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| Hand-wringing over sexual harassment won’t do. Here are some things that may | Hand-wringing over sexual harassment won’t do. Here are some things that may |
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| Surely one element in cleaning up Westminster sleaze (MPs fear more sleaze claims will emerge, 30 October) is to reform its archaic employment practices. There must be a code of conduct that regulates behaviour between MPs, staff and visitors, with the clear indication that violation of that code could result in dismissal. Such codes exist in almost every other workplace. It is absurd that an MP can be sacked from their post or have the whip withdrawn by their party yet remain as an MP. Safeguards can be applied to ensure that staff or MPs are not removed for political convenience, just as they are, for example, for academic staff or trade unionists. | Surely one element in cleaning up Westminster sleaze (MPs fear more sleaze claims will emerge, 30 October) is to reform its archaic employment practices. There must be a code of conduct that regulates behaviour between MPs, staff and visitors, with the clear indication that violation of that code could result in dismissal. Such codes exist in almost every other workplace. It is absurd that an MP can be sacked from their post or have the whip withdrawn by their party yet remain as an MP. Safeguards can be applied to ensure that staff or MPs are not removed for political convenience, just as they are, for example, for academic staff or trade unionists. |
| Similarly, positions for MPs’ assistants, researchers or interns must be subject to open and fair recruitment. Successful candidates should be employed by the House of Commons, with proper contracts and conditions of employment which include procedures for dealing with bullying and harassment. Without these changes, all the hand-wringing and debating by party leaders will offer no protection for MPs or their staff.Martin FreedmanLondon | Similarly, positions for MPs’ assistants, researchers or interns must be subject to open and fair recruitment. Successful candidates should be employed by the House of Commons, with proper contracts and conditions of employment which include procedures for dealing with bullying and harassment. Without these changes, all the hand-wringing and debating by party leaders will offer no protection for MPs or their staff.Martin FreedmanLondon |
| • Isn’t it time we admitted that we in Britain are a sexually immature society? I won’t give examples – they are ubiquitous and much to do with ingrained attitudes to women, and the commoditisation of human relationships. The central issues in this torrent of tales of sexual harassment are surely of respect and consent. Until these behaviours are pinpointed, corrected and really understood, we cannot grow up. Let’s teach them from infant school onwards – not difficult and truly transforming.Anna FordLondon | • Isn’t it time we admitted that we in Britain are a sexually immature society? I won’t give examples – they are ubiquitous and much to do with ingrained attitudes to women, and the commoditisation of human relationships. The central issues in this torrent of tales of sexual harassment are surely of respect and consent. Until these behaviours are pinpointed, corrected and really understood, we cannot grow up. Let’s teach them from infant school onwards – not difficult and truly transforming.Anna FordLondon |
| • Watching the BBC news on Monday night, two comments left me wondering if journalists across Westminster and the entertainment world have been frightened to do their jobs. Laura Kuenssberg said the toxic Westminster environment of sexual harassment and the like had, for years, been “an open secret”. If so, why hadn’t she and a hundred other well-placed journalists in the UK broken the story? The public would have liked to know. A similar comment about Kevin Spacey from an industry insider followed and, once again, we’d have like to know that this man we considered an artistic giant was something else besides. We’ve been let down.Steve RothonRayleigh, Essex | • Watching the BBC news on Monday night, two comments left me wondering if journalists across Westminster and the entertainment world have been frightened to do their jobs. Laura Kuenssberg said the toxic Westminster environment of sexual harassment and the like had, for years, been “an open secret”. If so, why hadn’t she and a hundred other well-placed journalists in the UK broken the story? The public would have liked to know. A similar comment about Kevin Spacey from an industry insider followed and, once again, we’d have like to know that this man we considered an artistic giant was something else besides. We’ve been let down.Steve RothonRayleigh, Essex |
| • When Anna Soubry, Conservative MP for Broxtowe, discussed on television the issue of pay differentials between male and female performers at the BBC she suggested these were the consequence of deunionisation and that when she had been a mother of a chapel she had kept “a beady eye” on such gender issues. One might go further and suggest that the unionisation of now powerless workers would provide a channel for complaints about sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is very much an extension of unequal market forces into a worker’s most personal life, so should be opposed by powerful, collective institutions which protect workers’ self-respect in the largest sense.DBC ReedNorthampton | • When Anna Soubry, Conservative MP for Broxtowe, discussed on television the issue of pay differentials between male and female performers at the BBC she suggested these were the consequence of deunionisation and that when she had been a mother of a chapel she had kept “a beady eye” on such gender issues. One might go further and suggest that the unionisation of now powerless workers would provide a channel for complaints about sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is very much an extension of unequal market forces into a worker’s most personal life, so should be opposed by powerful, collective institutions which protect workers’ self-respect in the largest sense.DBC ReedNorthampton |
| • Around the very welcome spotlight on sexual harassment, I haven’t seen any research on resulting financial loss suffered by victims. There must be many women who, on top of the nastiness of sexual attacks, lost confidence and promotion or left the job and in the old days had their salary-based pension frozen. Freezing a pension years before retirement has cost some women thousands if not hundreds of thousands of pounds in retirement. If men refuse to understand the pain of harassment, maybe they’ll understand financial cost.Frances BellPenrith | • Around the very welcome spotlight on sexual harassment, I haven’t seen any research on resulting financial loss suffered by victims. There must be many women who, on top of the nastiness of sexual attacks, lost confidence and promotion or left the job and in the old days had their salary-based pension frozen. Freezing a pension years before retirement has cost some women thousands if not hundreds of thousands of pounds in retirement. If men refuse to understand the pain of harassment, maybe they’ll understand financial cost.Frances BellPenrith |
| • Am I the only one sick to death of the mass coverage of the ongoing “sexual harassment” revelations? Of course it is important, but it pales into insignificance when other vital news items from across the globe are seemingly relegated or nonexistent on the news pages. Could it be a conspiracy by respective governments to bury bad news under the deluge of these allegations?Jacqueline AngellLetchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire | • Am I the only one sick to death of the mass coverage of the ongoing “sexual harassment” revelations? Of course it is important, but it pales into insignificance when other vital news items from across the globe are seemingly relegated or nonexistent on the news pages. Could it be a conspiracy by respective governments to bury bad news under the deluge of these allegations?Jacqueline AngellLetchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire |
| • I am a committed reader of the Guardian who is often disappointed by the failure of the paper to appreciate Catholic sexual ethics and those ethics which support respect for life itself. At the heart of those ethics is the priority of respect in human relationships, as mentioned in your editorial on MPs and sexual harassment (30 October). The present conversation about sexual harassment in all its forms indicates to me that our present culture and worldview sees human beings as commodities, with the most vulnerable being at best dispensable and, at worst, disposable. If only we could see each human being as utterly sacred with an inviolable right to respect and dignity, the world be a better place.Canon Paul TownsendRingwood, Hampshire | • I am a committed reader of the Guardian who is often disappointed by the failure of the paper to appreciate Catholic sexual ethics and those ethics which support respect for life itself. At the heart of those ethics is the priority of respect in human relationships, as mentioned in your editorial on MPs and sexual harassment (30 October). The present conversation about sexual harassment in all its forms indicates to me that our present culture and worldview sees human beings as commodities, with the most vulnerable being at best dispensable and, at worst, disposable. If only we could see each human being as utterly sacred with an inviolable right to respect and dignity, the world be a better place.Canon Paul TownsendRingwood, Hampshire |