Using a service does not necessarily give you an understanding of the bigger picture and much as people MUST be listened to and often do have valuable input, a depressing number of people cannot look beyond their own personal circumstances.
Can I add the last Government's but also this administration's fondness for appointing tsars and elevating them to the House of Lords to get Brownie points and a mention in the Daily Mirror's nauseating Pride of Britain Awards?
If something bad has happened to you, you have my sympathies and I will listen to your story. That does not mean you are an expert in anything other than your personal circumstance.
There are obviously exceptions to this rule but generally it holds fast.
I saw Jill Saward interviewed today on the subject of releasing the identities of alleged sex offenders prior to charge. She was in favour on the grounds that more victims might come forward and allow the CPS to build a case based on modus operandi. I broadly agree with that view but I also understand the opposing view that it allows the police and CPS to trawl in order to bolster a weak case.
For younger viewers this is a potted biog of Saward.
My problem with her is that in the intervening years since her rape she has wildly changed her tune.
She began by discriminating between innocent and not so innocent victims of rape. I found it blood-boiling.
She commented a great deal about provocation, dress and behaviour. She also called for degrees of rape. If someone bursts into your house - as happened with her - then that's the worst. If you go out with a 'date' rapist, or are perhaps married to him and have children and he rapes you every night with his hand over your mouth while threatening to hurt your children if you scream, that's not so bad.
I felt sorry for her but was very angry she felt she had the right to spout off about other women's experiences.
Her experience was horrifying. But it was extraordinary. It, and her very sheltered view as a Christian virgin who had only met nice people should not have been used as a basis to inform public opinion and possibly form policy on prosecuting rape. But I think it was and all these later she is still the go-to person about rape.
As I said, somewhere along the line she has changed her tune to something that is more in line with mine.
Good. But I still don't give a toss for her opinion and I don't think either of us should be used as serious witnesses when formulating policy to prosecute rape or try to change attitudes.