Comments on: Emma Thompson http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/ It is all obvious or trivial except... Tue, 22 May 2012 21:12:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Arabella http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/comment-page-1/#comment-125 Arabella Mon, 24 Sep 2007 10:43:24 +0000 http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/#comment-125 Dear Ian B, Please wake up! I'm sure a 14-15 year old Moldovan girl that provides you and anyone else with her services has not made a consious decision of her chosen profession. It's a matter of supply and demand and if we continue having such attitude that sex slavery is an urban myth we cannot expect things to get any better. This is NOT about prostitution, it's about SLAVERY. I have work with victims before and let me tell you there is nothing and I mean NOTHING 'urban myth' about their abuse and degradation they have gone through and most of them are NOT past their teens. And, I'm sure the police are not having massive operations chasing after urban myths. http://www.pentameter.police.uk/ Dear Ian B,
Please wake up! I’m sure a 14-15 year old Moldovan girl that provides you and anyone else with her services has not made a consious decision of her chosen profession. It’s a matter of supply and demand and if we continue having such attitude that sex slavery is an urban myth we cannot expect things to get any better.
This is NOT about prostitution, it’s about SLAVERY. I have work with victims before and let me tell you there is nothing and I mean NOTHING ‘urban myth’ about their abuse and degradation they have gone through and most of them are NOT past their teens.

And, I’m sure the police are not having massive operations chasing after urban myths.

http://www.pentameter.police.uk/

]]> By: Bob B http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/comment-page-1/#comment-61 Bob B Sat, 22 Sep 2007 23:25:06 +0000 http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/#comment-61 Well, I cited above a case from last year that was in my locality, with a link to the relating Metropolitan Police press release, but it's not difficult to locate reports from reputable sources of a widely distributed array of other cases: http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/pressreleases/archive/2003/140_03.html http://onlinenews.warwickshire.police.uk/appeals/archive/2006/12/211206manch http://cms.met.police.uk/news/arrests_and_charges/trafficking/human_trafficking_gang_jailed http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/5119804.stm http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=909654 The Home Office report, published in March this year, on the UK Action Plan on Tackling Human Trafficking, is here: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/human-traffick-action-plan?view=Binary Well, I cited above a case from last year that was in my locality, with a link to the relating Metropolitan Police press release, but it’s not difficult to locate reports from reputable sources of a widely distributed array of other cases:
http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/pressreleases/archive/2003/140_03.html
http://onlinenews.warwickshire.police.uk/appeals/archive/2006/12/211206manch
http://cms.met.police.uk/news/arrests_and_charges/trafficking/human_trafficking_gang_jailed
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/5119804.stm
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=909654

The Home Office report, published in March this year, on the UK Action Plan on Tackling Human Trafficking, is here:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/human-traffick-action-plan?view=Binary

]]> By: Ian B http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/comment-page-1/#comment-59 Ian B Sat, 22 Sep 2007 21:59:57 +0000 http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/#comment-59 Well, Bob B, that's one case but it's a bit odd. There's no brothel, this strange couple keeping her in their house, and it took three months before she met them? Whatever happened, it's far removed from the image of hordes of girls being kidnapped and trafficked by ruthless mafia gangs which ms. Thompson appears to be campaigning about, which is the urban myth I was referring to. http://www.walnet.org/csis/news/world_2003/spectator-030405.html Well, Bob B, that’s one case but it’s a bit odd. There’s no brothel, this strange couple keeping her in their house, and it took three months before she met them? Whatever happened, it’s far removed from the image of hordes of girls being kidnapped and trafficked by ruthless mafia gangs which ms. Thompson appears to be campaigning about, which is the urban myth I was referring to.

http://www.walnet.org/csis/news/world_2003/spectator-030405.html

]]> By: Bob B http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/comment-page-1/#comment-58 Bob B Sat, 22 Sep 2007 21:28:01 +0000 http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/#comment-58 The above case couldn't be more different from the charges brought against Cynthia Payne in 1987 and from which she was acquitted to wide public acclaim. From various reports, a Police raid of her premises in Streatham was timely and arrived when a sex party was in full swing. The only hitch from a legal perspective was that the active clientele present turned out to be mainly pensioners, retirees, some on incapacity benefits and a retired vicar or two. The Police were arguably right to bring the case but Cynthia Payne's notorious operation was more by way of a adjunct to social services than anything more nefarious and the jury reached a decision to acquit her on all charges in just five hours. For a short while at least, Cynthia Payne became a national celebrity and, in the eyes of some commentators, more worthy of that status than many others. The above case couldn’t be more different from the charges brought against Cynthia Payne in 1987 and from which she was acquitted to wide public acclaim.

From various reports, a Police raid of her premises in Streatham was timely and arrived when a sex party was in full swing. The only hitch from a legal perspective was that the active clientele present turned out to be mainly pensioners, retirees, some on incapacity benefits and a retired vicar or two.

The Police were arguably right to bring the case but Cynthia Payne’s notorious operation was more by way of a adjunct to social services than anything more nefarious and the jury reached a decision to acquit her on all charges in just five hours.

For a short while at least, Cynthia Payne became a national celebrity and, in the eyes of some commentators, more worthy of that status than many others.

