Masked sex workers took to the streets of central London on Sunday, to protest against efforts by Westminster Council and the police to close down brothels, and to highlight their concerns over the government’s Police and Crime Bill, which they claim would force working girls onto the streets and into danger.
Sadly, the case of Hanane Parry – who together with another prostitute was killed and carved up in Liverpool by a paranoid schizophrenic – and the Ipswich murders in 2006 prove that women working the streets face very real dangers.
Whatever people think about prostitution, it’s never going to go away, so it makes total sense to help women avoid exploitation and abuse by permitting them to work together and inside and remain in control of their own lives.