Sean Gabb
NEWS RELEASE FROM THE LIBERTARIAN ALLIANCE
In Association with the Libertarian International
Release Date: Monday 24th December 2007
Release Time: Immediate
Contact Details:
Dr. Sean Gabb on 07956 472 199 or via sean@libertarian.co.uk
For other contact and link details, see the foot of this message
Release url: http://www.libertarian.co.uk/news/nr061.htm
Proposed Sex Trade Ban in UK “A Charter for Violent Pimps and Bent Policemen” Says Libertarian Alliance
The Libertarian Alliance, the radical free market and civil liberties pressure group, today denounces Justice Minister Harriet Harman for her proposal to criminalise the purchase of sexual services.
Libertarian Alliance Director, Sean Gabb, says:
“We believe in the right of consenting adults to associate as they see fit. If a buyer and seller of sexual services come together and reach agreement on terms, it is an infringement of their personal freedom for the authorities to interfere.
“Of course, this is not an argument our politicians are likely to understand, let alone accept. But anyone but a fool should realise that the trade in sexual services cannot be suppressed. The desire of buyers for sex and of sellers for money, and the private nature of the transactions, will make any attempt at suppression a miserable failure.
“But while a ban on paying for sex cannot end the trade, it will change the market for sexual services. It will tend to frighten off the more genteel clients, and make prostitutes into genuine victims They will fall more under the control of pimps – the more violent, the better for ensuring payment. They will need to pay higher bribes to the police – bribes to have their clients left alone.
“If Miss Harman is appealing for the votes of violent pimps and bent policemen, this proposal is an interesting first step. If she is seriously trying to protect prostitutes and other sex workers from harm, we finally accept that she really did believe in those weapons of mass destruction and the possibility of exporting democracy to Iraq at gunpoint.
“In either case, the woman is unfit for any public office.”
The Libertarian Alliance Believes:
- That all laws against the marketing and supply of sexual services should be repealed:
- That contracts between adults for sexual services should be subject to the laws as for any other good or service.
END OF COPY
Note(s) to Editors
Dr Sean Gabb is the Director of the Libertarian Alliance. His latest book, Cultural Revolution, Culture War: How Conservatives Lost England, and How to Get It Back, may be downloaded for free from http://tinyurl.com/34e2o3. It may also be bought. His other books are available from Hampden Press at http://www.hampdenpress.co.uk.
He can be contacted for further comment on 07956 472 199 or by email at sean@libertarian.co.uk
Extended Contact Details:
The Libertarian Alliance is Britain’s most radical free market and civil liberties policy institute. It has published over 700 articles, pamphlets and books in support of freedom and against statism in all its forms. These are freely available at http://www.libertarian.co.uk
Our postal address is
The Libertarian Alliance
Suite 35
2 Landsdowne Row
Mayfair
London
W1J 6HL
Tel: 07956 472 199
Associated Organisations
The Libertarian International – http://www.libertarian.to – is a sister organisation to the Libertarian Alliance. Its mission is to coordinate various initiatives in the defence of individual liberty throughout the world.
Sean Gabb’s personal website – http://www.seangabb.co.uk – contains about a million words of writings on themes interesting to libertarians and conservatives.
Hampden Press – http://www.hampdenpress.co.uk.– the publishing house of the Libertarian Alliance.
Liberalia – http://www.liberalia.com – maintained by by LA Executive member Christian Michel, Liberalia publishes in-depth papers in French and English on libertarianism and free enterprise. It is a prime source of documentation on these issues for students and scholars.
Sean may also address in a later post or a comment, the consequences for the Market in “Sex Services”, which has existed, does exist and will continue so to do, in all nations and in All Time, whether socialist Nazis like the Harm-Man will this or not.
For my twopenny-halfpennyworth, I injected a reply-plus-additional-comment, onto http://www.eurorealist@yahoogroups.com
where the substantially unedited version of this press-release also seems ot have has appeared, and which is where I saw it first:-
THE BLOODY GUVMINT has not learned the lesson from the “War On drugs”. I believe it’s officially illegal to buy or sell “prohibited” substances. The result of this is that what could be the £5-a-day-habit, which (may or may not) harm only the taker, and for which Glaxo, Ciba, Schering etc could compete to supply cheap very good substances, healthily taxed by the devils in the Treasury, becomes the £100++-a-day-habit (I may even be out of date on the prices!) which harms all sorts of innocent bystanders who get caught in the secondary criminal fallout.
I’m sure that Harret Harman (what an appropriate name! Harm + Man! ) has of course thought all this out. Prostitutes, instead of perhaps being fairly free women who choose to operate in “houses” run by probably fairly decent but tough madams, will become (as Dr Gabb has predicted will occur) the plaything of vicious traders who will, in the coming darkness, “sell” the worst goods for the most money, and extract retribution for all shortcomings by “punters” and pimpees that will, like their confreres in the “drugs trade” be terrible to behold….
Moreover, for “punters”, they will find that the still-available “Ladies” will fall in “quality” (for no nice university students will want to do it any more to pay their tuition – in England of course only – fees) and the remainder who are on offer will rise in price as the market will have contracted. Coupled (sorry) with this, the risk of disease, or worse – buyer and buyee being busted by the Police while “on the job” – will be measurable.
Then also, the very girls, the “trafficked” ones with “no English”, who may just perhaps have little or no choice in the matter and are the only ones at risk of being brutalised by pimps, will become the only actual victims of this proposed measure.
Another completely avoidable “social crime” will have been created. Great stuff, Labour. What else can you ruin? Come on, think of something, make our day, it’s Christmas Eve. DD
In a message dated 23/12/2007 22:12:45 GMT Standard Time, (A FRIEND) writes:
You know what?
I was always against legalized prostitution until this Satan worshipping government came up and went against it:-
CS Lewis put it ths way in “The Problem of Pain”:-
“Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God: the proud, the avaricious, the self-righteous, are in that danger.”
RE – “In either case, the woman is unfit for any public office” ~ Sean Gabb
Indeed.
Shortly before the trial of convicted serial killer Robert “Willie” Pickton, who was found guilty in the deaths of six troubled women who worked as prostitutes on Vancouver, Canada’s Downtown Eastside, Orato.com put out a call for sex trade workers who would like to report on the trial alongside regular journalists.
The response to the idea varied, but some people, such as Steve Sanborn, vocalized very strong disapproval. Steve thought we were being cavalier when we asked sex trade workers with a “passion for writing” to contact us and took particular issue with the fact we called them ‘workers.’
Luckily there were two former sex trade workers who were determined to prove that they had something special to offer. For a year, Trisha Baptie and Pauline VanKoll delivered what we consider to be the most groundbreaking coverage in history, providing the fallen and missing women, over 60 in total, a voice.
Now that the Ipswich murders are going to trial, Orato.com is once again calling for sex trade workers who worked alongside the victims and want to report on the trial from their personal perspective. If you you fit this description, contact us at heather@orato.com