who believes in the Nordic model?

people who support the Nordic model

Julie Bindel: Radical Feminist author. Recent book: Pimping Prostitution.

Kat Banyard: Radical Feminist author. Recent book: Pimp Nation. Co-director of UK Feminista.

Jim Wells: Northern Irish politician, member of the DUP. He is an Evangelical Christian, a Creationist, who has got into trouble because of his views on abortion and homosexuality. He helped to get the Nordic model adopted in Northern Ireland, using a false statistic. He said, in the Northern Ireland Assembly, that 127 prostitutes have been murdered in the Netherlands since legalization. Most of these murdered women - not all of them prostitutes - were murdered before legalization not after. Kat Banyard uses his false statistic in her recent book, and both Kat Banyard and Julie Bindel have quoted him enthusiastically in their books (as 'Mr Wells').

Frances Fitzgerald: former Justice Minister in the Republic of Ireland. She helped to bring the Nordic model to Ireland. She made sure though that women would still get arrested for working together for safety and still get arrested for soliciting.

Diana Johnson: Dame and MP, introduced a Private Member's Bill in 2020/2021 to bring the Nordic model to Britain.

Sarah Champion: Labour MP for Rotherham, member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade. Gave false statistics supporting the Nordic model in a 2018 debate.

Fiona Bruce: Conservative MP for Congleton, Christian, member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade. The main author of the report The Limits of Consent by The Conservative Party Human Rights Commission. Member of the Evangelical Alliance's Council.

Jess Phillips: Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade.

Gavin Shuker: former Evangelical preacher and former Labour MP for Luton South, member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade.

Rachel Moran: former Dublin prostitute, author of Paid For.

Barbara Condon: CEO of Ruhama 'a joint initiative of the Good Shepherd Sisters and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, both of which had a long history of involvement with marginalised women, including those involved in prostitution' eg Magdalene laundries. Condon stated in a 2019 article that brothel keeping offences have not increased since 2017. Like Mia de Faoite, whose article she's responding to, she doesn't give a reference where we can see for ourselves. We can only assume there has been no decrease, and she doesn't mention the penalties have been doubled since 2017.

Melissa Farley: American academic, does poor research with drug addicts then pretends that it's true of all sex workers. Her Wikipedia page is very interesting.

Andrea Dworkin: Radical Feminist author, co-author of the theory of Objectification.

Catharine A MacKinnon: Radical Feminist author, co-author of the theory of Objectification.

Sheila Jeffreys: Radical Feminist author.

Sylvia Walby: British academic, she put together an influential report on the Nordic model which is full of errors.

Meghan Murphy: Canadian feminist, she runs the website FeministCurrent. She doesn't understand that Dworkin and MacKinnon believed that women should not be having sex with men. Neither does she understand that the proportion of men who pay for sex increased when the Nordic model was introduced in Sweden, she keeps writing that it dropped from one in 8 men to one in 13. Neither does she understand that in Sweden sex workers are arrested for working together for safety and evicted from their homes.

Dame Diana Johnson: Labour MP

Fiona Mactaggart: former Labour MP

I have copied-and-pasted something important about her in Wikipedia.

In November 2008, Mactaggart attracted criticism for using unreliable statistics during a parliamentary debate on prostitution. Mactaggart was asked how those criminalised by a new law were supposed to know if a prostitute had been trafficked or not. She replied "I think they can guess... something like 80% of women in prostitution are controlled by their drug dealer, their pimp, or their trafficker." When questioned on her claim she stated that it "came from an official Government publication into prostitution and the sex trade". However, a BBC magazine article states that "it is impossible to find that number in any research done on this subject." The Home Office have also stated that they "do not endorse or use the figure that 80 per cent of prostitutes are controlled by others". The controversy continued in January 2009 when Mactaggart told the House of Commons that she regarded all women prostitutes as the victims of trafficking, because their route into the sector "almost always involves coercion, enforced addiction to drugs and violence from their pimps or traffickers." Again this claim is not supported by any known research.

Fiona Mactaggart also said in parliament: "The Government’s proposal for a strict liability offence, which targets demand for prostitution, is based on clear evidence from other European countries that such an offence can reduce trafficking and also the demand for prostitution. For example, in Sweden, the number of men who pay for sex has reduced in the time that that country has had a stricter but comparable offence, from 13.6 per cent. to below 8 per cent." This is also false.

This page is also quite disturbing. She and Gavin Shuker have given false information about prostitution during parliamentary debates. The two of them and 18 other MPs took staff from anti-abortion group seeking to replicate US backlash. Gavin Shuker is another former Labour MP and former Evangelical preacher.

