Paying for sex will only be an offence in Northern Ireland

[Curvaceous Kate]

FYI: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-29950986

A proposal to criminalise paying for sex was defeated in Westminster on Wednesday.

A similar clause was voted through the Northern Ireland Assembly in October and is due to become law in 2015.

Former home secretary Fiona Mactaggart MP had argued in favour of adding the amendment to the Modern Slavery Bill in the Westminster debate.

Many sex workers say criminalising their clients will make their work more dangerous.

Advocates of criminalising the purchase, rather than the sale of sex, say it will help curb demand and help victims that have been trafficked into sex work.

In Sweden where buying sex is a criminal offence, there is mixed evidence of how effective the policy has been.

Ms Mactaggart's amendment had cross party support from the Conservative former deputy Chief Whip, John Randall, and the Home Affairs Committee Chair, Keith Vaz, but it was defeated.

The Westminster ruling will not affect the implementation of the law in Northern Ireland.

Tell me. How does Swedish Police staking out an apartment where a possible trafficked woman is being raped helping her? In the video clip that was released by the Swedish Police they showed an email that a concerned person sent to them believing this woman was working against her will and he gave them her working name and her address. They checked her out on a website and then went to the apartment.

At no point did they knock on the door to see if she was okay or needed help. Instead they waited outside for someone to go in. They then pounced on the man outside the apartment and took him into their car for questioning. They fined the man and then said they would stay there for the rest of the evening in the hope of fining more potential clients.

How can they wait outside that apartment in the knowledge that each man that went in could possibly be raping a woman who did not give her consent? If she was trafficked and working against her will and their job was to protect the safety of trafficked and coerced women, then surely their job was to get to her and make sure she was okay and not allow any further rapes?

The Swedish Model is sick and only sick people could wish for this to be part of their society and believe it to be a good thing.