Our MPs need a reality check

WITH increasing frustration, I have been watching the Westminster sex scandal unfolding.

Yes, the accusation that a rape took place and was hushed up is utterly chilling — and, if proven, unforgivable. But the majority of the scandal has, to date, been a list of various people being propositioned, touched or spoken to inappropriately.

Of course, this is humiliating and it shouldn’t happen. But what has annoyed me is how hours and hours of time and energy have been devoted to dissecting these indiscretions, while I have patients who have been seriously sexually assaulted — and yet the provision for them is beyond pitiful.

In the past month, two of my patients have told me they’ve been raped: horrific, violent attacks that are likely to stay with these poor women for the rest of their lives.

I know them both well and spent several hours talking to them, but I’m not an expert in this area. One, in particular, had started self-harming as a result and clearly needed specialist help — but what provision is there for these women?

One of my patients was too distressed to call the local rape support centre, so I did it for her while she sat in the room with me. I was told that after an initial assessment by a nurse, victims are eligible for psychotherapy — but there’s a sixmonth waiting list. That’s half a year before they can even begin to get the support they need.

My question is, where are the campaigns to improve their lot? I find the discrepancy between how politicians act when sexual assault is found to affect their tiny privileged clique and what goes on outside the Westminster bubble nauseating.

It is hard not to see the current fuss as self-congratulatory navel gazing when you compare the allegations with what has happened to some of my patients.

To me, this is the real scandal. Not the fact that some dull man in a grey suit made some smutty innuendo a decade ago.