PM shows she has the guts to act over MPs’ conduct
GRIPPED by a tsunami of sleaze Westminster is beginning to make the Playboy Mansion look like a monastery. The relentless torrent of sordid allegations has dramatically increased since last week’s resignation by defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon over accusations of sexual misconduct.
Only yesterday a former police chief stated that pornography was found in 2008 on the computer of Damian Green, the embattled First Secretary of State who is already facing an inquiry over his behaviour towards a female journalist. Green fiercely denies all the claims against him, maintaining that he is the victim of a “smear” campaign.
Meanwhile at least five Conservative MPs have been referred to an internal party disciplinary committee, among them Dan Poulter who is alleged to have put his hand up the skirts of three female colleagues, which he denies. Conservative whip Chris Pincher is said to have acted “liked a pound shop Harvey Weinstein” by making an unwanted pass, dressed only in his bathrobe, at former Olympic oarsman Alex Story.
In recent days most of the media attention has focused on the Tories, which is very unfair given the catalogue of charges against Labour figures. Last week veteran MP Kelvin Hopkins, a shadow minister until last year, was suspended after an activist said that he sexually harassed her.
More disturbing is the testimony of Bex Bailey, a former member of Labour’s National Executive Committee. She says that at a Labour event in 2011 she was raped but was advised not to report the attack for the sake of her career.
IT SHOULD be remembered that Labour has an appalling record on women’s rights, especially in recent years under the advance of bullying, macho socialists.
When it comes to sexism, says the heroically outspoken Labour MP Jess Phillips, “Leftwing men are the absolute worst”. Whereas the Conservative Party has produced two female PMs, the Labour Party has never even allowed a woman near its leadership.
But whatever the political imbalance in coverage this is a deadly moment for the Government. There is a real air of crisis at the heart of the Cabinet as ministers lose both their nerve and their control of the political agenda. From the present fearful paralysis, collapse could soon follow if there is a wave of further resignations.
Such a breakdown would be a disaster for Britain since it would open the way for Jeremy Corbyn and his militant Marxist army to take power. In a fit of moral panic the governance of our nation could slide into the hands of the most extreme political ideologue ever to lead a major British party.
That is how lethal this saga has become. A hand on a female knee has ultimately brought the Government to its knees. It is now common to draw a parallel with the dark days of John Major’s government in the 1990s when his ill-judged “back to basics” campaign soon engulfed the Tories in a deluge of sleaze.
But the situation is far worse for the Conservatives today. In contrast to Major, Theresa May has no majority at all so she is profoundly vulnerable to any Parliamentary turmoil. Her party in the Commons is in a febrile mood and prone to rebellion. Since Thursday the spirit of discontent has grown with the appointment of the
YET Theresa May is already beginning to deal with the problem, unveiling new measures for conduct at Westminster in today’s speech to the CBI. She will have to continue to show guts, determination and calmness but those are precisely the qualities that brought her to the top. She has started lowering the temperature on the hysterical sleaze scandal, showing a sense of perspective instead of indulging in witchhunts.
Yes, genuine predators and harassers should be punished but there is a danger of luridly exaggerating the scale of the problem for the sake of political sensation. We do not need a McCarthyite revolution where every human exchange comes under ruthless scrutiny.
What we really require, rather than more officialdom and rules, is a culture of civility. As Jacob Rees-Mogg sensibly put it: “Relations between men and women should be on a wellmannered, polite basis.”
Theresa May is the ideal person to champion such a culture because of her own integrity, reflected in her strong marriage and Christian faith. She is certainly a far more effective representative of decency than John Major, the hypocrisy of whose “back to basics” moralising was exposed not just by his affair with Edwina Currie but also by his tactile familiarity with women. One female journalist wrote of him at a party with “an octopus arm sneaking round her waist” while he was “kissing her ear”.
Theresa May can also triumph by delivering on the real basics, especially Brexit and the economy. That is what counts for the public, not politically correct dogma and agitation. If she can bring independence and enhanced prosperity to Britain then the overblown bubble of sleaze will quickly deflate.