Banned wagon
A weekly survey of the things our rulers want to prohibit
THE government has pulled back from stricter measures against motorists who drive too fast; perhaps this is because it is saving its real ire for those who drive too slowly. To thunderous approval from the back benches, this administration has indicated that it wishes to make kerb- crawling an arrestable offence. Those who, at present are cautioned and sent on their way — like Sir Allan Green, former Director of Public Prosecutions — will in future be shown to a police cell.
For many thousands of years human societies have come to the conclusion that prostitution is better tolerated than banned, so why does our moralising gov- ernment suddenly seem to think it knows better? For a clue we can look to the words of Jenny Jones, Labour MP for Wolverhampton South West. A ban on kerb-crawling, she told MPs, would 'pro- tect the vulnerable from abuse and exploitation associated with prostitution'.
Contained within this assertion is the assumption that every prostitute is an innocent drawn into the profession against her will: they need the govern- ment to look after their human rights for them. One suspects, however, that prosti- tutes have quite enough nous to devise alternative means of contacting clients, either via escort agencies, as many already do, or perhaps via the Internet. At least by walking the streets prostitutes can vet prospective clients according to their appearance — something they would be unable to do if arranging encounters in seedy hotels on the Web.
Those who have most to fear from a ban certainly won't be the pimps, who are used to operating in hostile condi- tions: you can be sure it will be the ordi- nary motorist circling for a parking place or attempting to pick up a friend they have arranged to meet who are most
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