Nadia Whittome wants to decriminalise prostitution, because of poverty.

[Thelnebriati]

Nadia says she doesn't want to talk about men who buy sex, and that its unfair you can be evicted for keeping a brothel.
No comment on why prostituted women need to work in pairs to stay safe from legal, paying customers.
twitter.com/NadiaWhittomeMP/status/1598683048509251584

So we could increase benefits above subsistence level and improve access to cheap childcare, but no, let's make prostitution the go to for desperate women, just when you thought it couldn't get worse.

What's the quote about if someone is hungry and your instinct is to put your dick in their mouth instead of food?

I'm glad you've started a thread on this. I have no words for Labour's total betrayal of working class women here.

She is thick as mince

😂

Right to the point. Tbf I’d love to see a political debate that ended with you just looking at her quizzically and going ‘you’re thick as mince.’

I’m grateful she isn’t my MP, totally unsuited to the job.

Although she does go on to blame the universal credit system and the punitive sanctions it has, and says it should be decriminalised so we can ‘tackle the root causes.‘ So I don’t think she meant it quite as badly as it comes over - more stupid than malicious. I have heard people (quite rightly) talk about the injustice of prostitutes being treated as criminals by the system that pushes them there.

Either way not sure why the root causes can’t be tackled while prostitution remains illegal.

Or laws being reformed so the person seeking to pay for sex is the one treated harshly rather than the person forced into prostitution.

Julie Bindel repeats that quote at the end of this panel discussion.

When a woman is poor and hungry, the thing to put in her mouth is food, not your cock Rachel Moran

She, Lisa Nandy and Stella Creasey. All thick as mince.

If they wanted to support people in poverty why don't they decriminalised petty shop lifting. (I'm not suggesting they do but I'm 🙄that the thing they suggests massages cocks instead of hitting profits)

Or they could raise minimum wage, make zero hours contracts more secure/get rid of them. They could subsidise childcare, improve benefits, stop letting large companies profit so massively from poor worker raises. They could go after the millions lost through tax evasion and funnel it to those who need it. They could make it easier for women (and parents generally) to access part time work and incentives companies to offer job shares and term time only contracts.

There are so many ways to help people in poverty that don't end in forcing poor people onto the sex industry.

This is long overdue.

"UK's youngest MP".

Oh dear, what a numpty.

It is just beyond belief that anyone should think that prostitution is a reasonable remedy for poverty. Just appalling on so many levels.

I've said it before but I live in a country with a decent welfare system - with support for single mothers etc, and a more sensible approach to housing than the UK (though of course there's still poverty). Also prostitution is legal. But unfortunately for punters, very few native women are actually poor enough to need to turn to sex work - as a result very few do (it would seem the myth of women that do sex work because they just find it so empowering is in fact a myth). So instead, more than 90% of sex workers are brought in from abroad and coercion and sex trafficking are rife. Which is doubtless a huge relief for punters. But the point it, if you decriminalise the sex industry, even if you also manage to eliminate the problem of women forced into prostitution through poverty, different women wind up in those windows instead. It's such a false argument.

Also the whole thing is very much "tell me you've completely given up on everything your party traditionally stood for without telling me you've given up on everything your party traditionally stood for" isn't it. Although that could apply to most of what Labour does these days.

Every time I think Labour policy couldn't get any worse something else pops up.

It must be hellish sharing walls with someone who has decided to run a brothel from their house/apartment. I have utmost sympathy for anyone who feels like they have nowhere else to turn but to prostitution but chances are their neighbours are similarly living in poverty and will have little to no choice on their housing.

Why do people never want to talk about the men who buy sex? If sex work is work and is helping impoverished women why do none of them ever state proudly "my father/brother/partner visits a sex worker once a week and I think its great that hes supporting a self employed woman".

If sex work is work why do none of them ever go "my boss asked me to come with him on a client presentation. It isn't in my job description, but it was good to get extra work experience and shows I'm a team player. This week my boss asked me to give him a blow job, it isn't in my job description but..." No - I am sure Nadia would (completely rightly) be outraged if a colleague or Keir Starmer asked her for sexual favours as an add on to her duties as an MP. But its OK for poor, working class women to do it because.... they're not as entitled to safety, respect, bodily autonomy as her?

Things to legalise before buying sex (not selling, that shouldn't be illegal):

Shoplifting essentials
Refusing to pay TV license/council tax
Refusing to pay escalating fuel costs
Skipping on the bus/train/tube to go somewhere like work
Drugs

I do see that those benefit poor and/or vulnerable people, rather than men who want to get their cocks wet, but I used to think Labour cared about people in poverty. Never mind.

This is what happens when somebody swallows the entire Bundle of "Good" Beliefs for "Good" People.

Yes. That quote is very apt for all those who wish to deny just how many turn to prostitution to feed themselves and their family. This who wish to deny the financial coercion at play here.

Oh dear. Cathy: you should have pushed harder with your question.

the point it, if you decriminalise the sex industry, even if you also manage to eliminate the problem of women forced into prostitution through poverty, different women wind up in those windows instead.

This. Wherever there is demand for something someone will provide supply because money.

Quite apart from the moral issue, criminalising demand is smart economics. The idea that prostitution would continue at the same level if a proportion of adverts were police traps and sentences were harsh is laughable.