‘Ulster Says No’: Regulating the consumption of commercial sex spaces and services in Northern Ireland

Commercial forms of sex such as prostitution/sex work, strip clubs and even sex shops have been the subject of much political debate and policy regulation over the last decade or so in the UK and Ireland. These myriad forms of commercial sex and land usage have managed to survive and even thrive in the face of public outcry and regulation. Despite being part of the UK we suggest that Northern Ireland has steered its own regulatory course, whereby the consumption of commercial sexual spaces and services have been the subject of intense moral and legal oversight in ways that are not apparent in other UK regions. Nevertheless, in spite of this we also argue that the context of Northern Ireland may provide some lessons for the ways that religious values and moral reasoning can influence debates on commercial sex elsewhere.

Second Equal Treatment Act for the commercial sector

This book analyses one of the first pieces of legislation promoted by Angela Merkel, who started her political career as a minister for women's equality under Helmut Kohl. The name of the Act, Second Equal Treatment Act, allured to the Equal Treatment Act of the 1950s which implemented the barest minimum requirements to make the German constitution's demand to guarantee equal rights for women more than a hollow formula. However, this Act, while abolishing blatant discrimination of women through statute in fields such as family law, did nothing to further substantive equality. In 1990, when Germany was reunited, women from Eastern Germany had a first hand experience what the absence of such furtherance meant under capitalism. Used to being at nor risk to fall into poverty just because they divorced, or decided to become a mother without male protection, to being in full employment and not at the mercy of payments by their husbands, women from Eastern Germany were dismissed in large numbers, and found themselves sent back to the kitchen. The first minister for women affairs from their ranks made the "2nd Equality Act", but this act did little more than the minimum required by the EEC legislation. Again, substantive equality was not addressed through German Federal legislation. This was left to some of the German states - whose competences were limited to the public services. Most of those states which did create positive action measures for women employed in the public services were governed not by Christian Democrats - but this was the theme of another book.

The Role and Effectiveness of Public – Private Partnerships (NHS LIFT) in the Development of Enhanced Primary Care Premises and Services:Report for the National Institute for Health Research Service Delivery and Organisation programme

The research project analysed the role and effectiveness of LIFT via a multi-method study which included semi-structured interviews with policy elites and users, as well as case studies and an exploratory analysis of the financial characteristics of three LIFT Companies. While the team felt that it was able to identify key aspects relating to the advantages and drawbacks surrounding LIFT, some aspects relating to the representativeness of the study was adversely affected by a reluctance of PCTs to participate in the case study analysis and commercial confidentiality restrictions. The study was nonetheless able to identify important issues in relation to the funding and procurement of primary care premises and services.