to be disgusted with Nick Clegg

[NorthernLurker]

So now we know that our DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER knew he had a man involved at a senior level in his party who was rumoured to harass women and he failed to act but instead faciliatated a cover-up. Fabulous. What an example to the voters

[Amateurish]

Let's not forget that these allegations are categorically denied by Lord Rennard (the old fox).

The Mail story on this seems pretty high on hysteria, and low on actual detail. One of the main complaints appears to be that he invited two party members to dinner at his house, then "locked the door". As if locking your front door in London is some sort of imprisonment of your guests...

Lots of mentions of Saville, abuse in the Catholic church etc all serve to devalue the suffering of the victims in those cases.

[ICBINEG]

hmmm so clearly putting your hands on someone in this context is all manner of wrong, but simply asking someone out should be okay.

There has to be some way for men and women in positions of power to go on dates!

But YADNBU to think Nick Clegg failed in the basic curiosity and get to the bottom of rumour stakes. As soon as someone has made an allegation it should be investigated. And if what is being said is true then action should have been taken at the time.

[vesela]

None of the complainants has mentioned Savile. That was Jasper Gerard (idiot).

[Amateurish]

I meant media, not complainants, e.g.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/nick-clegg/9892351/How-Nick-Clegg-called-for-heads-to-roll-over-Savile-scandal.html

[vesela]

I know, but that's not the fault of the complainants, is it?

[kimorama]

RENNARD All leadership is about knowing what to ignore and what to stamp on. Cleggy got tyhis one wrong. It is serious because Renaard was a superior of the women he allegedly harrassed. There are said to be nine of them.

[olgaga]

Clegg on this morning's LBC phone-in.

All over the place! How embarrassing.

[BOF]

I don't think I've been so depressed from reading a thread on mumsnet for a very long time. Jesus.

[frostyfingers]

I find it scary that these people, who are involved in the running of this country, seem to be incapable of telling the truth. Why are they so stupid to think that cover ups and evasion will fool anyone anymore. There are decent MP's out there (please god let this be true) and they are being tarred with the brush of lying idiots when they don't deserve to be. Is it any wonder that people don't vote and don't want to get involved when all they see is the self serving, deviousness and ineptitude of people like Clegg/Huhne, and the rest of them who have been caught with their hands in the till/on someone's leg and worse?

[ophelia275]

Why are you so surprised? Nick Clegg is totally out of touch with the sentiment of the man on the street and is just a typical lying, cheating, greedy politician whose main concern is the protection of his own career. He would probably sell his mother if he thought it would get him more money or more power.

[NorthernLurker]

I wasn't surprised but I am unimpressed.

That said, some posts on this thread in part explains how this issue has been ignored. People really don't take sexual harassment seriously do they? Never mind that it can wreck a woman's mental health, career and relationships. Never mind that it exists as an abuse of power and thus directly links to other types of sexual abuse. It's something that woman are expected to 'deal with'. Well sod that for a game of soldiers.

[SirEdmundFrillary]

I very much agree with the points made by NorthernLurker and LineRunner.

[Lottapianos]

'It's something that woman are expected to 'deal with'. Well sod that for a game of soldiers. '

And any woman who had any 'gumption' would be able to deal with it anyway?

Jesus Christ, it really is beyond depressing that there is always someone to downplay and minimise stories like these, by making references to 'real sexual abuse' and 'genuine' victims. Is it any wonder that women and men who have been sexually harassed don't come forward when there are other men and women just queuing up to assassinate their characters and deem them pathetic whiners who just want to cause a lot of trouble?

We have such a very very long way to go

[PessaryPam]

I think Clegg deserves all he gets after the disgraceful way he behaved over the Boundary Commission changes.

[EldritchCleavage]

All focus on the women as usual.

Why did no one say (and why does no one now say) Rennard should have tied a bloody knot in it and stopped sliming up to women at work? There are bars and websites for that sort of thing. Y'know, where the men and women are both actively looking for encounters/relationships (or is mutuality not his thing?).

Rennard stops doing it, problem solved, sorted. Never mind all this hand-wringing about the state of the nation now women have the temerity to say they don't want to be hit on constantly at work because they are, well, working.

[LineRunner]

It's going to be interesting to see if Rennard will be going for a defence of literal denial (it actually didn't happen) or interpretive denial (it didn't happen quite the way it has been described, and frankly what's all the fuss about).

My reading of it so far is he is plumping for the former, which quite frankly seems 'brave', and is frustrating his colleagues.

[anneriordan]

Wanting to send this to Shirley Williams but can't find a way to do that

I despaired on reading your comments about Lord Rennard. Unlike you, I am still engaged in working within organisations, with line managers and bosses and all sorts of people, mostly straight men, who wield day-to-day power over me.
I have, in the past 20-odd years of employment, suffered very little direct sexual advances from those I work with, in the office ? we are far, far better than your generation on that. But I have been through enough. It grieves me that at 24, I felt able to tell one late-forties man, to whom I had barely spoken and only politely, to fuck off when he ran his finger down my spine, but at 35, when a similarly-aged but even more revolting man put his hand round my waist as I walked past, all I could do was cry in the toilets. That change was because I had worked too long in an organisation that had no respect for women (or anyone, including themselves, a longer story*).
I have also been fortunate enough to work in organisations where a boss effectively sitting on your lap (ie in close contact from the waist down), and then pursuing you around the room to do so repeatedly, would be seen as absolutely unacceptable and ? if repeated ? a sacking offence. I thought the world had grown up.
I now know for sure that you don?t value women you don?t know, or their right to have un-horrible times at work, more than you value a deluded, inadequate, power-obsessed man. Because if these allegations are true, then he is not a ?good man?. He might be good at things, he might behave admirably in many ways, but he thinks women are a buffet, not people.
Please never speak about women at work again. Surely FGM, forced marriage, things you might not have sentimentally-distorted views on, are enough.
Again. Please be quiet. We are working.
*The short version is that a Senior Partner was shagging, doubly adulterously, a fairly capable but nowhere-near-great (and noticeably, for the job requirements, illiterate) economist, and retained his line management of her, and set her pay, appraisal and bonuses, and let her decide what she wanted to work on. It was despicable. Do you disagree?

[LineRunner]

anneriordan

House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW
Tel: 020 7219 5850
Fax: 020 7219 1174
[email protected]

[anneriordan]

thank you, Line Runner! wasn't on her home page that I could see.

[LineRunner]

Apparent Williams has said that Rennard's conduct has been 'hopelessly exaggerated'. How the f**k does she know that?

[noddyholder]

He has single handedly destroyed all the progress the lib dems made over the years in the lead up to the last election

[PessaryPam]

olgaga very good post, sums up my thoughts on the bastards too.

[PessaryPam]

Line why on earth do you expect anything more from Shirley Williams?