Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Feminism: chat

Original poster

Brendan Cox has resigned

208 replies

RedToothBrush · 17/02/2018 22:40

Brendan Cox @ mrbrendancox
Last week I decided to step down from my public roles to face up to mistakes I made several years ago while at Save the Children. I apologise to people I offended or upset at the time. My actions were never malicious but they were at times inappropriate.
I take responsibility for my actions and will hold myself to a higher standard in the future.

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/jo-cox-husband-brendan-cox-step-down-charity-a8215951.html%3famp
Brendan Cox steps down from charity set up in murdered wife Jo’s memory over 'mistakes I made several years ago'

OP posts:
DeleteOrDecay · 19/02/2018 20:45

Oh Jess. What a let down.

Kikashi · 19/02/2018 18:51

Link to the interview I saw here:
www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/jess-phillips-says-she-is-disappointed-in-brendan-cox/vi-BBJjQwd

She looked "uncomfortable"

Kikashi · 19/02/2018 18:48

I was disappointed by Jess Phillips. In the interview I watched she said that "the allegations against him(BC) were not comfortable". Comfortable?? and "that we all know men who have done things we don't approve of"...We all need to work through it together and that BC stepping down from the Cox charities was the right thing to do.
So women have to help men work through their issues as we are all in it together?.

The allegations against Cox were made a few years back and he resigned when disciplinary action was started. JP may have know this as a close family friend and the allegations were in the press around the time of Jo Cox's murder. Surely, he should never have been employed by the Cox charity in the first place.

JP was not so forgiving about Damien Green's alleged wandering hands. In her letter to TM she said: I want us to be able to set the example that no matter who your friends are, no matter what your job is, you cannot treat people as playthings, and if you do you must face the consequences,"
She wanted the book thrown at him and for him to suffer the consequences but BC is going to improve himself.

nauticant · 19/02/2018 17:55

As I become older, I find myself being more tolerant of MPs having normal human failings. I'm reasonable OK about U-turns, and some forms of lying, but the one thing that's guaranteed to get my back up is hypocrisy. The other thing is tribalism. Jess Phillips get a big black mark for both of these.

WitchesHatRim · 19/02/2018 17:19

I think the issue is the that the verosity she and others spoke about the likes of Toby Young and others is completely different to the way they have spoken about BC.

I do like JP but there has been an imbalance in the way she has dealt with this.

Lottapianos · 19/02/2018 17:05

'Because tbh the statement I heard carefully sidestepped defending him.'

Same here. She referred to him as 'this person I know' and also referred to 'my friend who is not here' (Jo). I didn't hear her defend him at all

Fraying · 19/02/2018 17:01

I'm not a fan of Jess but the clip I saw, she just said 'he's taking responsibility by resigning. The Foundation needs to get on with building Jo's legacy'. Did she make another statement that was supportive of him? Because tbh the statement I heard carefully sidestepped defending him.

derxa · 19/02/2018 12:55

Seems like there's no #metoo if you're a woman and work for a charity.

derxa · 19/02/2018 12:53

I agree Red She's just made herself look a bit foolish.

Original poster
RedToothBrush · 19/02/2018 12:38

I am very frustrated by it, as I am broadly speaking, a real fan of Jess Phillips's as an MP.

Its cronyism. Pure and simple.

You have to step back emotionally in situations like this, and not close rank if you don't want to be accused of it. You have to make an active choice to put the duty of position first.

It is the exact thing she accused Theresa May of doing.

It shouldn't be a party political thing.

OP posts:
nauticant · 19/02/2018 12:31

I'd qualify that by saying nothing has come to light since Jo Cox's murder. Who knows if it might?

If something has happened since then, you could imagine any victim realising that speaking out would like to them being utterly vilified. Perhaps that's now changed.

UrsulaPandress · 19/02/2018 12:23

I thought it had all taken place before Jo's murder not since.

LifelongVaginaOwner · 19/02/2018 12:19

Jess Phillips' response is particularly problematic given that she explicitly said that Theresa May's friendship with Damien Green (which is a lot longer I believe than hers with Cox) shouldn't influence her response to the allegations against him.

www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/conservative-party/theresa-may/news/91433/labour-mp-jess-phillips-demands

governess · 19/02/2018 12:13

I didnt realise he was doing this before his wife's murder and then it seems continued to be like this, whilst basking in the headlines as being a noble chariddy champion.

I only feel sorry for his kids, they need a Dad - and isnt exactly the greatest role model at the moment.

PigletWasPoohsFriend · 19/02/2018 11:53

She has a conflict of interest here. Her personal relationship with the man and her professional interest and position.

I agree with that. If this was someone of another political persuasion and not a friend I very much doubt they would be using the tone and words that they are the.

derxa · 19/02/2018 11:49

Amanda Platell has also come out in support of Brendan Cox 9as has Michael Gove) so even the right wing seem to be minimising and on side. I think the DM have done a deal with him so that worse does not come out. Amanda P and Gove's wife are DM journalists.

