Lap dancing - your views online

Edinburgh councillors urged to use new licensing laws to ban strip clubs and lap dancing bars

Jackie Wren

It's their job. It's because Edinburgh doesn't want those kind of people working there and defo not the people who like to watch. It's a rich man’s city now. I bet they have high class stripper clubs hiding some where. You have to have money to spend in Edinburgh. I used to love going shopping with the family when I was a kid to Edinburgh for a bargain. I went shopping recently to the new St James Quarter. Nice, but there no bargains. A jacket I liked cost £250.That’s my whole clothes budget for the year, being a part time worker with a disability. Edinburgh is not for the poor outside villagers. They want us.

Paul Sayers

Time for the council to grow up. Those are adult bars and people have choice .Every city in the world has bars like that. People can make up their own minds. Nobody is dragging anybody in to those bars Like anything else, take it away and it goes underground and then problems start.

Donald J Makin

These places are not exactly on the Royal Mile are they? Rather than ban they should be ensuring these are safe places for ladies to work as it should be a safe environment. Banning will just make it go underground which isn't good at all.

Maggie Valentine

I managed a bar like this in Edinburgh in years gone by. On reflection it's not a natural thing to strip naked on top of a pool table surrounded by drunk strangers. We had regulars who were nice enough guys but I wonder if the girls choose this career rather than it being a necessity. Did they have other choices. All were self-employed, I doubt if any of them were paying tax most were supplementing benefits to keep a family. In this day and age of the Me Too movement I’m not sure how it protects women from men who see them just as a body. Not proud of working in the industry but like the girls I was a single parent and the club paid me double what the brewery did. I think if there were alternatives most nwomen would choose not to get their kit off in front of men they normally wouldnt want to talk to. Lots of lonely men in these clubs spending a fortune for company. It's a sad industry.

David Funnell

If the ladies are happy doing this work, leave them to it. Better to be safe in a controlled environment than driving this underground.

Janice Scott

If no one is being forced to do this or hand their earnings over to some pimp or other there is no reason to stop it. No one needs to enter either if they don’t want to.

Cameron Durance

Closing them down will only make it worse because they will go underground then no one will be able to monitor them, not even the licensing board. So that means they will be exploited. People on the council need to wake up and realise we are in the modern world.

Liz Crosbie

Don’t ban them, but do as they do in Germany. Girls have to have regular checks by a doctorr and cards marked to say they are healthy. Check working conditions and wages regularly, that way it won't go underground.

Julie Scott

No it’s a wage at end of day to keep families afloat. Why are we going back the way rather than toward each to their own.

Sarah Laidlaw

Nope, it’s a back-up career for women and men who struggle to get a job.

Airin Kenzo

I went to one in Edinburgh. The girls were very friendly. Fun, safe environment. I see no harm really.

Bert Albert Sabs Smith

The city’s got more pressing issues to sort out than this. It’s only going to make Edinburgh’s crap night life scene even worse.

Ciarán Smyth

This is just another way to police women’s bodies and enforce a code of morality that stems from a patriarchal society. The idea that a woman making decent money working hours that suit her in a job which she doesn’t need to spend years racking up student debt, where she can use her natural born gifts which no one can take from her is exploitation is strange when, sending her to work for minimum wage over long hours in a menial job which will over time affect her physical and mental health while the employer and stakeholders make significant profits based on her efforts is not considered exploitation is ridiculous. A prohibition on anything has never worked.

Nicki Lockhart

You'd all complain if they were on the dole getting 'hand outs' get a life, these women are working hard to live and feed families!! Also they should be paid more I reckon.