Belle de Jour meets New Horizon

A rare thing happened yesterday. My “day job” collided with my volunteer project. Actually, in 20 years on Channel 4 News I don’t think it’s ever happened before.

But after the outing of Belle de Jour – the PhD-wielding academic with an intriguing money-generating enterprise on the side – I felt we should put the other side of the coin. We should talk to some of those who have no choice in the matter and who work at the exploited, grubby end of prostitution.

The New Horizon youth centre, where I worked before becoming a hack, is a day centre for young homeless people in London.

For some years now we have run a twice weekly group for young woman sex workers. They are young women who live harrowing lives. One of them contributed to Alex Thomson’s report last night.

I popped into the centre today. I’m still the chair of the project. We got a significant lottery grant earlier this year and the entire place is being refurbed and expanded. It look sensational and will reopen at the beginning of next year.

We are presently decamped to another building in the same street, a road that runs between the British Library and Euston Station.

The reason I mention all this is that one of our sex workers contributed to our report last night. New Horizon’s blog has been active since, so here’s a link: www.nhyouthcentre.org.uk