Once again the British ‘newspaper’ The Sun makes the Thai sex trade the feature of an article. The irony is not lost on me and that a paper which has made a full time living by promoting sex, reporting every bit of sexual tittle-tattle and ruining countless lives should try and take the moral high ground.

The article headline claims to say that the story is about the government’s attempts to clean up the Thai sex trade, especially in Pattaya. But one only needs to look at the photographs in the article to see where the real message lies. This is an article that manages to claim to be on the side of a crack-down, whilst using the sexiest images it could find to ensure a healthy click rate by the typical demographic at which the paper is aimed. This is, after all, a paper that featured topless girls on its page three until as recently as 2014. They even brought them back in various guises at the start of this year. They continued to run the page 3 website until 29th March this year.

The Thai sex trade is there to stay, I make no judgement

I make no moral judgement on the Thai sex trade, or what either the girls or their customers do. I find it incredible in this day and age that people moralise so much. As long as no one is being forced or coerced and nobody is getting hurt, I simply don’t see what it has to do with me. If women and young girls are being forced, that is an entirely different issue. However, it is hypocrisy of the highest order, for Murdoch’s flagship red-top to get involved in some kind of a moral crusade.

The article is nothing more than a paragraph propped up by including 5 photos, 4 of which were of scantily clad sexy girls. Does the Sun honestly expect us to believe that this is just to inform? Everybody knows what Pattaya is and what the top entertainment areas in Bangkok are all about. Grow up Murdoch and tell your editor Tony Gallagher to do the same. You have peddled sex for as long as you have existed. If it isn’t photos of half naked women, it’s scurrilous tales involving celebrities. Your tabloid would not exist without peddling sex; so get off your high horse.