Criminalising the "demand side" isnt the answer, Mrs Harman

Here in the UK, whenever the Labour government has something to deal with, it tries to ban and control. Last week, Harriett Harman proposed making having sex with prostitutes a criminal offence in an attempt to reduce trafficking. What on earth makes you think this will have any effect? Dont you see that these activities are controlled by organisied crime and criminalising the end user does nothing? Taking drugs is illegal but that doesnt stop the dealers. Driving while on the phone is illegal and I saw three people do it this morning.

By talking about criminalising the users, Mrs Harman again hijacks the issue and turns it into a "woman's issue". This isnt a woman's issue Mrs Harman - this is bigger than that. This is a human rights issue. This is slavery. As soon as you turn it into a woman's issue, the young men we are targeting to educate and change their behaviour think "oh, a woman's issue - that doesnt apply to me" and they stop reading. You actually close the eyes of the people you should be targeting.

This has to be tackled by educating the otherwise ordinary men who think all prostitutes are in it for the money and are willingly selling themselves. These ordinary 20-something and 30-something men who think nothing of "hiring hookers" on lad's nights out need to know what the truth is. They need to have it drawn to their attention and their decent side appealed to so they think "My god, I didnt think of that". Many of them probably have daughters of their own and the thought starts to repulse them and shame them. Keep these people engaged in the debate, dont alienate them by saying "you're nicked if you are caught". They will simply ensure they are not caught. This is not being soft on the user - this is attempting to get the user to think through the extent of the damage they are doing. When you run anti drink-driving campaigns, you dont have a policeman or a politician on screen saying you will be jailed - you have shocking images that make people think twice about drinking and driving and they leave the car at home.

We will never stamp out trafficking - sorry, but any activity controlled by organised crime will never be truly beaten (ask the Sicilian lawmakers and police) but we can drastically reduce the demand for these young girls and women and maybe the controllers and pimps will turn their attention to "More profitable" pursuits. At that point, we have made a difference and a different campaign group e.g. anti-drug, anti-whatever can take up the fight.