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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/21/damian-green-cant-be-minister-not-mp-commons-westminster-rotten
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| If Damian Green can’t be a minister, he shouldn’t be an MP either | If Damian Green can’t be a minister, he shouldn’t be an MP either |
| (25 days later) | |
| Seven weeks on from the sexual harassment claims brought against him, Damian Green says he is “sad” to have been asked to resign from cabinet. That’s the problem with women and Westminster in a nutshell: a top-level government minister fails to see how his behaviour was wrong, even as he keeps his MP job and salary, while his boss treats him as nothing more than an annoyance to be snuck out of the door before the Christmas holidays. It would appear we are more offended by MPs who spend taxpayers’ money on duckhouses than those who use their influence to demean and harass women. | Seven weeks on from the sexual harassment claims brought against him, Damian Green says he is “sad” to have been asked to resign from cabinet. That’s the problem with women and Westminster in a nutshell: a top-level government minister fails to see how his behaviour was wrong, even as he keeps his MP job and salary, while his boss treats him as nothing more than an annoyance to be snuck out of the door before the Christmas holidays. It would appear we are more offended by MPs who spend taxpayers’ money on duckhouses than those who use their influence to demean and harass women. |
| Westminster cannot be allowed to continue signalling to women of this country that sexual harassment doesn’t matter. The Conservative and Labour parties cannot keep investigating themselves and concluding that it’s enough to demote one or two men and suspend the whip from a few others. Sections of the press keep repeating their mantra of “taking back control” – and in this respect I agree. Constituents must be given the right to recall the gropers and molesters. If women across the UK were able to decide whether these men should still be representing them, then perhaps Westminster might start to take the epidemic of violence against women more seriously. | Westminster cannot be allowed to continue signalling to women of this country that sexual harassment doesn’t matter. The Conservative and Labour parties cannot keep investigating themselves and concluding that it’s enough to demote one or two men and suspend the whip from a few others. Sections of the press keep repeating their mantra of “taking back control” – and in this respect I agree. Constituents must be given the right to recall the gropers and molesters. If women across the UK were able to decide whether these men should still be representing them, then perhaps Westminster might start to take the epidemic of violence against women more seriously. |
| It seems barely credible in the dying days of 2017 that our politicians still don’t get it. This year dawned with millions of women around the world marching to protest against a pussy-grabbing president and declare that their rights mattered and must be protected. It has been punctuated by scandals relating to the size of the UK’s pay gap; reports showing the brutal extent to which failed austerity and welfare policies hurt women who are more dependent on benefits because of the soaring cost of childcare; the 50-year anniversary of an abortion act that still criminalises women who take control of their own bodies. | It seems barely credible in the dying days of 2017 that our politicians still don’t get it. This year dawned with millions of women around the world marching to protest against a pussy-grabbing president and declare that their rights mattered and must be protected. It has been punctuated by scandals relating to the size of the UK’s pay gap; reports showing the brutal extent to which failed austerity and welfare policies hurt women who are more dependent on benefits because of the soaring cost of childcare; the 50-year anniversary of an abortion act that still criminalises women who take control of their own bodies. |
| All of this is where sexual harassment comes from. Because sexual harassment is not about sex, but about power. Women’s inequality is built into our economy, our society, our media and our institutions. Men protest about not understanding the signals of a sexual refusal to avoid telling the truth: none of them harass anyone who could sack them. | All of this is where sexual harassment comes from. Because sexual harassment is not about sex, but about power. Women’s inequality is built into our economy, our society, our media and our institutions. Men protest about not understanding the signals of a sexual refusal to avoid telling the truth: none of them harass anyone who could sack them. |