Kikashi · 19/02/2018 11:16

LlangCheng and nauticant I totally agree. The left wing politics/charity sector is very nepotistic - lots of high paying jobs and consultancy work swilling around for the inner circles.

Amanda Platell has also come out in support of Brendan Cox 9as has Michael Gove) so even the right wing seem to be minimising and on side.

His apology smacks of the old ploy of - fall on your sword, go to rehab"/keep your head down and we'll have you back. BC will probably be giving talks on how he changed or running a charity to support men with their "boundaries" in a few years time and being hailed for it and invited on to government taskforces.

nauticant · 19/02/2018 10:31

I view the interventions of Jess Phillips and Lucy Powell as being motivated by tribalism. Not just party political tribalism, but a broader political and cultural tribalism.

Make no mistake, people like this would have no difficulty selling you down the river for the benefit of someone in their tribe. They'd put on a show of dabbing at their eye with a hanky as the river swept you away but they'd be satisfied that it was all for the best really.

LangCleg · 19/02/2018 10:11

She perhaps has been put into this position by Brendan Cox, where she feels obliged to defend him out of friendship and out of love.

Honestly? All these people, including Jess, are covering their current jobs and future job needs.

The corporate charity sector is linked with liberal media and liberal politics. The same group of people are in and out of jobs via nepotism in these sectors. That's why they're all friends with each other. If Jess ever gets voted out as an MP, or if it ever becomes clear she'll never be more than a backbencher, she might want a plum job with Save the Children or Oxfam or or or.

Fraying · 19/02/2018 09:57

I wonder if he will be charged now. Perhaps his colleague didn't want to bring the charity into disrepute but now some of the detail has broken there is little left to protect ... except Brendan's lack of a criminal record.
It must be galling to be the women he attacked and to see so many people falling over themselves to accept his self-serving explanations.

Original poster
RedToothBrush · 19/02/2018 09:56

Jess Phillips is also 'standing by'. Her family are also close to his.

She was on Marr or Peston yesterday saying he had demonstrated he was doing something about it and would change.

I actually feel really uncomfortable about the whole interview because of Jess's involvement with Women's Charity and her entire agenda.

She has a conflict of interest here. Her personal relationship with the man and her professional interest and position.

In effect she undermines a lot of what she fights for, perhaps unwittingly.

Worst still during the same interview she also admitted that she did not know the exact nature of the accusations.

Jess has been advocating others to believe women. Yet when it comes to it, what is happening here?

We've seen it before: my friend / partner etc couldn't possibly do that because I KNOW them. They do good. So those in positions of power are able to use their position and their connections to protect them.

And the woman who isn't in that position of power who made the allegation is ignored or characterised as being a liar or somehow getting it wrong.

The spectacle of Jess Phillips saying 'he'll change', grates. She perhaps has been put into this position by Brendan Cox, where she feels obliged to defend him out of friendship and out of love. Its one thing for Brendan's sister in law to do it, its another for someone in Jess's shoes to do it.

Why don't women leave abusive relationships? How do they defend it.

Jess has obviously chosen her friendship over the women she's stood up to defend so much. Given her job, that's incredibly problematic.

I guess she's thinking of her kids and his kids in all this, but it rather misses how it affects the kids of lots of others.

Shit position for Jess to be in. She's damned either way. But she wouldn't be in it, if Brendan Cox hadn't put her, his kids and her kids in it.

If these allegations were googleable at the time of Jo Cox's death, that makes it even worse. It was always a matter of time, because there is an inevitability that the Mail or another right wing group would go after it eventually.

Thus undermining every bit of the More in Common agenda too.

The more I think about it, the more angry I get. The Oxfam stuff is all the same.

There is institutionalised blindness and a lack of self awareness here.

OP posts:
Backenette · 19/02/2018 09:47

He's not murdered anyone. Folk should calm down.

If you grab someone by the throat there’s a significant chance you will indeed murder them. It takes quite minimal pressure in just the right place/s to do serious damage, or indeed kill.

Why isn’t he being charged with assault?

Backenette · 19/02/2018 09:43

His actions are being minimised - grabbing someone by the throat is violent assault. It’s bring spun as though it was a bit of drunken flirtation.

It’s violent sexual assault. Disgraceful.

mantlepiece · 19/02/2018 09:32

When Jo Cox was murdered I googled her name to find news about it, and these allegations about Brendan Cox came up then in the search results.

This knowledge certainly coloured my opinion of him every time I saw him in the news. The information about him was known then but I suppose the times were different then.

UrsulaPandress · 19/02/2018 08:49

I agree. All the coverage of their relationship, and the photos of them with the houseboat, and Jo smiling up at him looked twee in the extreme.

See Amanda Platell and Jo's family are 'standing by him'.

Swipe left for the next trending thread