This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/13/why-lib-dem-harassment-row-heinous
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Why the Lib Dem harassment row is especially heinous | Why the Lib Dem harassment row is especially heinous |
| (4 months later) | |
| For a long time the Liberal Democrats were lucky to be obscure enough not to warrant proper scrutiny. In their wilderness years, it was barely newsworthy if they promised to put a penny on income tax, so the way they conducted their internal affairs, including towards women, did not make a ripple. | For a long time the Liberal Democrats were lucky to be obscure enough not to warrant proper scrutiny. In their wilderness years, it was barely newsworthy if they promised to put a penny on income tax, so the way they conducted their internal affairs, including towards women, did not make a ripple. |
| While the Tories came in for relentless criticism of the dinosaur-like prejudices of their notorious blue-rinse brigade, the Lib Dems largely got away with harbouring chauvinists. There was never as great a fuss made about evidence showing that Lib Dem constituency associations were as stuck in the past as those in the Tory shires. Rumoured horror stories about candidate selections were never turned into scandals. | While the Tories came in for relentless criticism of the dinosaur-like prejudices of their notorious blue-rinse brigade, the Lib Dems largely got away with harbouring chauvinists. There was never as great a fuss made about evidence showing that Lib Dem constituency associations were as stuck in the past as those in the Tory shires. Rumoured horror stories about candidate selections were never turned into scandals. |
| The Lib Dems have far fewer women, in percentage terms, than any of the other major parties – currently there are seven women MPs, 12.5% of their total. They have no ethnic minority MPs. And as for the party's attitude, at grassroots level, to sexual orientation, the decision of prominent MPs such as Simon Hughes and David Laws to keep their gay relationships secret did not exactly affirm the party's so-called open-mindedness. | The Lib Dems have far fewer women, in percentage terms, than any of the other major parties – currently there are seven women MPs, 12.5% of their total. They have no ethnic minority MPs. And as for the party's attitude, at grassroots level, to sexual orientation, the decision of prominent MPs such as Simon Hughes and David Laws to keep their gay relationships secret did not exactly affirm the party's so-called open-mindedness. |
| But because the Lib Dems were thought to be far from power, no one saw fit to make a song and dance about these anomalies. In coalition, all that changed. Women who had alleged the unwanted advances of senior male Lib Dems, namely Lord Rennard (which he denies), are having their allegations taken seriously for the first time. This week, Nick Clegg was censured by a report blaming him for not acting decisively to deal with allegations made by women in the party about sexual harassment going back 20 years, with concerns taken to senior figures from May 2007. | But because the Lib Dems were thought to be far from power, no one saw fit to make a song and dance about these anomalies. In coalition, all that changed. Women who had alleged the unwanted advances of senior male Lib Dems, namely Lord Rennard (which he denies), are having their allegations taken seriously for the first time. This week, Nick Clegg was censured by a report blaming him for not acting decisively to deal with allegations made by women in the party about sexual harassment going back 20 years, with concerns taken to senior figures from May 2007. |
| Clegg is not a chauvinist who deliberately turned a blind eye to women being groped in order to cover up for his male colleagues: the deputy prime minister seems to be a modern sort of chap. He is sufficiently at ease with strong intelligent women to have married one – Miriam González Durántez, a lawyer, would surely wipe the floor with him if she thought he was being sexist to his employees. | Clegg is not a chauvinist who deliberately turned a blind eye to women being groped in order to cover up for his male colleagues: the deputy prime minister seems to be a modern sort of chap. He is sufficiently at ease with strong intelligent women to have married one – Miriam González Durántez, a lawyer, would surely wipe the floor with him if she thought he was being sexist to his employees. |
| It is far more likely that Clegg failed to act because, as the report on the Rennard allegations states, there was a culture of "low-level sexism" in the Lib Dems and, this being so, it was not immediately obvious to him that the Rennard accusations required urgent action. You can imagine the allegations coming to Clegg as the last item on his briefing agenda one morning, his aide looking wearily at his memo and saying: "The women aren't taking formal action. Shall we wait and see?" | It is far more likely that Clegg failed to act because, as the report on the Rennard allegations states, there was a culture of "low-level sexism" in the Lib Dems and, this being so, it was not immediately obvious to him that the Rennard accusations required urgent action. You can imagine the allegations coming to Clegg as the last item on his briefing agenda one morning, his aide looking wearily at his memo and saying: "The women aren't taking formal action. Shall we wait and see?" |
| The Lib Dems are not alone. There is still an almost universal tendency to treat women who complain of workplace harassment as an inconvenience. The modus operandi remains: what can we do to make this quietly go away? | The Lib Dems are not alone. There is still an almost universal tendency to treat women who complain of workplace harassment as an inconvenience. The modus operandi remains: what can we do to make this quietly go away? |
| The fear, perhaps, is that if any one complaint is gone into too scrupulously it will be like pulling the thread on a delicate jumper: the entire garment may unravel. Low-level sexism, after all, is rife. If every woman who had ever suffered unwanted advances made a formal complaint about it tomorrow, the British economy would collapse under the bureaucratic strain of investigating them all. | The fear, perhaps, is that if any one complaint is gone into too scrupulously it will be like pulling the thread on a delicate jumper: the entire garment may unravel. Low-level sexism, after all, is rife. If every woman who had ever suffered unwanted advances made a formal complaint about it tomorrow, the British economy would collapse under the bureaucratic strain of investigating them all. |
| But there is something especially heinous about the Lib Dem harassment row, and that is the gulf between the party's insufferably pious public protestations and the private reality that they are clearly just as riven with prejudice as any other institution. The Lib Dems' claim to fairness is not borne out by the fact that they failed to listen to women in the Rennard scandal. And it is not borne out by the fact that, come the next election, on current polling, the Lib Dems may not return a single woman MP to parliament. Unless Clegg responds decisively now, the Lib Dem's facade of fairness will entirely fall apart. | But there is something especially heinous about the Lib Dem harassment row, and that is the gulf between the party's insufferably pious public protestations and the private reality that they are clearly just as riven with prejudice as any other institution. The Lib Dems' claim to fairness is not borne out by the fact that they failed to listen to women in the Rennard scandal. And it is not borne out by the fact that, come the next election, on current polling, the Lib Dems may not return a single woman MP to parliament. Unless Clegg responds decisively now, the Lib Dem's facade of fairness will entirely fall apart. |
| Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |