West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Published: 13 March 2009
Seedy Soho
• WHAT a confused message from Westminster (Council set to wage war on ‘seedy side of Soho’, March 6). Yes, clippers taking tourists for a ride, offering the promise of sex but granting only hefty drinks bills, is a seedy side which deserves cleaning up.
But how does that justify Westminster City Council in cracking down on brothels and sex workers operating peacefully?
In these latter cases, people are not being taken for a ride… they are paying for a service which they receive.
And a service, I might add, that seems to be much in demand, that often provides satisfaction, and probably creates fewer indirect harms than the sale of alcohol, burglar alarms going off unnecessarily and Thames Water digging up the roads. PETER CAVE
Meard Street, W1
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