B list of supporters of the Nordic model
(some of them will no longer be MPs)
Ian Paisley junior: Son of Ian Paisley the well-known Northern Irish politician known for his extreme views. He chaired the debate in the House of Commons 'Commercial Sexual Exploitation' in 2018.
Toby Perkins: Labour MP for Chesterfield, speaker in the 2018 debate.
Jim Cunningham: Labour MP for Coventry South, speaker in the 2018 debate.
Michael Tomlinson: Conservative MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole, speaker in the 2018 debate.
Paul Sweeney: Labour MP for Glasgow North East, speaker in the 2018 debate.
Barry Sheerman: Labour MP for Huddersfield, speaker in the 2018 debate.
Jim Shannon: DUP member for Strangford, speaker in the 2018 debate.
Ronnie Cowan: SNP member for Inverclyde, speaker in the 2018 debate.
Angela Crawley: SNP member for Lanark and Hamilton East, speaker in the 2018 debate.
Carolyn Harris: Labour MP for Swansea East, speaker in the 2018 debate.
Thangam Debbonaire: member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade.
Lord McColl: member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade.
Lord Maurice Morrow: helped to get the Nordic model adopted in Northern Ireland.
Mary Honeyball: British politician, was a Member of the European Parliament for the Labour Party representing London.
Harriet Harman: Labour politician.
Caroline Lucas: Green Party MP. Most of her party disagree with her on this issue. Apparently she has changed her mind and no longer supports the Nordic model.
Dr Maddy Coy: from Florida University.
Mia de Faoite: former sex worker. She wrote in a newspaper article : 'The number of ‘recorded suspected offenders’ for incidents of brothel-keeping has fallen by 77 per cent, from 123 in 2012 to a new low of 28 in 2018'. She didn't give a reference and I haven't been able to find this statistic anywhere. It may not exist, or it might mean something different from what she wants us to believe.
Rebecca Mott: claims to be a former sex worker.
Kajsa Ekis Ekman: Swedish author.
Gunilla Ekberg: prominent Swedish supporter of the Nordic model, 'if you criminalise women your are in a situation where victims are penalised. It is in violation of international law'. She doesn't understand that prostitutes get arrested in Sweden just as she doesn't understand that the studies she praises showed an increase in active sex buyers after the law was introduced.

Scottish supporters of the Nordic model

Rhoda Grant (Highlands and Islands) (Lab) 

Evelyn Tweed (Stirling) (SNP) 

Rhoda Grant (Highlands and Islands) (Lab) 

Mercedes Villalba (North East Scotland) (Lab) 

Gillian Martin (Aberdeenshire East) (SNP) 

The Minister for Community Safety (Ash Regan) 

Jackie Dunbar (Aberdeen Donside) (SNP) 

Jamie Greene (West Scotland) (Con) 

John Mason (Glasgow Shettleston) (SNP) 

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Liam McArthur) 

Elena Whitham (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) (SNP)

as revealed in a debate Prostitution Law Reform Meeting date: Wednesday, November 3, 2021

Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 03 November 2021

key concepts
Radical Feminists
There are two types of feminists. Sex-positive Feminists and Radical Feminists. Radical Feminists follow the beliefs of Andrea Dworkin and Catharine A MacKinnon. A key belief is the theory of Objectification. This theory began with the philosopher Immanuel Kant who was trying to find a secular reason why sex outside of marriage is immoral. Dworkin and MacKinnon changed this theory a lot and they decided that any sex between men and women objectifies women, even if they are married. They said that women should become lesbians, and by lesbians they mean women who don't have sex with men (not necessarily having sex with women). Julie Bindel is a political lesbian.

They don't like men and women having sex together. That's their starting point. They don't like prostitution, not because they care about sex workers (they say they do but they don't), but because they want to stop men having sex with women. Especially casual sex. That's why they often find themselves allied with Evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics.

They don't want to give men the benefit of the doubt in questions of rape, even though our liberal democracy is based on giving people the benefit of the doubt. We don't convict someone unless we are sure they are guilty, beyond reasonable doubt. If the evidence is contradictory you cannot convict. Like the Communists they place no value on the benefits of the European Enlightenment such as being able to defend yourself against accusations. Some of them have a Communist background. Julie Bindel was annoyed when Ched Evans' conviction for rape was overturned.

They don't like men propositioning women or even being suggestive. If a man says to a woman "Would you like to come back to my room?" they think he should be sacked from his job, if he says that to a female colleague at a conference even if he's not her boss. They don't like colleagues having sex together, or men and women on holiday having sex together, or people on a Friday or Saturday night. They don't like rude jokes in the workplace and wouldn't tolerate this sort of thing.

So obviously they don't like prostitution. They are quite happy to tell lies to get their way. They will say of the Nordic model in Sweden 'It's reduced the number of buyers – one in eight men used to pay for sex and it’s been reduced to one in 13'. This is a lie. The proportion of men who pay for sex increased in Sweden from 1.3% to 1.8% in that period. Kajsa Ekis Ekman said this in an interview and she also said 'I do draw on radical feminist theory, but I’m also using a lot of Marxist literature in my analysis as well' and she wrote articles with titles such as 'Smash capitalism now!'

Nordic model
In 1999 a law was introduced in Sweden which criminalized men for paying for sex. Norway copied Sweden and so did Iceland. France together with Ireland both North and South have adopted it recently. Although they pretend that women are decriminalized, sex workers continue to be arrested if they try to work together for safety, using pimping charges. Women are also evicted from their homes because their landlords are threatened with pimping charges. There have also been problems with deportation and child custody. The whole purpose of the Nordic model is to reduce demand, but it doesn't do that. In Sweden all of the metrics of demand increased up till 2008 except for one, the one they use (which then increased after 2008).

Amnesty International has seen a copy of the standard letter sent to landlords by police in Oslo where they have the Nordic model. The translation is below.

this is the reality of the Nordic model