So we are to have a national conversation on sex work; fair enough. But just to make sure we know our direction of travel, the agenda is clear – to criminalise the buying of sex.
Just before lockdown, while researching a book about the sex industry, I had the opportunity to individually interview six women who work in Edinburgh saunas. Aged between 29 and 56, two were eastern European, one was from the Far East.
"All were confident, forthright, frank and feisty. And they all resented being cast as victims."
But if speaking to the women was a revelation, so were their clients, who were mostly older men. One 70-year-old bachelor has been regularly visiting the same woman for over 20 years. She is his closest friend. There is a lot more loneliness than lust in parts of our sex industry.