An online market place profiting from the misery of sexually exploited women has no place in modern Scotland.
Only blocking pimping sites and banning the purchase of sex will drag us into becoming a 21st century country which demands zero tolerance of violence against women.
Pimping sites have made it easier for traffickers and harder for victims, who are often raped by punters up to 10 times a day.
Any sale of sex undermines gender equality by saying it is ok to punt women as sexual commodities.
This is not a message we want to send the generations of girls who follow.
Police do not have the resources to match the burgeoning trafficking market and they are all but powerless without adequate laws of enforcement.
These websites make life more secure for traffickers but exacerbate dangers for sexually exploited women.
But any new legislation must run in parallel with well resourced, clear exit strategies for prostituted women and support for trafficking victims.
It is crucial that women who were in the past criminalised as sex workers have their convictions expunged.
These women were not “sex workers” who broke the law, they were victims of sexual violence in an unjust Scotland.
Today, our country is still failing women but by banning access to pimping sites, large numbers of
traffickers will be pushed out of business.
It has had a huge impact in the United States and France, so it can and must happen here.
Starmer stumbles on drug policy in Scotland
In an age of extremes in politics, there is a gap in the middle and Labour leader Keir Starmer’s reasoned, no-nonsense approach
is welcome.
But on drugs policy in Scotland, where there is widespread consensus on drug consumption rooms, he has missed an opportunity.
On his first visit to Scotland he could have pledged to put his shoulder against that roadblock in the Tory Home Office that prevents a pilot scheme going ahead in Glasgow that could save lives.
Consumption rooms are not a magic solution and the pressure has to be kept on the Scottish Government to commit every per cent of the £250million found to rethink its drugs strategy.
Starmer is right to focus on the economic recovery but, unless he embraces radical policies, Labour may lose the chance to deliver on that recovery.
By being a Mr Cautious for the UK, Starmer has missed the chance to be Mr Radical for Scotland.
