back to article Gov demand for Governator to terminate PunterNet

Equalities minister Harriet Harman was in a fighting mood today as she demanded Arnold Schwarzenegger terminate PunterNet - a rate-a-strumpet website she described as "TripAdvisor for pimps". PunterNet is designed to "to facilitate the exchange of information on prostitution in the UK", but is actually based in California. …

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  1. Doogie Howser MD
    WTF?

    Why....

    ...don't you just fuck, fuck right off, you stupid woman. Look up the word "freedom" and see how your lot (which I voted for in '97 but never since) has eroded it. Come on May 2010, when we can get these bastards out!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    such vitriolic outbursts

    ... certainly does nothing to help to engender the support of non-women... so just how much of this is equality and how much is just feminism.

    I am all for equality and rights and stuff, but we don't need to approach it like some kind of war, surely the sexes have enough to fight about.. cant we just get along?

  3. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse
    Stop

    Lol!!!

    While I do agree with HH's view of the Sun newspaper, I still feel that ultimately she is a pointless bag of hot air.

  4. Dan 10
    Grenade

    "I'll be back"?!

    Not if others vote like me you wucking fon't...

    Good comment from the prozzies champion, though.

  5. seanj
    Badgers

    Weary sigh.

    So the Governator kills this website, and it just ups and moves it's hosting somewhere that will, quite rightly, tell the Harman-Bitch to go fuck herself with an angry badger.

    Apparently the website gives "reviews" of hookers. So what? Is the inequality stemming from the fact that some people might steer away from the hookers who only get one rubber johnny, and aiming for the ones who get the coveted five rubber johnnys? Perhaps it's telling men which hookers have syphillis, and it's ruining Harriet's man-hating fun when they stay away...

    I'd like the governator to terminate Harriet Harman, please, along with her overinflated sense of self-worth if she honestly believes Arnie's going to be peeing uncontrollably at her pathetic wishes-she-was-born-with-a-dick threat.

  6. Richard 39

    silly bint

    Whenever Harriot Harmon speaks all I hear is inane bleating from a lamb that has lost its mother.

    The woman is deplorable and one of the many leeches on our society that should be culled (and I mean forever) a the next general election.

    Stealing Arnold's movie catchphrase does not make you big or clever it just shows a lame attempt at trying to be funny and rouse the labour masses (of retards and window lickers).

    Be gone vile woman and take the rest of your scum-kind with you

  7. John Hoar
    FAIL

    Unlikely

    The woman has clear lost touch with reality in a major way.

    First; I've heard that LA produces a substantial percentage of all pron produced. I obviously wouldn't know too much about that, but sure if he had interest in that sort of agenda, he'd b looking closer to home.

    Second; I'm pretty sure that he'd run into some major 1st amendment problems. Unless they were *really* bad reviews I guess.

  8. Andrew Moore
    Coat

    I wonder...

    if Harriets just a bit touchy because she received such a low rating on PunterNet?

  9. collateral damage
    Coat

    I did not even know...

    PunterNet existed. Thanks Harriet!

  10. Alpha Tony

    'I'll be back'

    Yes, of course you will.

    Will that be before or after you win Miss World and discover the cure for cancer?

  11. corestore

    Sorry Harriet

    Unfortunately we have this tiny detail called the 'first amendment'. There's no such thing in the UK; Harriet would hate it.

  12. Mike Smith
    Grenade

    Where the hell are the IRA when you need them?

    "site represented "the ultimate commodification of women", and thundered: “Surely it can’t be too difficult for the terminator to terminate PunterNet? If he doesn’t I’ve got a message for Arnie - I’ll be back!”"

    And this, O Labour Faithful, is the lunatic one step down from the CEO's position. This sort of ranting is the sort of thing that one would expect from undergraduate student activists. Playing to the gutter press. What exactly is she going to do to the Governor of California - have a fight to the finish with him in a steelworks?

    As for the commodification of women - she has amply demonstrated such a fundamental lack of understanding of the nature of prostitution that I rather suspect trafficked women are now in more danger, not less, as a result of her cluelessness.

    The more I hear from Nuremberg^WBrighton, the more I'm beginning to think that assassination as a political tool might have some mileage in it yet.

  13. RichyS
    FAIL

    I'll be back...

