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Liberal Democrats: no more excuses Liberal Democrats: no more excuses
(4 months later)
Difficult reading, sobering reading. Thus Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, reacting yesterday in a radio interview to Helena Morrissey's report on attitudes to women at the top of his party. Mr Clegg could hardly say any less, given the embarrassment over the party's handling of sexual harrassment complaints that led the Lib Dems to commission the report from the leading campaigner for more women in Britain's boardrooms. The question now, though, is whether Mr Clegg will both say and do a great deal more.Difficult reading, sobering reading. Thus Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, reacting yesterday in a radio interview to Helena Morrissey's report on attitudes to women at the top of his party. Mr Clegg could hardly say any less, given the embarrassment over the party's handling of sexual harrassment complaints that led the Lib Dems to commission the report from the leading campaigner for more women in Britain's boardrooms. The question now, though, is whether Mr Clegg will both say and do a great deal more.
The report and the issues that it raises have their roots in the manner in which the Lib Dems responded to allegations against their former chief executive Lord Rennard – allegations which he denies and which are the subject of a police investigation. Two women first made allegations to party officials as long ago as 2007, but it took until earlier this year for the party to be forced into taking the issues more seriously and more professionally. That they did so at all seems to have owed much more to outside pressure and embarrassment – in the shape of reports by Channel 4 News on the eve of the crucial Eastleigh byelection – than to a more authentic collective determination to raise their game.The report and the issues that it raises have their roots in the manner in which the Lib Dems responded to allegations against their former chief executive Lord Rennard – allegations which he denies and which are the subject of a police investigation. Two women first made allegations to party officials as long ago as 2007, but it took until earlier this year for the party to be forced into taking the issues more seriously and more professionally. That they did so at all seems to have owed much more to outside pressure and embarrassment – in the shape of reports by Channel 4 News on the eve of the crucial Eastleigh byelection – than to a more authentic collective determination to raise their game.
Ms Morrissey's report tells a story that is all too believable, especially in the light of so much recent experience in the churches and in the BBC. The familiar failure to take accusations seriously and formally applies not just within the Lib Dems but within lots of other organisations where good general intentions about proper behaviour and best practice coexist with a feeling that there is always something else more pressing. Ms Morrissey's report skewers that deceit. Her conclusion that much more could and should have been done to deal with complaints can hardly be denied. But it is her insistence that the party, like any other employer, has a duty of care to its employees and that, without due process, issues fester and spread that need to be given practical effect now.Ms Morrissey's report tells a story that is all too believable, especially in the light of so much recent experience in the churches and in the BBC. The familiar failure to take accusations seriously and formally applies not just within the Lib Dems but within lots of other organisations where good general intentions about proper behaviour and best practice coexist with a feeling that there is always something else more pressing. Ms Morrissey's report skewers that deceit. Her conclusion that much more could and should have been done to deal with complaints can hardly be denied. But it is her insistence that the party, like any other employer, has a duty of care to its employees and that, without due process, issues fester and spread that need to be given practical effect now.
Mr Clegg and some senior colleagues do not emerge from the report as managerial paragons. They have duly been savaged for that by the party's enemies, who have other concerns than sexual equality – a cause which in other circumstances some of them would be quick to denounce as political correctness. But senior Lib Dems need to learn the lessons and take action all the same. They also need to grasp that the Lib Dems have been too complacent about gender issues in the party more generally. Years of worthy talk has not translated into effective action. Women's equality is not treated as a high enough priority. The lasting importance of Ms Morrissey's report is less in its findings about the past than in its wake-up call for things to change in the future.Mr Clegg and some senior colleagues do not emerge from the report as managerial paragons. They have duly been savaged for that by the party's enemies, who have other concerns than sexual equality – a cause which in other circumstances some of them would be quick to denounce as political correctness. But senior Lib Dems need to learn the lessons and take action all the same. They also need to grasp that the Lib Dems have been too complacent about gender issues in the party more generally. Years of worthy talk has not translated into effective action. Women's equality is not treated as a high enough priority. The lasting importance of Ms Morrissey's report is less in its findings about the past than in its wake-up call for things to change in the future.
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