Julie Birchill on why the press has been fairly quiet on Eric Joyce

Blimey. To insist we have to spell out 'in my opinion' with every discussion point on a discussion forum when we're discussing something is a bit tedious.

In my opinion.

Of course

Have a , why doncha?

I've just said that the BBC show Harlots is shite (on another thread). I expected readers to assume that was just my opinion. On balance I'm in favour of having someone parsing about on the board. Keep up the good work. xx

I always forget how much i love Julie Burchill and that was a dynamite reminder!

Her biography of Princess Diana was excellent.

Nothing wrong with having an opinion but it is just an opinion.

Baldly stating that the "rest of it is pretty awful" as if that were some given is nonsense.

What is wrong with having an opinion about Spiked?

You can request a review of his sentence here:

How to get a sentence reviewed
Make sure you submit your request as early as possible and within 28 days of the sentencing.
Provide as much information as you can about the case to the Attorney General’s Office, like the:
• name of the person who got the sentence
• date the sentence was given
• court where the case was held
• crime committed
Attorney General’s Office
Email: [email protected]k_
Telephone: 020 7271 2492
Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm
Find out about call chargess_

Clymene, but Elphicke was an MP up till the last election, just 8 months ago. He was suspended from his party in 2017 when the sex offence allegations were made against him, but the suspension was lifted a year later so that he could vote in the no-confidence-in-the-government motion then. So I think it's not surprising that this added extra interest in him with regard to media coverage of his trial.

Joyce, on the other hand, stopped being an MP in 2015, and for the last 3 years of his time in the Commons he sat as an independent because he was first suspended by and then resigned from his party. I remember reading about the assault that got him suspended. So Joyce's political career was a bit further back in time than Elphicke's and he had already been disowned by his former party long before his recent prosecution.

As I said before, I was shocked that Joyce only got a suspended sentence. I really hope any lack of media coverage - although a PP has said she saw plenty of coverage, and I agree (but maybe I noticed it because I remembered Joyce's record of violence) - wasn't because his crime was regarded as 'no big deal'. I don't see his case as having been 'buried' for nefarious reasons of 'I won't call out my pal's partner' or 'I won't call out the partner of someone whose stepdad is a big media cheese'. I see it more as 'I don't think this will interest my readers much' (including Burchill's readers in the Sunday Telegraph). But of course I accept I could be totally wrong here.

It's an awful article. I read it first thing this morning and couldn't make it out at all, the key point, that India Knight is married to Eric Joyce was not spelt out at all, so I was left wondering why an article about a sex offender was ranting on about a journalist.

India Knight is not such a powerful figure that she was able to ensure the media's relative silence?

It's not India the media are scared of, it's her step-father, who is the Chairman of the Times group link

I think the coverage of Joyce's numerous transgressions has been visible, although not prominent. But the sentencing completely passed me by; it was definitely under reported.

It's been buried. Typically, MPs behaving badly is a favourite sport of the press. And yet I'd literally never heard of Joyce's assaults until now.

Compare against the coverage of Elphicke's prosecution. Before and through the trial and massive feature on his wife (now the MP) in the Times.

Joyce? Crickets.

I don’t know that there has been media silence as such. It was in the Guardian, the Independent and on the BBC.

I like The Times as they’re pretty good on trans stuff and have the amazing Janice Turner writing for them but I can’t stand Knight and don’t like the way they were pretty quiet on the Joyce matter, clearly to protect her. They also don’t allow comments on her articles of drivel which again is to protect her.

Underneath IK’s initial tweet lots of journos replied in support - Hadley Freeman, Janice Turner, Suzanne Moore, Jane Merrick amongst many others. I appreciate they may be friends of India’s and perhaps not aware of his crime at that time, but that coupled with the media silence does feel quite

I've just noticed that Julie Birchill is on Twitter too.

Yes, I see that, tiktok. Knight presumably knows a lot of media people, but surely not everyone who might have commented? And come to think of it, has Burchill written about Joyce in her Sunday Telegraph column?

Princess, Julie Birchill's point wasn't so much that IK has a whole load of power - not in the Rupert Murdoch sense - but she has pals and contacts who have refrained from their usual commentary either in the press or on social media.

I was shocked at the time to hear that Joyce had such a lenient sentence. I don't know how widely the case was covered across all media, but surely India Knight is not such a powerful figure that she was able to ensure the media's relative silence? Any absence of coverage might be more down to the fact that Joyce is hardly a household name - and also perhaps, very depressingly, to a perception that his was not a major crime.

I like this comment by India Knight:

We still don’t talk enough about the menopause, which is stupid because it happens to all women eventually.

Yep, women are a sex not a gender identity.

You know I love the Feminism topic but it's a shame this couldn't be in Chat or somewhere that more people would read it.

The hypocrisy of the Times is staggering. They slammed Zara Hyde Peters, who was due to become head of UK Athletics, because she had let her husband work with teens after he had been banned from teaching, even though he hadn't been convicted of any offence link. HP deserved to be criticised and rightly had to resign her position, but GOK how the Times had the nerve to slam her when they would have known what was coming down the line with IK.

@Clymene perfectly articulated - it’s a disgrace

Two more points then I must do some work:
Julie Bindel has a funny 'I am not Julie Burchill' Twitter thread going at the moment - sorry daren't link (meant to be working blah blah).
Secondly why did no-one tell me Julie Burchill was back on Twitter? Marvellous.

I agree it assumes you already know the context and who lives with who. It reads to me as if Burchill was aiming it at other journos as much as anyone else, calling them out on their cowardice and double standards. Whether that's justified or not is another matter - it's possible that some have tried and can't find a publisher, although that doesn't explain the silence on Twitter, Julie Bindel excepted.