    ... spending more time with my family, come the election ^H^H^H^H^H bloodletting.

    I for one won't miss you, you pathetic viperous little woman.

    P.S. Does PunterNet include male prostitutes (yes Harriet, they exist), and allow women to rate them? If so, I can't see the 'failure on equality' angle.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Come the General election she hopefully won't be back...

    Not that I really care to use the system, and I woudn't care if it went, but does no-one in Govt understand how the internet works, you can't just "turn it off". Kill it in California and it will appear in Texas, or Ohio, or China or Russia, or anywhere here they can't touch it.

    Labour Top brass seems to excel in showing they really do not have a clue about anything more technical than a tin opener, and I suspect they need the help of an army of consultants to understand that.

  15. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: Where the hell are the IRA when you need them?

    Yeah... could we not suggest assassination is a good political tool? Because it's not. Thanks.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    I had no idea it existed

    I would just like to thank Harriet for making me aware of this site. I've been randomly renting my commodified women on street corners. This site should at least allow me to find those quality commodified women. Well at least those up for some of the weirder stuff I've heard exists on the internet.

  17. Big Al
    Grenade

    @ Mike Smith

    Apparently Martin McGuinness is attending the conference as a guest (no, really)...

    He *might* be doing the recon for a strike I guess, but I fear 'tis not the case.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What a worthless feckin harpy

    and that's all I have to say about that.

  19. scrubber
    Grenade

    Get back in the kitchen

    you silly woman.

    Your government may be able to p!ss all over the rights of people in this country but the Yanks (usually) have a much more vocal opposition to the government cr@pping on their constitution.

  20. The Indomitable Gall

    Private Eye...

    Do Private Eye have a "RecessionBalls" section yet? If so, expect to see this in the next one:

    "Once again, instead of prioritising dealing with rape and other violence, Harman is prioritising censorship and repression. It is women trying to support families in the recession who will be first to suffer."

  21. TallPaul

    Free publicity?

    Punternet, not so much slashdotted as Harmanised.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just saying...

    I googled the site to just check if it was real or not and noticed this:

    "This site first went online in January of 1999"

    So, once again, the neo-laybor pricks are doing their damnedest to stay up-to-date and "with it people".

    Stupid fucks.

    p.s. it was probably founded with a grant from mandelson

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Foot Bullet

    There is now a list of knocking shops with address, if the police want to they just need to download the address and raid them all

  24. Graham Marsden
    WTF?

    Which law are their breaking...?

    Oh, that's right, they aren't breaking *any* laws (the women or the PunterNet site)

    Still, maybe Harriet Harperson will be able to cobble together some sort of nonsense and force it through Parliament before she and her cronies get the well deserved boot.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Stupid bitch

    I very much doubt this website will be taken down in any way due to free speech laws. Harman can go shove it along with the rest of the soon to be redundant morons in the 'labour' party.

    There should be a 'finger' icon.

  26. Richard Jones 1
    Grenade

    Harlot Harriman

    Nhttp://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/grenade_32.pngow, now let us be clear, the seaside often brings out the hopeful pantomime queens and in this case not only a failing, fading pantomime queen but a conservative secret weapon! What more potent force than the harlot bomb to blow gorgon brown out of his siesta and into unearned retirement?.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    equality?

    Harman wouldnt know what equality was if it walked up to her and slapped her in the face with a wet fish.

    Remember, this is the woman who has order the CPS not to prosecute women who make false allegations of domstic violence and who makes it almost as difficult to prosecute women who make false allegations of rape.

    What Arnie needs to do is come over here, bend her over, give her the good news and then "divorce" her the same way he did to Sharon Stone in total recall.

    Paris, at least she likes men

  28. Version 1.0 Silver badge
    IT Angle

    Looking at the $$ ...

    ... it would seem that the average tart (God bless 'em) makes quite a bit more than the average BOFH - which, in this tight economy, might explain why there are so few women in the IT field.

    Could be of course that Harriot was a working girl at one time and got a bad rating on the site?

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Is it worth mentioning...

    that prostitution is actually legal in this country?

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    She doesn't speak for women

    Whatever she may think, she doesn't speak for women. Not even a minority of them support Labour or her, and she is not their spokesperson. She is not their moral superior, and free speech will not be suppressed just because she thinks it should.

