You need to read this article about the Leeds red light district.

[DJLippy]

I read this blog about the Leeds red light district from someone who lives there. It's so illuminating. This needs a wider audience - please share on social media. This is what decriminalisation looks like.

littlegirlblue.blog/2018/05/25/living-in-the-red-light-district/

It’s you who is claiming that she said she was. I think she made it perfectly clear who she was and maybe you should think about what it says about the UK and how difficult it is to get out of poverty if even someone like OP is trapped rather than sneering at her.

I'm not sneering at all. I'm asking. I know many many people (through my job) who are truly trapped in poverty and have absolutely no way out. Their hope is often focused on their children getting a decent education and making a better life for themselves.

I knew men who would describe prostitution as the oldest trade going.

Always joking about it.

I’ve seen the series on BBC iPlayer and it’s awful,the women are all drug addicts who need help.Most of them have been abused as children,legalising prostitution is just reinforcing their own feelings of worthlessness. Then also endangering the lives of people who happen to live in the red light zone. Shocking.

Sometimes it takes someone who's better educated, more articulate and more 'clued up' to get through to the people who run the show.

The 'normal' residents can be ignored, but when 'someone like them' starts complaining, then they tend to take a bit more notice.

Yes, the OP has a greater education and more options than the average Holbeck resident and she has opted to raise her voice in protest at the conditions in the area.

This horrific situation is clearly being ignored and you can bet that other police forces and local authorities are looking at the 'success' of the scheme and seeing how it could be 'rolled out'.

I hope people see this.

It’s you who is claiming that she said she was. I think she made it perfectly clear who she was and maybe you should think about what it says about the UK and how difficult it is to get out of poverty if even someone like OP is trapped rather than sneering at her.

YY. The blogger has an account on the Twatter where she has spoken in agonising detail about the situation she has found herself in personally. This blog is not about her. It is about her community. I really dislike the neoliberal assumption we are all atomised individuals. So what if OP even could escape? What about everyone else living there?

So what if OP even could escape? What about everyone else living there?

Yes that was my point. Everyone has to live somewhere - make Holbeck better not flee it.

Yes that was my point. Everyone has to live somewhere - make Holbeck better not flee it.

Exactly. Middle class flight (not that this actually applies to the OP, but even if it did) will just make things worse.

@IJustHadToNameChange - we'll said

@Stephthegreat he women are all drug addicts who need help.Most of them have been abused as children,legalising prostitution is just reinforcing their own feelings of worthlessness.

^^ yes yes yes. Exactly

@Tabathatwitchett bloody hell!! You have a go at the OP because she seems well educated & should just move away?!

Surely we should fucking applaud her for speaking up and using her gifts of writing / language to try & do something about the issue.

You've missed the point utterly. OP's personal situation is secondary to the fucking scandal of what is going on in Holbeck. She's spoken (v eloquently) about the impact that it's having on her, but ultimately, it's about the fact that it's being allowed to happen.

Some poor women in Holbeck right now are being raped to feed a habit, most likely brought on through no fault of their own. And the arsewipes of councillors & police, who I would hazard a guess are men and therefore have no understanding of or empathy for these women's lives, are condoning it.

Those poor fucking women. It makes me so angry.

Please consider giving to the Joanna Project. I know is run by Christians (I'm anti religion), but they do seem to be doing something to help - joannaproject.co.uk/

Again, I totally appreciate the blog giving a platform to these women and to the people who are stuck in that area. There is no question at all of its value but I think it's disingenuous for the blogger to see herself as trapped and stuck there in the same way as most of the other residents because, by having the education she has, she simply isn't. She has far more options open to her and is not trapped forever in that life.

Shout about it, raise awareness of it- absolutely yes but accept that you are in a different situation to most of those around you and are actually lucky to have the education to change things for yourself and others.

Tabatha you have totally missed the point. im childfree by choice Any cuts to Child Benefit child tax credits etc etc dont affect me but i still signed petitions against it . Because its appalling.

" I really dislike the neoliberal assumption we are all atomised individuals" Spot on Lang.

Agree with Lass and mummy as well.

“I think it's disingenuous for the blogger to see herself as trapped and stuck there in the same way as most of the other residents because, by having the education she has, she simply isn't.”

