To be glad this Councillor has resigned after her disgusting comments about rape?

[SmilingHappyBeaver]

See link here (not a DM one!)

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-councillor-barbara-driver-apologises-for-when-rape-is-inevitable-lie-back-and-enjoy-it-comment-9256177.html

Mind your blood pressure there, elfy!

It's such a horrible thing to read, it made me shudder.

Elf I know what you mean. I shudder every time I hear young kids singing Summer Loving from Grease, or hear of schools putting that show on. How many people have sung merrily along without thinking what they're actually singing. I refer to the: "tell me more, tell me more, did she put up a fight"?

Don't worry nomama.

So according to you and notnew who are local (League of Gentlemen ), she's saying: 'We're fucked.' She's right.

Borough, District and County councillors who are elected and care about their communities should have the final word when it comes to large scale planning decisions or even small ones like putting up an extension.

Unfortunately they haven't since the law was changed in favour of big developers in the mid-80s, under Barbara Driver's party, ironically, who had their eye on donors.

So, people like Driver, who I might not agree with politically but seems by accounts here to be a good councillor, would decide following democratic process and following the wishes of their voters and the needs of their area.

Sometimes they would reject or sometimes they'd ask for planning gain, which seems like a reasonable deal to me if you're going to be making multi-millions.

But McAlpine, Barrett, Wimpey, Tesco and the rest of them didn't like that, so they lobbied the government and a law was brought in that after the democratic process was exhausted and they'd lost, they could have another go and appeal directly to the Environment Secretary.

And guess how the majority of those decisions went? I could be wrong, but I don't believe the Labour government changed it, so I'm not letting them off. Local government is neutered and this damages us all.

That is the issue; not a 60-something woman's exasperated comment. I also think she might have been bullied by Tory Central Office. I imagine she'd have been an easy target. Yay for local democracy.

I used to be a local reporter when this law changed. Local communities are reaping the legacy of those decisions and are helpless in the face of more - we're still building on flood plains, aren't we?

That's what the Independent should be reporting. Not 'she's a Tory bitch, let's burn her for an ill-judged comment.' I've read a few of the comments on the piece and they are as pathetic as the badly-reported article.

Funnily enough, I think this time the Mail might have called this one right.

Notnew I know what you mean!

But films, plays, books from earlier times are full of things which would not do if they were new but which are allowed because they are there. The cigars and the coal-black mammy in Tom and Jerry - or Julian and Sandy - or the Taming of the Shrew!

limitedperiodonly There are some developments which everybody wants only not near them. Prisons, new roads, new railways, you could name many others.

So if local councils have the veto where do they go?

Andrew - so, we're happy for our children to sing songs with connotations of forced sex because "that's from earlier times" but someone can't use a saying that's also from earlier times? That doesn't seem to make sense to me.

Notnew of course there's a difference. In the context of a piece of art (I'm using that solely to mean a work created , not necessarily there's any great artistic merit in Grease) the language is fixed in time and in context; either contemporary to when it was created or as in the case of Grease contemporary to the time it was set.

In the context of dealing with this in relation to changing mores whether you think a created piece should be left as it is; cleaned up for today's mores or ditched as now lacking in any merit is another and entirely different debate.

FWIW I've never been happy with the sexual mores of Grease or why they needed to be celebrated in this way.

Caitlin I don't necessarily disagree with what you say and think there is actually a valuable discussion to be had along these lines - that the same basic premise is acceptable in some situations and not in others when the comment is, pretty much, the same.

I have never heard that saying and I do not agree with the sentiment. As for the development - perhaps some rare flowers or wildlife could be found on the site? Or there might be issues with planning - drainage can be a problem, or roads, could take ages to sort out... think... creatively...

Limited from where I am sitting, edge of flood plain, ancient woodland and generations of family run farms, yes. We are fucked!

GlosChelTewke, as it will be, will have some of the weirdest and bittiest access to emergency services and main roads you can imagine. 2 rivers, 2 motorways (one with odd one way entrance/exits that do not and will not service the local community) combined with single track lanes and an extremely rural majority that could easily give Cornwall a run for its money in the deprived and isolated stakes.

The developers have a lot of land that they did have plans for. Now, as you say, the last barrier to throwing that aside and using virginal greenbelt has gone and they are planning what is to very many round here, wholesale rape of the countryside.

Oddly though, as is often the case in such rural areas, many living in the towns/cities don't know what is a couple of miles down the road, and would like it if they did - our friends and family think we are very brave to live here! So many of them can't wait for the new development.

I am supposing that they won't have the problems the last developments did, built on the now infamous flood plains of Tewkesbury! But whilst those new houses and schools will build a new community they will be destroying countless others, small and rural and apparently insignificant.

So she was right! But not worded for today's soundbite based world!

Nothismistress All of that has been done to death. They aren't listening and there is nothing newsworthy (yet). The area is simply underpopulated as it is farmed, sheep, cows and other pasture. To 'towny' eyes it looks unused, so no one is fighting for it.

Not even the pigging newts are special enough

I picked up this thread expecting to get fired up by righteous indignation, but actually I do feel sorry for her.

It is a genuine saying, I've heard it used loads and even used it myself once of twice. It wasn't intended as any comment on rape, jat a way of saying 'you have to make the best of things'.

Incidentally I am a bit sensitive on this topic as I was the victim of loads of harassment as a teenager. But honestly, like aomeone else said it is the equivalent of disabled people forcing a resignation of someone who said they'd only got one pair of hands.

It's getting so you can't say anything without offending someone.

I'm glad she has resigned. Hope the Tories expel her from the party too.

Interestingly, the local rag has been including some comments they've received in support of the councillor and saying that one unfortunate comment should not undo years of community service, especially as she is one of the few councillors who gets out there and actually gets stuff done. One was from a woman who said she was raped many years ago, didn't find the comment personally offensive and that people were too quick to slam an admittedly unfortunate comment in the heat of a debate and that context can make a difference. This same woman went on to quote the OED definition of rape and said that in terms of land grabbing and building, the developers are indeed raping the area.