    Equality is about freedom, making everyone a prisoner of your hang ups makes them equal, but not free.

    Election soon. You understand that once the QE bounce ends, and UK goes into free fall Labour will not be able to pretend they saved the economy. The election will be too late then, so why not go for an election, the sooner the better.

  31. RW

    Harriet is s-o-o-o-o-o transparent!

    She's obviously one of those fools who's confused feminism with the anti-male and anti-sex movements. Her tirades about man-woman relations have revealed her as nothing better than your common or garden variety man-hating anti-sex crusader.

    One has to wonder what horrible experiences she has undergone to make her such a sour, anti-pleasure old harpy. She obviously has had a bad time in the sack and doesn't realize that most people quite enjoy sex.

    As for rent girls, the issue is not "paying for sex" - it's the exploitation by pimps. And guess why that's an issue? It's because prostitution is illegal. But being a certified NuLabour Loony-Hack, neither she nor any other of the apparatchiks can connect the dots between cause and effect.

  32. SirTainleyBarking
    FAIL

    Harriet Harman

    The one woman who has put the fight for womens rights back 50 years.

    The Governator will ignore her, and if pressed tell her to foxtrot oscar.

    Something about an inalienable right to free speech in the US constituion?

    The Yanks won't touch THAT one with a 10 foot cattle prod.

    Somebody tell her responsible adult, that her village called, and mentioned that they want their idiot back!

  33. Shamalam
    Stop

    Harman

    Another example of why the woman is unfit for any position of responsibility. I guess the word "freedom" doesn't mean much to her.

    After the next election she won't "be back", she'll "be gone"

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    TripAdvisor for pimps

    Surely TripAdvisor for punters?

    "Surely it can’t be too difficult for the terminator to terminate PunterNet?"

    He's an actor dear. It's not real. Not that these Labour clowns have much of a record when it comes to distinguishing fantasy and reality.

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    El Reg "pay for publicity" tariff

    In line with The Register's policy of continuous product and service improvement, and in accordance with The Register's previously detailed "pay for publicity" tariffs and menus, I assume El Reg will be getting paid for this article.

    In kind?

    With cameras (does that cost more or does it get a discount)?

    No Paris. Don't understand the fascination at all. Not even remotely funny.

  36. Richard Cartledge
    Thumb Down

    stop cp

    It's all part of Common Purpose. Don't you go thinking the Tories will be any better. It is all run by the same horrible people at CP.

  37. Juan Inamillion
    FAIL

    HH is a dozy twunt

    I ran across Punternet years ago - (honestly, really can't remember how or why!) I checked it out again today because of this news item. It's been going since 1999, FFS! Ten years and the stupid twunt has only just decided it's a dreadful site.

    As far as I can see it provides a user-reviewed experience of what can be (allegedly) a distinctly variable service. WTF is wrong with that?

    HH is fucking nightmare and should be kept away from sharp objects and the like.

  38. Paul Schofield
    Pint

    Lots of nice free publicity for PunterNet then

    I guess they need to upgrade their hosting package.....

  39. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    No Clue

    Has Harriet heard of freedom of speech? Does she realise how highly it is regarded in America? I know that NuLabour love to control us and cut our freedoms - usually under the guise of human rights - but to think that you can apply the same technique with the Californians is utterly naive.

    To any American readers: sorry; we apologise for this ill-considered outburst. Most of us over here respect your political traditions, and wouldn't mind importing the first amendment for ourselves.

  40. Elmer Phud

    Sun?

    Wasn't the Sun that pulled support, Mudroach has been cosying up to the Shiny Headed One recently. Go with the flow, back scratching and all that.

  41. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    So, I've had a look at punternet just now

    And it appears to be people who are interested in (mostly) legal activities, discussing these activities with the ladies who provide the service. There's advice on how to keep safe as a prostitute, where to get advice, what to do about STDs, etc. Appear to be one or two oddballs, but it is the internet.

    Here's an idea, let's remove access to information and drive the whole thing deeper underground and into the hands of those with less scruples. Lovely.

  42. shoo

    uh oh

    Streisand effect ....

  43. Evil Weevil
    Paris Hilton

    When Labour loses at the next election....

    .....and she's out on her backside.

    Do you think she'll eat humble pie and work the streets.....

    .....as a local political agent knocking on people's doors.

    .

    .

