There was a time not so long back when
making a pass if that’s what he did was simply just that. A man chatting to a
woman and expressing his interest, or a woman doing the same to a man. Now such
interest is interpreted in a different and highly negative manner. It is viewed
as coming onto that person. Let’s
consider the phrase. In today’s parlance it means that the person expressing
interest is imposing himself or
herself on the other and that furthermore such imposition is always
unwarranted. A man however might chat to
a woman or a woman to a man simply because they like them or find them
interesting and intelligent. They might find themselves attracted and this may
be harmless enough. They might even find themselves sexually attracted, and
this in itself is neither unpleasant nor nasty, nor is it a crime. It’s just an
attribute of the human condition, but to generally infer from any such
conversation or interest a purely sexual intention is both perverse and
injudiciously judgmental. Ultimately it becomes a barrier to normal human
relations and is a part of the dogmatic moralizing that has come to characterize
a new kind of morality. One that broadly seeks to stamp itself on personal
relationships by ideologues seeking to load their own personality deficiencies
onto others.
Making accusations or allegations has
become easy these days in a judgmental climate of gutter press morality
inspired by narrow intellectual value judgment by those with their own
ideological axes to grind all of which are only too enthusiastically propelled
forwards by politicians whose fundamental interest is control. The times we
live in are indeed judgmental and dangerous, Yet it is the conduct of many of
these politicians that is itself irresponsible, indiscreet and a thoroughly bad
example from those who seek to govern us and set an example.
And it with this in mind it seems to me that
some more than others have failed to show us the way. The Liberal Democrats in
this respect have had much to answer for in recent years most of which has now quietly
dropped from public view. The reputation of this Party has always been
susceptible to one kind of naughtiness or another. Well quite frankly you might
say, what would you expect of a political party that jumps into bed with the
Tories on a promise. Did I hear the word
tarts? Well that’s how the British people now see them though there are
those who might be less gracious with their language! But for the Lib Dems alas
there are far more things in the background than this. Indeed the whole Party
seems to have been uncommonly prone to sexual indiscretion. Perhaps failing to keep things quiet and under wraps might be an alternative
way of looking at it.
Let’s take a look. Years back before the
Liberal Democrats there was the matter of Jeremy Thorpe, leader of the Liberal Party and his relationship
with naughty male model Norman Scott. Oh dear, it involved the death of a favourite
dog among other things for the media and was a notable political sex scandal of
the time, causing his resignation and departure from politics. It was a long
way for a political leader to fall. More recently however one of the first leaders
of the Liberal Democrat Party, the worthy Paddy Ashdown, gave cause for a bold
front page headline in the Sun Newspaper, PADDY
PANTS DOWN after being revealed having an affair with a respectable lady.
Never mind, both he and the Lib Dems toughed it out for a while but the little
indiscretion stuck and he was replaced.
Another considerably worse oh dear was to come. Chris Huhne,
Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Energy now in a Coalition Government
with the Conservatives was having a secret affair that once uncovered most
displeased his wife Vicky Pryce who according to a recent claim in the press gave
him a black eye and chucked him through a plate glass window because he’d left
her for his bisexual publicist Carina Trimingham who she’d described as a man
and said he’d done it because he was a closet homosexual and had “been engaging
in that activity again.” The whole thing had gone hand in hand with Huhne
asking his wife to take penalty points he’d incurred for a motoring offence and
she, confronted with one betrayal after another blew her top and let it all
out. Consequences, jail time for both and an acrimonious bust up in public. So
there it all was. Another top Liberal Democrat who couldn’t keep his flies
buttoned up.
And speaking of flies, hidden pleasures
seem to accompany Liberal Democrats wherever they go. Immediately prior to
Chris Huhne there was the worthy David Laws, Lib Dem political high flier who
for reasons best known to himself, claimed Parliamentary expenses on behalf of
a gentleman lover whose existence might otherwise have never been known. Oh
dear! The Parliamentary high flier not only outed as gay, not a crime in
itself, but wrongly if not naughtily claiming expenses for someone he
shouldn’t. Why do it for a few hundred quid one might ask if you wanted to keep
your love life a secret? Wasn’t he earning enough? If he wanted to keep his
relationship secret for whatever reason why take the risk? Result… put to the
sword in the media and made to look like the arse that he was for the
appreciation of the general public. Time though has passed and all been
forgiven. He’s back in high office as a Junior Minister so there is political
life after a scandal!
More recently however, even post Rennard,
there’s been another Liberal Democrat sex splash. Another oh dear! This time
just an ordinary Member of Parliament, Mike Hancock, allegedly being seriously
indiscreet with a lady constituent and a damning Report on the matter just
released. Dear, dear… And this is a Party that wants us to trust them running
the country! That claims to be a model for sobriety and discretion! I mean,
betraying the public who voted for you is one thing but as a politician, betraying
the personal standards you set for yourself, something quite different.
And so back to Lord Rennard? The Daily Mail
has called him a ‘groper’ on a front page recently and Liberal Democrat Party
Leader Nick Clegg has demanded that he apologize for what is supposed he had
done which he’s refused, claiming that he’s done nothing wrong and has nothing
to apologize for. This seems to have caused a general furor among countless
numbers of ambitious women who all now claim to have been abused at one time or
another by male senior colleagues in work situations. What all this actually
means is that we are witnessing the birth of an entirely new culture. What I
would term The Abuse Culture, in
which just about any man or woman may be liable to be accused of ‘abuse’. This
extension of the increasingly neurotic character of the society we live in with
its out of control bike riders and dogs being used as love objects or attack
weapons and protest against just about anything being stifled by extraordinary
police powers, is psychologically symptomatic of the manner in which economic
depression impinges itself on otherwise rational judgment and brings out in
people a whole number of demons all of which are a prey to those with emotional
and ideological axes to grind.
And indeed, there are many decent
individuals who, in the coming years are likely to be ground up in the process
at the hands of the psychologically disturbed. We are living in an increasingly
divided society. Fortunate for those who seek to govern and control us who are
undoubtedly glad of such divisions in our national life. The lower middle class
of the Daily Mail and the Sun against the unemployed, the poor and the benefit
claimers; the indigenous white British poor against a tide of mass immigration;
the police against public protest, especially that of students (at times it
actually seems like the police against everyone who isn’t lower middle class) and,
increasingly as it seems, a calculated and devastating division between the
sexes. Turn people against each other. Divide and rule. It’s simple enough.
The prognosis is bad and there are dark
days ahead.
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