Philobiblon

A very fair report in the Morning Star offers an introduction to the debate now going on in the Green Party regarding laws about sex work.

The current policy is for complete decriminalisation, along the New Zealand model, which, as I’ve previously written, has been shown to be an effective and sensible one.

That’s also backed by the Women’s Institute, and (which I neglected to say at the conference fringe in Hove) the Royal College of Nurses (as I reported in an account of a parliamentary lobby last year).

I’m not going to rehearse all of the arguments here – although I will make the point that whenever you read anything about this issue, do ask very carefully about the evidence and how it was collected. Many surveys quoted draw for their samples on street workers, workers seeking aid for drug addiction, and other groups that are clearly unrepresentative of workers as a whole.

I can also point you to some further reading, most notably the full report on the New Zealand law completed after it had been in force for five years. (And a short summary.)

There’s also:

* Lara’s account of why I am a sex worker. As for many, it is a financial/life balance decision.

* A critique of some of the figures often quoted for trafficking of women into sex work.

* An account of a meeting where some sex workers spoke about their work.

* An some interesting figures on public opinion: “59% of people agreed that “prostitution is a perfectly reasonable choice that women should be free to make”.

Not in any way a comprehensive list, just a small collection of useful resources for anyone looking into the issue.

And it is perhaps also useful for me to note for any non-party members reading this, that policy in the Green Party is made democratically – it can only be changed by winning a vote on the floor of conference. It is true, of course, to say that influential figures can have an impact on that, but so can good arguments and decent evidence. And as yet there’s not even been a motion put, or even a formal review process instituted. This is purely a discussion.