    .

    .

    Paris, coz she's a professional prostitute and she's created her own marketing video showing her products and service offerings

  44. Adam Foxton
    Stop

    @SeanJ

    Actually, if I was to use a prostitute I'd rather know that one rubber johnny would be sufficient. A hooker requiring quintuple-bagging would probably be someone to avoid like the plague she quite possibly has.

    @Alpha Tony

    If she cured cancer it'd be breast cancer- after taxing away all funds from testicular cancer charities to help pay for it.

    @Mike Smith

    Nuremberg was an impassioned speach by a leader yet to reach his peak to the over 1,000,000 adoring supporters who'd turned out. A leader who had an effective military and who over 12 years- of warfare, remember- didn't raise taxes for working class people.*

    The Labour conference... wasn't. It was a bunch of washed up failures who'd dreamt small- except of their brother- and utterly failed to meet their targets. Then plunged us into a huge national debt.

    *Some of the rest of Hitler's actions were rather less admirable. You know, the holocaust, attacking other countries, that sort of thing. But he was a good speaker...

  45. Charlie Clark Silver badge
    Terminator

    Poor quote, Ms Hormone

    It should "Don't get mad, get even" From a great film with Terry Thomas and Ian Carmichael.

    Who gives a fuck about the rest? It's just Daily Mail style nowtrage. Anybody who thinks it'll change by voting Labour out is a Daily Mail reader.*

    * filthiest scum on the planet if not in the in the multiverse. The Sun is a comic that no one takes seriously.

    PS. Is there a munternet?

  46. Dennis
    Joke

    Re: Where the hell are the IRA when you need them?

    "The more I hear from Nuremberg^WBrighton, the more I'm beginning to think that assassination as a political tool might have some mileage in it yet."

    Well, to put it absolutely bluntly. Confidential investigations have revealed the existence of certain documents whose providence is currently unestablished but whose effect if realised would be to precipitate a by-election.

    What do you mean?

    You're on a death list Minister.

    [Yes, Minister - Series 2 episode 7]

  47. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    foul slanders circulating on the internet

    exhibit 1: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/4949555/Harriet-Harman-under-attack-over-bid-to-water-down-child-pornography-law.html

    exhibit 2: http://www.christianvoice.org.uk/Press/press041.html

  48. JMiles

    Typical

    I guess it goes to show how out of ideas and direction this government has come when it has to pick on a site which is active in alerting law enforcement to trafficked and underaged girls whilst promoting the services of women who choose a profession based on their own free will.

    We may be morally or ethically against said profession but we live in a country which allows people to work freely and choose things for themselves.

    Harriet is just blowing hot air because she can't find anything else to blow. She knows Arnie isn't going to do anything about it but its something to excite the conference attendees.

  49. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    what about UK run sites ????

    If she is a champion of women, why has she not mentioned or closed down adultwork.co.uk ? A british porn & "escort" site with online booking. A quick call to Nominet would close it down.

    Maybe the information of services offered by adultwork users is useful "information" as this Gov is obsessed with keeping an eye on it's citizens.

  50. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    "the ultimate commodification of women"

    What does that even mean? That they get comfortable on a couch?

  51. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    So ...

    ... obviously this dozy bint has run out of websites in the UK to ban.

    It's been so long since the UK did away with such pesky annoyances as civil rights and liberties she's forgotten how non-totalitarian societies work.

    Chalk it up to yet another pronouncement from politicians that make for great soundbites but have no actual value. Oh wait - don't you call that a manifesto?

    Paris, because I bet she got a much higher rating than Harrietta Loon, and AC because it's always the safest way when dealing with power-hungry politicians.

  52. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Can't stand listening to her speak? Try this:

    If you replace every time she says the the word 'woman' with 'man' and vice versa (etc), she ends up sounding like an extremely sexist male chauvinist pig.

    So much for equality...

  53. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Coat

    I thought she liked the free market

    And to avoid market failure you must have a way of rewarding the good and penalising the bad (or plain illegal).

    Mine will be the one with "Economics for dummies" in the pocket.

  54. John Square

    Oh dear...

    I can only assume Ms Bee has upset Lester again...

