MP Mark Field grabs female protester by throat

Yes, he just looked furious to me, and that fury boiled over into temper

To all those saying "she might have had a gun or a knife", you can see quite clearly from the footage and stills that it would have been apparent to Mark Field the second he turned round in his chair to confront her, that she had her bag over her left arm and her mobile phone clutched in her right hand. I don't believe he felt threatened at all.

Nobody else she walked past looked in any way threatened by her. Had they done so they’d have at least turned around to look at her. Field acted out of temper. He wrote a letter previously to Cressida Dick complaining about the climate protests. He should be prosecuted.

He's a disgrace.

Both of them behaved badly, she started the chain of events and should take responsibility for her own actions and he responded too heavily handed. It's too black and white to blame only one party, there's more blame to go around.

Violence is violence. Who was the violent one here? Why is anyone defending him? Why would anyone defend him?

A man can shove a woman and grab her by the neck with the entire incident captured on video and then shown on national news - and still people will rush to deny that the woman was assaulted and/or declare that she was clearly asking for it.

I wonder how many of those defending this man's actions went batshit when Farage had milkshake thrown over him.

I reckon that Venn diagram is probably a pretty perfect circle.

Not that this is a private club or you have to be a card-carrying feminist to post here but..... am I wrong or do we have a few 'newbies' here today, defending the indefensible?

He is clearly assaulting her.

Wonder what he would have done if he wasn't in a public place being filmed.

I do think people are being hysterical by suggesting she might have had a gun!

She was highly unlikely to have had a gun in her bag. Firearms are very difficult to get hold of in this country, due to the strict laws we have here.

Yes gangs and OCGs get hold of them (often one firearm is shared round and borrowed when required) but this was a female Greenpeace protestor and unlikely to have those contacts.

He wasn't frightened, that much was obvious. This was a man who was angry at women being inconvenient.

Shame on any woman who purposefully defends a violent man being clearly violent at a woman.

What the fuck are you lot on.

I can’t understand why there was no security to intervene immediately...if I was a political figure at the moment I’d be somewhat on edge if I saw someone approaching the stage who was obviously not a guest. To make a link between this MP and dv is just ridiculous. What are you supposed to do if you genuinely fear there may be an attack....ask them nicely if they’re a terrorist and would they very much mind leaving.

Anyway she appeared to be fine and got lots of publicity which is presumably her aim.

the amount of gaslighting on this thread made me go back and watch the longer clip in slow motion, wondering what I'd missed. but no, it still looks like a man deliberately attacking a woman

picture 1 - she tries to get round him, he turns to intercept her

picture 2, Mr Field with a raised hand after pushing her against the pillar

picture 3. him marching her out, you can clearly see his hands round the back of her neck

anyone who is OK with this is seriously mistaken

DrSusan - interestingly, below that story about Jeremy Hunt's wife is another story about a protestor at Esther McVey's campaign launch:

'AN ANGRY protester stormed the stage at Esther McVey’s leadership campaign launch yesterday — declaring her a ‘fake Conservative’.

Onlookers jeered when the man, who later gave his name as Graham Moore, grabbed a microphone and shouted: ‘You are all fake news.’ As three men stepped up, Mr Moore, 55, from south London, yelled: ‘Touch me, I’ll have you nicked.’

He then left the stage, closely followed by the men, with Ms McVey at one point laughing and clapping.'

Funny, isn't it, how nobody felt the need to grab this man by the neck? Even though he aggressively made his way to the stage and could have posed a direct threat - unlike the female protestor, who was just walking past Field.

What we saw with Field was old-fashioned male violence against women. I expected to see the usual suspects on Twitter defending it, but not people on the feminism board.

I find it utterly bizarre that anyone would defend what he did. He hasn't, for god's sake - he's apologised and referred himself for investigation. Even if you think that's all just politicking then how can you defend something that the person who did it has obviously decided is indefensible?

If this is your definition of violence towards women then its offensive and insulting to women up and down the country who have ever suffered genuine violence

Every time there is a rape casein the news if the woman has not been left fighting for her life someone says, "well that's not proper rape"

Assault is assault, assault is the minimum, no it isn't GBH but it doesn't have to be.Putting your hands on another person without permission or good reason (something like CPR) is assault.

Fucking hell, I can’t believe some of the apologia on this thread. He looked so frightened didn’t he.

I wonder in how many other situations this would be defended.

I mean drunk, thats fine, he's allowed to be drunk

Has anyone said otherwise

If I thought someone had a weapon in a bag, I rather think I'd grab the bag.

Interesting Biog: Hates immigrants unless they are his mum. Didn't like being asked impertinent questions about his expenses claims. Sees no problem with being a part-time MP. Freind of Dutch extremists.

It casts the forcible kissing of JH's wife in an interesting light too.