Brendan Cox has resigned

[RedToothBrush]

Brendan Cox @ mrbrendancox
Last week I decided to step down from my public roles to face up to mistakes I made several years ago while at Save the Children. I apologise to people I offended or upset at the time. My actions were never malicious but they were at times inappropriate.
I take responsibility for my actions and will hold myself to a higher standard in the future.

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/jo-cox-husband-brendan-cox-step-down-charity-a8215951.html%3famp
Brendan Cox steps down from charity set up in murdered wife Jo’s memory over 'mistakes I made several years ago'

I'm surprised at how few comment pieces there are on this and I read a lot of newspapers.

"Damn, I've been found out abusing women. Hello? Women? Could one of you sort this out for me? Ta very much."

nauticant - yes, spot on!

The thing is people like Jess Philips are actually encouraging this attitude. In the interview I watched she said "we all know men who have done things we don't approve of...we need to work through this together."

Things we don't approve of?- who does?

In the interview I watched she said "we all know men who have done things we don't approve of...we need to work through this together."

That sums up the attitude of a lot of women in Westminster (and beyond) at the moment, I think.

The reality for a lot of women who want to shatter those glass ceilings and increase female representation where it's needed is that in order to do so, they are working alongside men who they discover are sexist, misogynistic, harassing and abusive.

Currently, the 'balance of power' is still with those men; women who want to operate in those environs find themselves working alongside men who represent everything those women are fighting against. There's no option to exclude those men by calling them out - they are the majority - so in order to stay there, women have to hold their noses and work within that culture - taking action against individuals where they can without causing so many ripples that their own career ends.

Yes. I don't have any friends who think it's ok to sexually harassed or assault someone. If I found out any of my friends did this, they would very quickly no longer be a friend. If Jess Phillips etc want to stand by their friend fine, but don't minimise their actions, absolve them of blame and make out they are just a victim of the culture just as we all are. Especially don't do that if you have condemed people who aren't in your political tribe for lesser crimes, it makes you look like a mighty hypocrite.

In the interview I watched she said "we all know men who have done things we don't approve of...we need to work through this together."

Why is Brendan Cox's sexual harassment the responsibility of Jess Phillips to help fix? I cannot imagine what is going through her head.

Bad enough that sexual harassment occurs in the first place and then we need to help rehabilitate the offender? What help are the actual victims of sexual harassment getting? Where is the focus on that?

maladriot The boundaries between friendship and professional relationships are incredibly blurred in both the political and the charity sector; partly because work strays into personal lives - including the involvement of spouses and children - and also because the hours require colleagues to spend far more time together than your usual 9-5 or even shift work ( in the aid sector, colleagues also live together when deployed).

Laura Pidcock has said publicly that she won't be "friends" with Tory MPs, and by doing so, I believe she has limited her own career. Cross-party Groups and even Select Committees bring MPs and senior professionals with differing party allegiances together to champion a common cause and this work extends way beyond the meeting round the table - discussions over coffee, fact finding trips, joint writing of papers late into the evening take the relationship way beyond a formal, professional one. Those personal relationships are an important part of developing trust and how the sector works.

If a female MP refuses to work with a MN who has a reputation for sexual harassment, it will be her, not him, who will be ostracised.

Similarly, women in many male dominated sectors find themselves working for, or alongside, men like BC, and even if they are not a target themselves, they know of their reputation. Do they resign on principle, so damaging their career?

man, not MN !

Mariella Frostrup was just on The World at One and speaking up for Justin Forsyth (who happens to be the person who appointed her to her position of Gender Ambassador at Save the Children). Among her minimising comments were phrases like "I have every sympathy for women suffering abuse, but..." and "you can't legislate for human behaviour".

No wonder this is going nowhere. The Establishment just don't want it to. I don't think there's a conspiracy, it's just that it would suit a large number of people with influence if this inconvenient matter were simply to go away.

But Hats, Jess and Brendan are not colleagues. He is not an MP. I don't disagree with what you say, but Jess had no qualms in calling out Damian Green, for example. "I want us to be able to set the example that no matter who your friends are, no matter what your job is, you cannot treat people as playthings, and if you do you must face the consequences" she wrote just two months ago. I think it's a bit disingenuous of her to now say appropriate consequences for BC are stepping back from two charities"for the time being" and making a feeble non apology which blames his victims for feeling hurt and offended.

I'm picking on Jess as her examples are very plain, but this attitude has been displayed by plenty of others and I find it disappointing. and I agree that more often than not the woman doing the calling out is more damaged than the man she is calling out, but at the same time I think integrity is hugely important, especially if you're an MP, and especially if you're an MP claiming to be all for women's rights. You can't then get all shaky because "he does good things and our kids play together".

