A flagrant prostitution of morality
by Mark Edmonds, Mailonline:
THE cheery municipal sign is designed to bring a splash of colour, a frisson of optimism, to the inner-city gloom. Its upbeat slogan: ‘HOLBECK — where families and communities bloom.’
But this grim area near Leeds city centre is, perhaps, not blooming as well as it might.
That’s because it’s the first ‘legal’ red-light district in the country. And if some of its advocates get their way, it will be the first of many.
Less than a mile from the heart of Britain’s third-largest city, Holbeck is an area in which prostitutes — and the men who buy and sell them — are encouraged by the local authority and police to operate with impunity.
There are no sanctions and no risk of conviction. Widespread drug-taking — sadly an integral part of the lives of many of these women, who have often been abused as teenagers and are subsequently used by pimps who see them as no more than a commodity — is also tolerated, under a scheme that costs local taxpayers £200,000 per year to run.
Most controversial of all, the ‘clients’, who travel into the area in search of paid sex — are welcomed all night, every night, between the hours of 8pm and 6am.
The police do not trouble them, unless officers suspect the women are in danger.
It is a bold — some might say reckless — experiment that has caused deep divisions both here and among those with clear views on how prostitution might be better policed.
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