By Peter Berton

CARDIFF, Wales – Virtue is safe again in Wales now that a government website has stopped promoting sex work as a viable employment opportunity.

The website, BusinessWales.gov.uk, was established to “provide support to people starting, running and growing a business.” As part of the “information, advice and guidance” the site offers about almost any career imaginable, the site advised that strippers and lap-dancers could “expect to earn an average of £232 per evening” and annual incomes “from £24,000 to £48,000.”

It gets better: According to Business Wales, “Escort agencies usually have several escorts on their books. Agencies charge escorts an ‘introduction fee’ of between 25 [percent] and 55 [percent] of what the client pays to the escort.”

The UK Daily Mirror’s exposure of the material resulted in a minor flap … especially considering “inciting escorts to act as prostitutes” violates the law in the UK. According to the Mirror, Business Wales not only “incited” but also provided links to example websites offering submissive escorts.

Apparently upset that someone other than politicians might be willing to sell themselves for money, “Wales’ First Minister Carwyn Jones launched an investigation into Business Wales’s tips,” the Mirror reported.

Not surprisingly, other politicians also chimed in.

“I’m certainly not a prude, but it is hard to understand how the Welsh government can believe it is acceptable to provide information to help women become strippers or run a lap dancing club, which is classed as a sex establishment,” said Plaid Cymru Assembly Member Jocelyn Davies. “While jobs are difficult to find and money is tight, should the Welsh government be effectively facilitating these activities by putting information on their website?”

Business Wales removed the sex worker career recommendations.