| That Theresa May has sacked Damian Green counts for little. Our second female prime minister should be leading the country with an understanding of the female experience. Instead she sat him beside her for weeks – her right-hand man whom she would rather discipline for lying about the porn found on his computer than the allegation that he harassed a young woman who was subsequently traduced in newspapers that have their own florid histories of misogyny. We are in a fine state of affairs when lying about porn in the workplace is used as a deflection from abuse. | That Theresa May has sacked Damian Green counts for little. Our second female prime minister should be leading the country with an understanding of the female experience. Instead she sat him beside her for weeks – her right-hand man whom she would rather discipline for lying about the porn found on his computer than the allegation that he harassed a young woman who was subsequently traduced in newspapers that have their own florid histories of misogyny. We are in a fine state of affairs when lying about porn in the workplace is used as a deflection from abuse. |
| Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn gives interviews about what a terrible thing harassment is, using the word “warped” to ensure we all understand that this is an episodic, deviant thing rather than an everyday occurrence rooted in the lack of women’s equality that his party is failing to solve. Labour’s investigation into suspended MP Kelvin Hopkins is kicked into the long grass while Jared O’Mara, after agreeing he was indeed the author of racist, misogynist online “bants”, is signed off work from Westminster with a doctor’s note (and his ongoing MP salary.) | Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn gives interviews about what a terrible thing harassment is, using the word “warped” to ensure we all understand that this is an episodic, deviant thing rather than an everyday occurrence rooted in the lack of women’s equality that his party is failing to solve. Labour’s investigation into suspended MP Kelvin Hopkins is kicked into the long grass while Jared O’Mara, after agreeing he was indeed the author of racist, misogynist online “bants”, is signed off work from Westminster with a doctor’s note (and his ongoing MP salary.) |
| And over in the Liberal Democrat corner, party leader Vince Cable talks of “rogue individuals” in every party. | And over in the Liberal Democrat corner, party leader Vince Cable talks of “rogue individuals” in every party. |
| I helped to found and build the Women’s Equality party (WEP) because I was tired of being taken for a dupe. I was tired of not having a party to vote for that prioritised women’s equality while also seeing that all the other parties expected me to keep voting and waiting in line. Right now I am more glad than ever that the UK has a feminist political party capable of understanding the structural inequalities that women face, and the far-reaching action that needs to happen in terms of economic investment, representation and legislation for us to be finally free. | I helped to found and build the Women’s Equality party (WEP) because I was tired of being taken for a dupe. I was tired of not having a party to vote for that prioritised women’s equality while also seeing that all the other parties expected me to keep voting and waiting in line. Right now I am more glad than ever that the UK has a feminist political party capable of understanding the structural inequalities that women face, and the far-reaching action that needs to happen in terms of economic investment, representation and legislation for us to be finally free. |
| While WEP continues to build a movement of like-minded people, I urge all of the other parties to put self-interest to one side and to put voters first. We must have without delay a fully independent system to investigate allegations of sexual harassment and to recommend sanctions. That should be done either by extending the remit of the parliamentary commissioner on standards or by setting up a new body. Parliament’s working group on sexual harassment should be all over this – why has it been so quiet? And the government must amend the 2015 Recall of MPs Act so that in the future constituents can remove any MP that the independent body rules to have committed sexual harassment. | While WEP continues to build a movement of like-minded people, I urge all of the other parties to put self-interest to one side and to put voters first. We must have without delay a fully independent system to investigate allegations of sexual harassment and to recommend sanctions. That should be done either by extending the remit of the parliamentary commissioner on standards or by setting up a new body. Parliament’s working group on sexual harassment should be all over this – why has it been so quiet? And the government must amend the 2015 Recall of MPs Act so that in the future constituents can remove any MP that the independent body rules to have committed sexual harassment. |
| Also, if Damian Green is not suitable to be minister because of his actions then he is not suitable to be an MP. So long as he and Michael Fallon, who also resigned from cabinet, think they retain legitimacy to stay in their jobs, then parliament’s own legitimacy is questionable. | Also, if Damian Green is not suitable to be minister because of his actions then he is not suitable to be an MP. So long as he and Michael Fallon, who also resigned from cabinet, think they retain legitimacy to stay in their jobs, then parliament’s own legitimacy is questionable. |
| • Sophie Walker is leader of the Women’s Equality party | • Sophie Walker is leader of the Women’s Equality party |