]]> By: Bob B http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/comment-page-1/#comment-57 Bob B Sat, 22 Sep 2007 21:06:23 +0000 http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/#comment-57 C'mon. Enslavement for prostitution is certainly more than a mere urban myth. I quote here from a Metropolitan Police press release of last year relating to the residents in a suburban house just a few miles from where I write: "An Albanian couple accused of holding a young woman against her will and forcing her into prostitution at a house in Sutton were found guilty on Tuesday 9 May 2006. "Mirela Zeneli and Blendi Krasniqi kept the victim, who at the time, was 18 years-old, in the house where she was raped up to 30 times a day. "The victim was an orphan from Lithuania who came to England in July 2004 under the pretence that she would be employed. But within three months of her arrival she had met Zeneli and Krasniqi who forced her to become a prostitute. . ." http://cms.met.police.uk/met/boroughs/sutton/04how_are_we_doing/news/news_2006/albanian_couple_found_guilty_of_prostitution C’mon. Enslavement for prostitution is certainly more than a mere urban myth. I quote here from a Metropolitan Police press release of last year relating to the residents in a suburban house just a few miles from where I write:

“An Albanian couple accused of holding a young woman against her will and forcing her into prostitution at a house in Sutton were found guilty on Tuesday 9 May 2006.

“Mirela Zeneli and Blendi Krasniqi kept the victim, who at the time, was 18 years-old, in the house where she was raped up to 30 times a day.

“The victim was an orphan from Lithuania who came to England in July 2004 under the pretence that she would be employed. But within three months of her arrival she had met Zeneli and Krasniqi who forced her to become a prostitute. . .”
http://cms.met.police.uk/met/boroughs/sutton/04how_are_we_doing/news/news_2006/albanian_couple_found_guilty_of_prostitution

]]> By: Ian B http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/comment-page-1/#comment-56 Ian B Sat, 22 Sep 2007 20:34:19 +0000 http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/#comment-56 Is it significant that the sex trafficking, girls chained to beds, etc, that Ms. Thompson is raising awareness of is a moral panic/urban myth largely created by special interest groups/single issue fanatics? Is it significant that large numbers of women are freely travelling from East to West to earn a few bob in the sex industry rather than the narrative of innocent girls tricked into prostitution with promises of work as secretaries, librarians and five-a-day officers? Does that matter, or should we just go with the flow of the urban myth here? Is it significant that the sex trafficking, girls chained to beds, etc, that Ms. Thompson is raising awareness of is a moral panic/urban myth largely created by special interest groups/single issue fanatics? Is it significant that large numbers of women are freely travelling from East to West to earn a few bob in the sex industry rather than the narrative of innocent girls tricked into prostitution with promises of work as secretaries, librarians and five-a-day officers?

Does that matter, or should we just go with the flow of the urban myth here?

]]> By: Bob B http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/comment-page-1/#comment-49 Bob B Sat, 22 Sep 2007 17:41:36 +0000 http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/#comment-49 I feel impelled to mention here that it's been 20 years since Cynthia Payne was acquitted to public acclaim of nine charges controlling prostitutes at her home in south west London: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/11/newsid_2539000/2539565.stm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia_Payne My special interest in Ms Payne's illustrious entrepreneurial career in the sex industry began I learned that her home and business address was located just around the corner from where my first girl friend used to live in times when the Rt Hon Duncan Sandys, at one time Churchill's son-in-law, was still the MP for Streatham: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Sandys Those were the days, my friend . . http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=X5pkkAhETYg I feel impelled to mention here that it’s been 20 years since Cynthia Payne was acquitted to public acclaim of nine charges controlling prostitutes at her home in south west London:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/11/newsid_2539000/2539565.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia_Payne

My special interest in Ms Payne’s illustrious entrepreneurial career in the sex industry began I learned that her home and business address was located just around the corner from where my first girl friend used to live in times when the Rt Hon Duncan Sandys, at one time Churchill’s son-in-law, was still the MP for Streatham:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Sandys

Those were the days, my friend . .
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=X5pkkAhETYg

]]> By: Bob B http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/comment-page-1/#comment-21 Bob B Sat, 22 Sep 2007 09:49:13 +0000 http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/#comment-21 I was left to wonder just what a casual pedestrian who encounters the estimable Emma Thompson in Trafalgar Square is supposed to do having been made aware of the sex industry. Fortunately or otherwise, reference to The Times resolves the issue: "Wander into massage parlours and see if any of the girls speak English. If you live in a quiet suburban street, what’s going on with the house on the corner where the curtains are drawn and there are always men wandering in and out?” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2507874.ece I think anyone minded to follow that guidance is advised to seek legal advice and, possibly, police protection as well, before proceeding. I was left to wonder just what a casual pedestrian who encounters the estimable Emma Thompson in Trafalgar Square is supposed to do having been made aware of the sex industry.

Fortunately or otherwise, reference to The Times resolves the issue:

“Wander into massage parlours and see if any of the girls speak English. If you live in a quiet suburban street, what’s going on with the house on the corner where the curtains are drawn and there are always men wandering in and out?”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2507874.ece

I think anyone minded to follow that guidance is advised to seek legal advice and, possibly, police protection as well, before proceeding.

]]> By: Mark Wadsworth http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/comment-page-1/#comment-18 Mark Wadsworth Sat, 22 Sep 2007 09:29:42 +0000 http://timworstall.com/2007/09/22/emma-thompson/#comment-18 Cool. Like those men who go round in the morning sticking those postcards in 'phone booths. They're 'raising awareness of the sex industry' as well, aren't they? Cool.

Like those men who go round in the morning sticking those postcards in ‘phone booths. They’re ‘raising awareness of the sex industry’ as well, aren’t they?

]]>