That’s a very naive statement...

I have absolutely no idea about the bloggers background other than that blog, but, I can think of a ridiculous amount of circumstances that would limit someone’s opportunities that education will make absolutely no difference to.

Even leaving that aside, if she might be able to leave in 1 year, 5 years or 10 years... is she supposed to accept that in the meantime it’s ok for that to be going on because she might not be there forever?

Not at all tab and I have repeatedly said that I think that trying to make a change is a very worthwhile and nobel thing to be doing.

My only issue is the blogger's tendency to think of herself as a working class woman trapped in poverty because, unless there is something she is not telling us in the blog, her level of education means that this is simply not the case. As I have previously said, as someone who works daily with those who are truly trapped in poverty, a lack of education is often their biggest barrier to social mobility.

I totally support the blogger's desire to change things in that area and was impressed by the blog (I've said this already).

I can see Tabatha’s point. While I don’t entirely agree that education always = more options, I think this idea of social class as something indelible that you’re born with and keep throughout your life is outdated. Particularly bearing in mind that education used to be more accessible than it is now. My working-class parents were both the first in their families who went to uni, largely due to availability of grants. And then there’s the community/feeling of ‘home’ side. I used to live in a rough area which I could (and eventually did) move out of, however there was a feeling of ‘why should I? This is my home, I’d rather make it better than leave’, which I think is a point made by some previous posters.

I’ve got a friend who lives in Holbeck; she puts her laptop in the oven when she goes to work in case of break ins. :/

The blogger never presented herself as the same. You got arsey about it because you are operating under the assumption that poor people can be educated out of poverty.

If you read that and thought ‘but she’s alright she can just move away’ rather than ‘shit even someone with a high level of education can get stuck in poverty’ you have failed entirely to understand what is going on in the uk.

are operating under the assumption that poor people can be educated out of poverty

I am operating under the assumption that greater levels of education give greater levels of opportunity yes. The blogger has a very high level of education and is bilingual. She has far more options than most of those around her and is more likely to be able to secure a job that is well beyond the minimum wage- maybe not in Holbeck, but elsewhere. She has options and it is her education that has provided those.

As I have previously stated, I assume that she has also lived elsewhere for a time in order to gain those qualifications.

I would be really interested to hear from the blogger about how she came to be where she is now and how she perceives her situation relative to those living in that area without the advantages she has.

I would be really interested to hear from the blogger about how she came to be where she is now and how she perceives her situation relative to those living in that area without the advantages she has.

Why should she have to audition to you so that you can approve her personal credentials when she is writing a blog about her community? Christ on a bike.

No man is an island, FFS.

Why should she have to audition to you so that you can approve her personal credentials when she is writing a blog about her community? Christ on a bike.

Indeed.

It’s only poor people who have to audition like this and it’s a massive problem.

You’ve chosen to read into what she wrote that she is saying she is the same rather than understanding she is saying ‘poverty happens even to people like me, think about what that means for people who haven’t had the opportunities I have had’

"Audition"?? I said I would be interested to hear her story (some of which she has already published on line).

You didn’t mean that though, you meant audition because you are refusing to accept that poverty happens to people for a lot of different reasons and you want to accuse her of deserving poverty in some way because she hasn’t had the moral fibre to make use of her education.

Why should she perform for you? You started off imposing your own prejudices on her.

Offred, strangely enough what I meant was what I said.

You’ve somehow decided that the blog is undermined by who you have decided she is according to your own prejudices re poverty.

I have no prejudice here Offred. As I have repeatedly stated, I work every day with people who are absolutely caught up in a spiral of poverty. People who lack the educational resources (to the extent that many can't read or write or do basic maths. Often many don't speak fluent English) to pull themselves out of it and whose future is absolutely bleak. Most of them would look at the OP and wonder how on earth she was in the same boat as them, with so many more options. Yes, she has not been able to find work for 3 years in that area but she has valuable qualifications that surely are her ticket out of that situation.

And yes, shout, yell, scream about the poor people who are stuck there without any hope of change or escape, but to consider yourself one and the same as those people (and the blogger does just that) I find inaccurate.

If education at that level isn't sufficient to get out of the spiral of poverty then I honestly don't know what is. Increased benefits won't do it that's for sure.