First Entry

This is the first entry in a blog is named after a fledgling campaign group I almost became involved with and maintain a keen interest. I am resurrecting my fundraising efforts as, more than a year after a successful Pariamentary and press launch, the campaign simply had to go into neutral gear due to lack of funding and the Labour Government still thinks the quick answer to reducing the number of young girls and women being illegaly trafficked into the UK for the sex industry is to criminalise the punters who use sex workers. Never mind the fact that this to-be-criminalised "demand" side is usually an otherwise ordinary guy in his 20s or 30s with a decent job who doesnt realise the girls they visit are 21st century slaves and with a little bit of awareness would probably change his behaviour and not think "hiring a hooker" on a stag night is such innocent fun after all.

As I said, the campaign had a successful press and Parliamentary launch and was run with a ton of energy - not by me - by Aimee Littler and Shannon Hopkins, both of whom put a lot of time and energy into the launch and in organising a grass roots campaign, handing out posters and beermats around bars of London. It raised awareness of the "demand side" of the sex industry in the UK that the sex workers they engaged with were often not in the job willingly and were often victims of forced labour and trafficking. Often these girls are under-age too. Things are not what they appear on the surface. The truth isn't sexy.

The name refers to the fact that telephone box cards found in London may tell a "sexy" story but the truth behind it is not the same as is printed on the card. The 25 year old babe is often a 16 year old girl who had been trafficked to the UK under the false promise of a decent job with decent money and conditions. Once here, she is kept in miserable conditions, forced into the sex trade and cant get out of it. She cant escape her pimp and is made to have sex with anything up to 40 men per day. She fears for her life is she tries to escape. This is going on here in the developed world in the 21st Century. This is someone's daughter. Amazing, isnt it?

So, it would be interesting to see who out there knows of the campaign, is interested in the issue, knows other people who might be interested in what the campaign stands for, works for a company with a "social philanthropy" policy that might contribute to the campaign, is involved with organisations/NGOs etc involved in Anti-Trafficking issues etc. to see if new life can be breathed into this valuable campaign.

So, who out there has some passion for this? Please speak.

http://www.thetruthisntsexy.com/