Why hasn’t the law been reversed to criminialise buying rather than selling sex?

Brothels and safe red light areas are the only way forward
Katharine Raymond is right to argue that we need a complete rethink of the laws protecting Britain's sex workers. She helped prepare a government paper on this 2 years ago but the recommendations were watered down because of opposition from Blunkett and Tony Blair, who were terrified of a hostile media response and put their own interests first.

December 17, 2006The Observer
The problem is that current strategy on prostitution was forensically examined just two years ago. I helped prepare a government paper called 'Paying the Price' which described our laws as 'outdated, confusing and ineffective', and called for people's views on legalised brothels, registration for prostitutes and local-authority sponsored red light zones. But it did not work in the way we had hoped. In Whitehall, only a handful of politicians and officials wanted the report to see the light of day. At the Home Office we were divided between those eager to publish - and be damned if necessary - and those wanting the whole issue to go away.
In the end, and despite opposition from a No 10 terrified of a hostile media response, the 'damned' won, not least because the then Home Secretary, David Blunkett wanted what he called 'a grown-up debate'. In January this year the government finally came up with a watered-down series of proposals that took a small step in the right direction - a change of rules allowing prostitutes to work together, a crackdown on kerb crawlers and new methods to help women addicted to class-A drugs. Almost a year later, even these mild measures have not been enacted.

For history see - The Prostitution Strategy, including a summary of the responses received to the Government's consultation, is published today and is available at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/cons-paying-the-price (new window), or from the Home Office Press Office. The then Home Secretary first announced the Prostitution Review in July 2004. A four month consultation period resulted in over 800 responses to the Home Office.