    This article surely contains all the things guaranteed to really irk the commentard community:

    1. Harriet Harman

    2. New Labour

    3. Censorship

    4. A poor grasp on international laws and customs

    5. A chance for the American readers to talk about their bill of rights and the first amendment

    6. A prurient sexual angle guaranteed to bring out tasteless comments

    What did you do, Sarah? That's the real story here!

  55. TeeCee Gold badge
    WTF?

    @Destroy All Monsters

    Yup, puzzled me too. Trying to work out WTF she was saying I accidently started with "commode" as the root rather than "commodity" and ended up in a very strange world where Harriet Harperson is a scat fetishist.

  56. Toastan Buttar
    FAIL

    @RW

    "It's because prostitution is illegal."

    Guess again...

  57. David David David David (formerly David 22)

    Re: Re: Where the hell are the IRA when you need them?

    Sarah,

    Assassination is a very good political tool (for some value of "good", i suppose). It is a very effective, time-honoured and traditional method of dealing with political "problems".

    Dave.

  58. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: Re: Where the hell are the IRA when you need them?

    Alright, let me put it another way - OP, don't be an internet tough guy and start smugly throwing around suggestions about offing politicians, no matter how odious. It makes you sound like a nutcase. I'm not having that any more than I'm having hilarious prison rape quips in the threads.

    So think on.

  59. Anonymous Coward
    Terminator

    Amateur Quipping

    What is it with these unimaginative political types constantly seizing on Arnie's least interesting tag line? There are plenty of other witticisms Harman could have worked into her speech as opposed to the tired and over-used "I'll be back". Howsabout "...And if Schwarzenegger does not take this website down, the only way he will escape my wrath is if he gets to ze choppaaah! He won't be able to drive away because ze bridge is oooout! Tonight's forecast, a freeze is coming" etc etc.

    Probably best if she steers away from Predator quotes, what with all of these assassin nutjobs posting today. "What are you waiting for? Kill me! Do it now!!! "....Nope.

  60. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sterotypes

    For what it's worth I've know of Punternet for some time now because in my history I have built and maintained a few web sites for working ladies and they like to featuire links from their own sites to the "reviews".

    The PN site has a complaints procedure for potentialy malicious reviews and a fairly vigalent set of users who pounce on self promotion. The last time I looked there was also an active message board with regular contribution from many of the ladies featured and that is strongly against trafficing and other such activities.

    In my contacts with the women involved I've found them to be bright, articulate, take their own decisions and sometimes even pay their taxes. I am aware there are other workers in the industry who are exploited, or controlled but this stupid assumption that ALL the women working in the industry are in the same situation. If you applied HH's logic all farming should be banned because migrant harvesting workers are exploited, to say nothing of some hotel or construction workers.

    A socialist by inclination this goverrment has wound be up to no small extent, but I'm dreading Cameron.

  61. Chris P

    Not in my back yard

    Harriet Harman is another one of those goody two-shoes namby-pamby not-in-my-back-yard toss-pots by semi-democratic election. She does my swede, and would make a far more effective and useful contribution to the world if she'd left school at 17 and become one of punternet's reviews.

  62. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    she wants to close it

    before waqui jaqui's husband runs up an expenses tab there

  63. Mike Smith
    Grenade

    @The Moderatrix

    "Yeah... could we not suggest assassination is a good political tool? Because it's not."

    You could say that about freedom of the press, and universal suffrage for that matter.

    That isn't intended to be a snide comment. As El Reg has ably pointed out over the last few years, the government's legislative approach has been populist and ignorant, aimed at appeasing the tabloid press and the White House in roughly equal measure. Joe Public is only now seeing some of the consequences; the two coppers being nailed by an Ofsted jobsworth last week for having the temerity to adopt a childcare approach that wasn't government approved is just one example. I haven't noticed the Conservatives declaring that they would repeal many of the laws enacted since 1997.

    So how did we get here? Why did so many people vote for such an incompetent shower three times in a row? Particularly after Iraq?

    You can, I suggest, get a feel for the answer by looking at the comments posted to mainstream news sites. You see the same themes occurring over and over again – that Paw Broon was unelected, that we should leave the EU and then somehow stand alone against the economic giants, that the Scots are sponging off the English, that the English are sponging off the Scots, that becoming a teenage single mother is a passport to a life of luxury, that the country is being over-run with immigrants, that all teenagers are feral thugs, etc, etc, etc. Whenever elections are discussed, an amazing number of people insist on their democratic right to spoil their ballot papers (which means absolutely sod-all) or not vote at all, which has the sole result of the elected MP making some flatulent noise about listening more to the electorate and then forgetting all about it until the next General Election, whereupon the same thing happens all over again.