So Mariella is a disappointment too. You can legislate for human behaviour, that's why you have laws and policies! How can she live with herself as gender ambassador while making these bullshit comments?

I'd rather die with integrity than thrive by shitting on the people I pretend to help.

To be fair to Mariella she has been consistent for many years now that she'd cheerfully throw women under the bus in order to please men with power and money.

You can't then get all shaky because "he does good things and our kids play together".

I absolutely agree - it's the balance between integrity and career that I consider more ambiguous.

That said, I do think that BC could probably jeopardise JP career if he was so inclined - both because of his personal relationships with Senior politicians (many of which have come about as a result of his wife's role, and her subsequent death), and his wider network through his Executive roles.

Whether he would or not, if she chose to sacrifice their friendship over this issue, I don't know.

Having thought more about this, it seems this particularly scandal is jangling a number of interconnected and overlapping networks, political, charitable, media, social, cultural, and a large number of very well-connected people are finding themselves in uncomfortable proximity with abusers, possibly connected to them with only one degree of separation, and possibly connected to them in more than one network.

Lots of influential people are feeling themselves to be slightly tainted by the recent unpleasantness. It's a bit too close. They know these people. They want it all to stop.

I would hope his name is now too tainted for him to have any influence whatsoever, Hats, but I am fairly sure that's just the tiny remaining flicker of optimism which hasn't been beaten out of me yet! I would be wholly unsurprised if those hopes are dashed.

Nauticant YY - exactly; I can almost hear the wailing of "but........he's my friend!"

maladroit I admire your optimism - I'm more sceptical. In many cases, I believe that relationships between influencers are cemented during scandals like this, either through a misguided desire to "support the underdog" or a realisation that "there but for the grace of God..." and it could indeed have been any one of them.

To be fair to Mariella she has been consistent for many years now that she'd cheerfully throw women under the bus in order to please men with power and money. I can't abide her.

Frostrup's political views have been described as "a bit left-of-centre".[10] She has been active in the charity sector for two decades, having worked on Bank Aid and Comic Relief along with various fundraising initiatives for Oxfam, The Children's Society and Save the Children. Campaigning for women's rights and gender equality has become her main focus; she has recently made several trips to Africa to meet women and young girls in their communities, and experience first hand the realities and inequalities of the lives that they lead.

In 2010 she created, along with three other trustees, the Gender Rights and Equality Action Trust. This foundation aims at fostering gender equality and raising awareness and funds, to support grass roots gender equality projects in Africa and beyond. The GREAT Initiative works in partnership with Femmes Africa Solidarité, an African charity.

In 2015 she signed an open letter which the ONE Campaign had been collecting signatures for; the letter was addressed to Angela Merkel and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, urging them to focus on women as they serve as the head of the G7 in Germany and the AU in South Africa respectively, which will start to set the priorities in development funding before a main UN summit in September 2015 that will establish new development goals for the generation.[11]
All this and she supports a sex pest.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3648565/I-close-eyes-face-MARIELLA-FROSTRUP-broadcaster-friend-Jo-Cox-MP-s-inclusive-heart-irony-demise.html

Really good Open Democracy article about how the whistleblowers were silenced at every turn.

Thanks maladroit that is a good article. The title about silencing "difficult women" is so true, especially today when the "difficult women" won their Supreme court judgement against the Met over the handling of their rapes by Worboys.

Adam Boulton is now on my blacklist. JF in IMO is not a "decent person". Decent people don't (allegedly) bully their staff, silence complaints, cover up abuse and send inappropriate emails to staff about their appearance.

Thanks maladroit. That is an excellent article which should get more coverage. I could not believe that Mariella Frostrup was saying people were trying to equate commenting on women's clothing with child abuse in Haiti. WHO on earth did this? Was she trying to say that's all Forsyth and Cox had done - comment on clothing? Why wasn't she challenged on this by the interviewer? Gender Ambassador for Save the Children - you could not make this up. It would be considered too far fetched for a In the Thick of It script.

Kikashi yes, on the blacklist - Adam Boulton, Andrew Marr, Jess Phillips, Lucy Powell and every other journo/politico who has known about this story since before 2015 and failed to address it.

Great article maladroit rubbish for women but honest

I have every sympathy for women suffering abuse, but..." and "you can't legislate for human behaviour"

Er, yes you can and we do. It is the basis of all civilisation.

Er, yes you can and we do. It is the basis of all civilisation. Absolutely.