Of course, sex assaults are deplorable. But this hysteria is out of proportion
Let me make this clear from the start. I have never been a ‘victim’ of MP sex pests even though I have worked in and around Westminster, off and on since the Seventies.
I’ve had to endure my share of awkward passes elsewhere, of course – the hand where it shouldn’t be, the lecherous suggestion. I always dealt with it briskly, with that tone of voice that leaves no room for misinterpretation.
Sometimes I was left feeling cross and insulted by a man’s crassness. But I never felt demeaned or belittled. the men were doing that to themselves.
the point is that I have found the MPs I have met and worked with – bar the odd encounter which I’ll come to later – to be unfailingly courteous.
the current hysteria over sexual harassment at Westminster is doing both them – and us women – a terrible disservice.
Of course any genuine assault is deplorable and deserves to be taken seriously. But the blizzard of accusations, the demands for official investigations and resignations is out of all proportion.
It is encouraging women to see themselves as victims – and yet it is being done in the name of feminism.
When I first visited the Houses of Parliament as a student involved in a parliamentary broadcasting project, I was amazed at the behaviour of some people, both men and women.
this was at the height of the sexual liberation movement in the 1970s, and it was immediately obvious that Westminster had a groupie culture.
the place was full of girls who were in awe of power and the MPs and ministers who wielded it: researchers, secretaries, assistants and hangers- on. these women knew exactly what they were doing and what they wanted. And plenty of men – fewer women were MPs in those days – were eager to take advantage of it. It takes two to tango, after all.
But I soon came to realise that not all men, and certainly not all MPs, were like that. I’ve met with far more properness than impropriety in the Houses of Parliament.
there were women, both in politics and the media, who used their allure as a clever strategy. they could look after themselves.
they were not naive innocents, at the mercy of predators. they often allowed and encouraged an atmosphere of flirtation, sexual banter and even groping to develop. W hen I read the stories yesterday that a Government minister had sent his secretary into a Soho sex shop to buy a vibrator, while he waited outside, my first thought was, ‘Why would a grown up experienced woman let this happen?’ In most offices, no woman would tolerate such a demand, or permit her boss to call her ‘Sugar t*ts’ in public as he reportedly did.
this isn’t acceptable behaviour anywhere. But surely it was just a case of foolish, if taw- dry, high jinks. to equate it, as some have done on twitter, with the behaviour of Harvey Weinstein who allegedly raped a number of women, is ludicrous.
the idea that there is some mass sexual persecution of women is farcical. And the suggestion that we are all supposed to be reduced to helpless terror and outrage if a man makes an unwanted pass at us is demeaning.
the times journalist Jane Merrick told BBC news she was left ‘humiliated’ after a male Conservative MP made a grab for her after a liquid lunch, 14 years ago. She rebuffed him with no damage done, but was so traumatised that apparently she can only speak of it now.
What nonsense. At a Liberal Party conference, a good many years ago, when I was a tV researcher, I asked an MP for an interview.
He suggested we discuss it over dinner. At the end of the meal, rather the worse for wear, he invited me up to his room.
‘No, thank you,’ I said. I wasn’t silly enough to feel flattered, and I certainly wasn’t feeble enough to feel threatened.
And no, I won’t tell you the man’s name. What does it mat- ter? He tried it on, and I said no. there the story ends. If that is sexual harassment, then men everywhere are in trouble.
Isn’t it ironic that earlier this year US Vice President Mike Pence was castigated for saying he wouldn’t dare ask a single woman to dinner for a business discussion: it wouldn’t feel appropriate, he said.
Pence was pilloried as a misogynist who was scared of feminine power.
He was damned, whatever he did. And that, to my mind, is how men at Westminster must feel. the question now is this: what do the feminists driving all this really want? What, exactly are their goals?
Do they want to prevent any man being left alone with a woman if drink has been taken? Do they want to stop him from getting in a lift with an unaccompanied woman, never to touch her, never put his arm under her elbow, or even speak to her?
My feeling is that, on current form, they perhaps won’t rest until every man is on a collar and leash.
By stoking up the notion of victimhood, backed as they are by an outraged twitter mob in full cry, the feminists are mak- ing it ever more difficult for any man accused to defend himself without being accused of a hate crime. It’s impossible for him to protest that he’s never groped a woman, impossible for him to suggest that the woman herself might have been a willing party to or even initiated whatever happened, without sounding like a liar and a sex pest. T HIS is modern- day henpecking and it is an ugly sight.
No woman who takes pride in her integrity and professional ability should be party to this shabby, opportunistic bout of man-shaming.
It makes whingeing ninnies of us all, and it teaches the next generation of girls that they are tender flowers, born to be victims of ante-diluvian males.
Most importantly, of course, this hue and cry belittles real sex crimes. Rape is a terrible, violent injustice. A pat on the bottom is not.
And all this is a sad distraction from the real political business of the day. the Labour MP John Mann is now calling for a ‘sex harassment tsar’ to oversee Westminster, investigating every claim and perhaps meting out punishment to those deemed guilty.
Isn’t it time we all grew up? the Government is engaged in Brexit and the most important negotiations in our lifetime.
that is what it should be concentrating on. this wailing hysteria is a pathetic distraction.