    The overall picture is of an appalling level of ignorance surrounding the political process. The twaddle spouted in the gutter press becomes many people's view of the world, and they vote accordingly. All the politicians have to do is promise what the rags demand and hey presto – a nice big majority and a job that involves little more that playing the nodding dog to constituents and walking through a doorway to vote every so often when that nice whip says so. Why the hell should they do any more than that? The minority of people who do understand the process are drowned under the flood of mob hysteria, so they can just be sent a letter full of PR piss and wind whenever they dare to object to the government's latest demonstration of idiocy.

    As for assassination – consider this, Sarah. Imagine you were listening to the 2005 Labour conference, knowing full well that the speaker would be in power for the next five years. Change the subject a little, so that the subject of their ire was something other than prostitution and far more dangerous – restricting the freedom of the press perhaps, or "restoring the moral breakdown of society" by banning women with children going out to work, or repealing the law on marital rape. Or perhaps the forcible repatriation of anyone without a job who wasn't born in the UK, maybe.

    And, after eight years, you would know the government's track record on legislation – ignore the consultation and analysis until the right set of views and figures come up, scribble some legislation on a beer mat and steamroller it through Parliament by ordering the rank and file sycophants to vote with the whip. You might have a different view on offing said speaker. I didn't say it was a good political tool. I said there might be some mileage in it; not quite the same thing.

  64. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
    Troll

    I can's see it... LA-LA-LA-LA

    HH only want to shut down punternet for one reason, it gives the IMPRESSION of doing something.

    This is a typical ploy used by expense-grabbing freeloading useless politicians who think that by making something 'not visible' they can 'solve' a problem. It's a bit like saying that convictions for prostitution are reduced, therefore the level of prostitution has reduced.

    Troll Icon 'cos it looks like a muppet....

  65. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    RE: Re: Where the hell are the IRA when you need them?

    I agree with the lady, political assassination is a really bad tool. All you would achieve is to legitimise whatever it was they were killed for saying.

    "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they kill* you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi

    *What? never heard of artistic license? Philistines!

  66. spiny norman

    Sterotypes #

    "If you applied HH's logic all farming should be banned because migrant harvesting workers are exploited,"

    They don't need to ban farming, they've already strangled it with bureaucracy. Apart from growing that bright yellow stuff for chip fat.

  67. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Election?

    Is there still anyone who believes that an election will make any difference at all?

  68. Jake Rialto 1
    FAIL

    Same old, same old

    Come on May 2010, when we can get these bastards out!...

    And exchange them for who exactly??? Oh you mean those bastards over there!

  69. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Eh, in the US, free speech is enshrined in the Constitution

    So the Governor of California, even if he cared, has not ability to shut down a web site. Neither does Law Enforcement. Neither does the President of the United States. What do you think this is, Britain?

  70. Quickbeam
    Megaphone

    Joined up thinking

    Just hot air for the party faithful, but if the site did close down it would fit in nicely with the Minx's disingenious law.

    As I understand it it isn't illegal to spend time with a postitute provided she is not being co-erced or pimped. This you have no way of knowing as you cannot rely or her (or his) word. The offcence is strict liability. If you used the service offered and a thorough investigation after the fact turns up some evidence of co-ercion you WILL be found guilty.

    Punternet is a way to get a 2nd opinion on whether it may be within the law to use a particular prostitute, as anyone with doubts could comment on the site. Also, the workers who are not being co-erced would perhaps be more likely to make use of the site.

    Perhaps what bothers the old Harridan Harmful is that 'customers' stand some chance of staying within the law using this site. Closing down a useful source of information makes the use of co-erced sex-workers MORE likely and achieves her aims of finding more men on the wrong side of the law.

    The commenter above hit the nail on the head. Swap the words 'men' and 'women' in everything she says and see how fair it feels.

  71. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    The last gasp of a dying government

    well, glad to see that with the world falling down around their ears the labour party are focusing on the really important stuff as opposed to the cheap publicity shots. Is this the political equivalent of "excuse me meister"?

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