This isn’t a good look for someone who has been Solicitor General, for Harriet Harman seems to be unaware that we’ve already got a court system in the UK. An independent one even.
Yes, this is the usual anguish over sexual harassment:
Second, Weinstein is not “one bad apple”. That sort of behaviour is prevalent in the film industry and indeed in all occupations with a male hierarchy and in which women want to advance.
That’s rather how it does play out unfortunately. Men are interested in young women, they’ll use power if they have it. Quite what can be done about it, other than a strict social compact not to do so, is unknown. However, here’s the real problem with Harman:
Fifth, we need to alter the complaints system so that a man who sexually assaults women is stopped after the first occasion not only after decades. That means the complainant must be able to report anonymously. No woman wants to be known only for the fact that she’s complained against a famous man.
There must be independent adjudication of complaints. He can’t be judged by people who know and work with him but don’t know her. And there must be protection from backlash and discrimination against the victim. The complainant is doing a public service by challenging criminality. She must be protected – not vilified.
We have a system to do this. It’s called the courts. And we really would expect a QC, even one of those special MP ones, to know this.
We can say that sexual harassment is of an order that it should be illegal. And in many cases it is – therefore we’ve already got a system to deal with it, that very court system. Or we can say that it isn’t something so heinous – in which case we don’t need a formal system to deal with it. There isn’t a middle ground here. Either it’s important enough that we use the system we’ve got for important things or it isn’t.
And again we insist that someone who is lawyer should know this.
The language we use matters - it provides clarity to our own thoughts and enables…
It is now generally acknowledged that the structure of the NHS needs to be overhauled…
In the film Apollo 13, a loss of oxygen causes the crew to start inadvertently…
There's an idea out there which seems intuitive but then so many ideas do seem…
When we think about the darkly opaque goals of modern central bankers as they relate…
As the papers recently filled with the distressing images of desperate souls looking to escape…
View Comments
I do expect a lawyer to know it but then again I don't expect Harpperson to know fuck all about anything regarding integrity.Wasn't she the person who crashed into a car and scarpered from the scene saying "you know who I am and where to find me "
Best of luck hope it works for you.
She has come a long way since she was the legal officer for Liberty which claimed there was no lasting harm in children engaging in sexual relations with adults.
I wonder if she has read any Kafka? She wants an unaccountable legal body to hear complaints in secret with the names being hidden? How does someone mount a defence if they are not allowed to know what they are being charged with?
There seem to be about seven redundant words in the headline.
She is a virtual signaller of the worst order. What exactly did you expect her to say ?
Presumption of innocence? Well, some principles may be sacrificed while we are weaponizing complaints into gifts for the vindictive.
I do expect a lawyer to know it but then again I don't expect Harpperson to know fuck all about anything regarding integrity.Wasn't she the person who crashed into a car and scarpered from the scene saying "you know who I am and where to find me "
Best of luck hope it works for you.
She has come a long way since she was the legal officer for Liberty which claimed there was no lasting harm in children engaging in sexual relations with adults.
I wonder if she has read any Kafka? She wants an unaccountable legal body to hear complaints in secret with the names being hidden? How does someone mount a defence if they are not allowed to know what they are being charged with?
There seem to be about seven redundant words in the headline.
She is a virtual signaller of the worst order. What exactly did you expect her to say ?
Presumption of innocence? Well, some principles may be sacrificed while we are weaponizing complaints into gifts for the vindictive.