proposal won't change things fundamentally.  Advertising of these 'services' will largely migrate to the internet but society should send a signal about this trade in "fresh girls every week".

I hope Conservatives look kindly on any Government proposals.

Related link: Davis urges Government to ratify human trafficking convention

Comments

[rupert]

I think this is a more complex subject than you suggest.

Of course such adverts are deplorable but until the government makes the services advertised illegal then thay can't ban adverts. that would breach freedom of speech provisions in the law and in the European Human Rights Convention.

There is a pattern emerging at the mement where every time a complex, multi faceted societal problem emerges the government proposes a ban on advertising - obesity, hamrful drinking, car pollution etc.

They do this because they know that they either can't or don't have the will to tackle the real factors which cause these problems in our society. they are also afraid to blame voters directly - ie that they should exercise personal and social responsibility.

All ill conceived bans will do is break the law, harm law abiding media outlets and increase state power and censorship.

By all means address the problem (i am sure IDS has strong views on this) but don't fall for the Labour spin of more state power, passing the buck and the nanny state.

[oxymoron]

I can't say I have seen adverts quite like that which are a bit out of order.

However, banning them will simply drive the problem more underground and make the problem even more difficult to deal with.

This is just another attempt by the government to cover up that they're failing to secure our borders.

It is also a sign that the Left has also failed to engender respect for women, epitomised by the fact that in the article Ms Harman uses the term "girl" instead of "woman". (When the BBC reported the murder of the Ipswich prostitutes they consistently referred to them as "girls".)

[Chris Palmer]

So, let me get this right... If people traffickers are actually stupid enough to advertise in local newspapers in this country, why are we wishing to stop them? Surely the police should be following this up - very easy if the advertisement gives details of how to contact these people?

Banning anything and everything is a typical Labour move which rarely solves the problem. Let these people continue to advertise if they want - and then just lock these nasty little slavers up for a very long time.

Undoubtedly if this goes ahead, Labour will use this piece of legislation to further their ever increasing control over our society and British people. What's more, it will probably be worded in such a (purposefully complicated) way that it can be 'interpreted' in different ways in the future so that they can prevent people advertising other services that they do not want or like.

[rupert]

Actually looking at the BBC story she isn't suggesting a ban at all. So the Editor's piece above is rather misleading.

She says she is going to talk to the Newspaper Society which is the right thing to do. Perhaps they could help by promising editorial coverage of this problem?

[niallster]

Typical NuLab nonsense.

My home town Northampton is awash with prostitutes. Mostly Eastern Europeans but also a fair number of Thais (why Thais I know not).

Why is this? Could it be open borders and totally uncontrolled immigration? No its because the local free sheets can print ads.

Whats she's saying is lets make it so we can ignore it and if necessary claim its not happening.

Same as NuLabs policy on most things then.

[Jennifer Wells]

Britain is degraded by these ads. I do hope they are banned.

[Tony Makara]

This is all a bit two-faced from a Labour government that has allowed jobcentreplus to advertise jobs in escort services and the sex industry to young unemployed women. If I remember correctly one young woman had her benefit stopped for refusing to apply for a job in a sex shop, but of course this 'Animal Farm' Labour government, the self-righteous guardians of the poor, are well known for their condescending attitude towards the unemployed. Harriet Harman is a hypocrite.

[Gary J]

I think the Human Right to free speech can be qualified in the public interest. We allow the sale of tobacco but not its advertising.

[Man in a Shed]

She's quite right - thank you for introducing me to that new sensation.

Around here (Woking) the local free rags are owned by the Guardian newspapers and do their best to quote Lib Dem 'spokespeople' on every occasion possible. Yet they support this modern day slavery by allowing it to be advertised in their paper.

[Tony Makara]

Gary J, good point. We may never be able to eradicate prostitution completely but at least we can take measures to ensure that women are not drawn into exploitation through advertising. Very often advertising can glamourize and mask the seedy reality of prostitution and acts as a gateway into other social ills. We all know that prostitution invariably leads to drug addiction, is a major factor in spreading disease, and most importantly creates a negative image of women.

