Sex pest silence

THREE decades ago I made a formal complaint of sexual harassment against the manager of a business I worked for.

I was a very innocent 20-year-old in my first job but I knew what was happening to me and to other female colleagues was very, very wrong.

The perpetrator was immediately suspended. He failed to appear at a disciplinary hearing and resigned.

Three decades on, I am dumbfounded to learn a succession of politicians at Holyrood have experienced or witnessed similar behaviour yet have done nothing about it.

Ex-Labour leader Kezia Dugdale says she was aware of a number of instances of sexual harassment and there was a culture of such behaviour at Holyrood. Why, then, did she not raise it as an issue?

Nicola Sturgeon has spent almost her entire adult life in politics and has held a seat at Holyrood since 1999. Are we expected to believe she was unaware of what appears to have been going on all around her?

Politics is a tough business where our MSPs engage in the most robust exchanges on a weekly basis. They are employed to challenge each other, to hold each other to account, to advocate for us and to stick their necks out over issues of importance.

How can it be that not one of them had the integrity or courage to do what I did as a 20-year-old clerk?

Why is this only even being mentioned in the wake of the scandal involving Harvey Weinstein?

The Scottish Government – by way of Named Person and anti-smacking laws – seems intent on prying into and controlling every aspect of our family life. It needs to put its own house in order before interfering in what goes on in ours.

A. Morrison, Dyce, Aberdeenshire. SEX pests exist everywhere in society and in every workplace and should be confronted and tackled.

Why people are surprised Holyrood is no different is beyond me, but I am tired of senior politicians racing to the TV cameras to make pious declarations about what they will do to set their own house in order.

It is up to the Presiding Officer to draw up rules for Holyrood and for party leaders to implement them.

Instead of more virtue signalling, MSPs should be drawing up laws to protect workers, not back-patting about how enlightened they are.

CLODAGH JEFFRIES, edinburgh.