England has us beat in one very important way:  Deaths at the hand of gun violence.

If the government is responsible for your health care - it doesn't seem unreasonable for them to prohibit practices that might (in their opinion) lead to future "excess" costs...  

So...sex leads to STDs... STDs have costs.... Why not prohibit sex whether P4P or not?

People in the UK refer to their country as a "nanny state". It's from their perceived, overly protective ways. Drugs are NOT exactly legal in the UK, but their attitude is more reasonable than the US "War on Drugs". Prostitution is technically legal throughout the UK although related activities, such as soliciting for sex in a public place, are outlawed. A number of related prostitution activities, in addition to soliciting in a public place, such as, kerb (whatever the fuck that is) crawling, owning or managing a brothel, pimping and pandering, are crimes. In Northern Ireland, which previously had similar laws, paying for sex was criminalized in January 2015. In England and Wales, it is an offence to pay for sex with a prostitute who has been “subjected to force” and this is a strict liability offence (clients can be prosecuted even if they did not know the prostitute was forced AND it's the new "thing" in the UK to bust hobbyists).Throughout Great Britain it is illegal to buy sex from a person younger than 18, although the age of consent for non-commercial sex is 16 throughout the United Kingdom. So the grass is greener, but it's due to non-fuckin-stop rain, not because it's Adult Disneyland. That honor still belongs to Amsterdam.  

(To You Know Who, I know you are going to Hamsterdam soon. Just make sure you come back. I know I wanted to stay .. it's a happy, happy place - avoid the train station tho - it's not that happy)