[Neil Wilson]

Goog to see that, since becoming Deputy Leader, she's been getting all the important announcements to make.

[Patsy Sergeant]

The fact that the sex industry is becoming so emboldened under this government's nose, says more about the mendacity of this government and indeed Madame Harman, as well as highlighting their total uselessness at controlling immigration properly.

[Machiavelli's Understudy]

I feel nauseous...

[Tony Makara]

Patsy Sergeant, very true. Two and a half million immigrants, equal to half the population of Scotland, have flooded into our country. Largely unchecked they have set-up their own criminal sub-culture which has spilled over onto our streets in knife crime, pimp-run prostitution and money laundering. Anything Harriet Harman says is meaningless. She and her Labour party are responsible for the breakdown in our nation. Every day our nation declines a little more, every week we lose more of the things that made our nation great.

[voxpop]

The Labour Government has allowed sex slavery to flourish on a massive scale over the last ten years through unrestrained immigration and through turning the police into a politically correct, pen-pushing, largely-useless, bureaucracy.

Of course these ads for "escorts" are squalid and demeaning but they are just one small symptom of the sordid mess Labour has allowed to develop and turned a blind eye to.

What is clearly needed isn't more hot air, spin, and hypocrisy from phoney's like Harman but a complete change of government.

[Lucy Smith]

Maybe she should begin with jobcentre plus...?

[The Laughing Cavalier]

Looking at the comments here one cannot help but wonder if the government and the public have the slightest idea about economics. There are two sides the the equation; Supply and Demand. Few people are aware of the sordid realities of this type of people trafficking. If they were, and it will take a determined campaign of education by all of Civil Society, to make them so, demand would fall. In consequence, so, in time, would supply. A moral re-awakening wouldn't go amiss either.

[matthew]

Do adverts really truly say "girls for sale"? I find it quite hard to believe.

[Sally Roberts]

I'm inclined to agree with Ms Harman (which has to be a first for me!) but I can also see the point of having these ads if they can point the Police in the direction of these despicable people!

[John Moss]

"AND" Theory again, perhaps?

Legalise prostitution, but limit the advertising of services to; 18 and above magazines, websites with age related tagging, (it can be done), and ban working from home. (How would you like living in a flat with a team of three girls working constant shifts above you? - I think I should re-phrase that, but you get my drift I'm sure).

Then ban any advertising in phone boxes other media, phone books or even on late night TV omn pain of having your phone number cut off!

You control the exposure, but you liberalise the business. Just a thought.

[Donald B.]

Home Office claim 4,000 women have been brought into Britain and forced to work as prostitutes. But during large scale operations like "Pentameter" they don't find more than 88...Is the police totally incompetent or are the figures taken out of the blue, as they are in the US.
I recommend reading this article from Washington Post

The Sex-Slavery Epidemic That Wasn't
Human Trafficking Evokes Outrage, Little Evidence
U.S. Estimates Thousands of Victims, But Efforts to Find Them Fall Short
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/22/AR2007092201401_pf.html
President Bush has blanketed the nation with 42 Justice Department task forces and spent
more than $150 million -- all to find and help the estimated hundreds of thousands of victims of forced prostitution or labor in the United States.
The administration has identified 1,362 victims of human trafficking brought into the United States since 2000, nowhere near the 50,000 a year the government had estimated.

[Plastic Hattie]

"Ms Harman said the "ugly" adverts were published in some Labour campaign mags alongside those for peerage hire and lost data discs. She added: "You see 'girls for sale - girls from Westminster, from Camberwell and Peckham, girls who take silk, the same failed girls every week, 57 to 57'. And the same, seedy old men willing to pay big for their services - all anonymously, of course. Some girls even go on charging huge sums for their services after they've built up enough to become something called a "Deputy Leader" - though I'm not at all sure what a "Deputy Leader" is supposed to do, perhaps it's some strange dominatrix thing. What sort of message does this send in the 21st century? We do know that there is a big problem of honours trafficking.