Don't do as she says, or as she does!

From my article about why I feel prostitution should be made legal, I notice that the ragged old fleabag charming and intelligent Harriet Harman thinks the opposite.

Always nice to have someone like that disagreeing with you; it rather confirms to me that I am probably correct.

Ms Harman said the "awful" Ipswich serial killings demonstrated the need for a change in the law to make soliciting illegal.

But honey, it is illegal already....

She claimed the only way to make women safe was by toughening up laws to include a total ban on buying sex.

Erm, no. Some old chap whose wife has died and who wants a bit of sex every now and again is hardly a danger to a woman who is perfectly happy to partake in the arrangement. In fact, I would hazard a guess that most people who pay for sex actually want to have sex, rather than strangle the prostitute and leave her naked body in the wood. Oh, and you're never going to stop people buying sex.

Ultimately we should be criminalising the demand for prostitution, criminalising the men who pay for prostitution...

Hmmm. Sounds to me like you are wanting to criminalise libidos...That could be a tough one. Bromide for all men as soon as they reach 13? A higher dose for the ugly ones as they are less likely to be able to get a shag without paying?

The minister, who sits on the cross-department committee on the issue, warned that prostitution in London was part of organised crime involving drugs and guns.

Yes: by prostitution being forced into the underworld, the risk makes it highly profitable. It provides demand for brothels run by pimps and people traffickers who abuse women and force them into sex, in a way which would be less likely to happen if women and men were just allowed to be prostitutes. And if you're trafficking people across (it's so much easier now with no internal border controls) then why not ship drugs and guns too. Maximise profits by sharing costs?

The London MP, a candidate for Labour's deputy leadership, rejected claims that the "oldest profession in the world", could not be eradicated. "Just because problems are old, doesn't mean you can't try to solve them."

But why should they be 'solved'? What's actually wrong with someone paying for sex, and someone else providing it? It's not my cup of tea, personally. I wouldn't want to be in a relationship with someone who reguarly paid for sex, but that's my personal opinion and I don't think two consenting adults hammering out (sorry) an arrangement between the two of them should be anything to do with the state.

The street prostitution I admit could be a real problem for people who lived around the area, but if you took it off the streets, then that antisocial aspect of it would rapidly diminish. I'm sure these women would much rather sit in a nice, warm house than parade about on the streets in cheap shoes.

I think Ms Harman's views are based on her opinions that prostitution is 'wrong'. I don't think politicians should legislate on their personal morals, just as these days we tend not to have politicians running the country based on their religion.