The Dinosaur at Jurassic Labour

Under Tony Blair, the Labour Party relaunched itself as New Labour – a less radical, left wing, union shackled political party that could, and ultimately did, shake off the mistakes of the past and re-enter Government for the first time in nearly 20 years. In recent times, with Tony making a mint from the talk circuit and his old next door neighbour lurching from one self-made crisis after the next, New Labour has begun to look more like Old and Tired Labour.

One of the things that Labour have tried to do during their time in office has been to promote women in Parliament. That, at first glance, is a highly commendable policy. It was Labour who pioneered the idea of an all-female parliamentary shortlist. However, when does commendable policy becoming irresponsible sexism? Margaret Thatcher showed that women could be highly accomplished and tough politicians. In her early years she rarely put a foot wrong in terms of dragging a sick country dragging and screaming towards the 21st century. Like all politicians, she made mistakes along the way but whether intended or not, most of them resulted in improvements in the lives of ordinary Britons. Since then, the quality of female representation on Government benches has been weak to say the least and yet, at one point, approximately a third of Government cabinet ministers were female. Since Gordon Brown took over, that number’s fallen to just four.

Women MPs appear to be more prone to make massive and damaging gaffes. Edwina Currie was a flag bearer for female MPs who were prone to have blonde moments. They simply do not think before they open their mouths. They also rarely have the required presence for the public to take them seriously. It is a shame at times since there are some excellent and hard working female MPs. But that’s part of the problem if you’re a woman and an MP in Britain today. You’re almost expected to be great ‘at home’ in your constituency but that you should leave the real work to men. Part of the reason for this is the often poor performance of female Government ministers, in particular Labour’s Deputy Leader Harriet Harman.

Mrs Harman has developed a reputation for being gaffe prone and yet, here she sits at the right hand of the most powerful man in Britain (after Rupert Murdoch). The most troubling thing is that, in a Government that has produced more new laws than any other in history and a Government that has produced more anti-male laws than any other in history, they have chosen one of the most rabid feminists in the country to be their deputy leader. This woman shouldn’t be anywhere near Parliament, never mind that close to the seat of power.

But then Labour haven’t exactly been shy to extend the reach of feminism in the UK. One of its first feminist laws was one of the biggest mistakes any Government has ever introduced … The Protection from Harassment Act 1997. This was in response to some highly publicised stalking cases and, Labour did what Labour have done best ever since they got into power, they enacted knee-jerk legislation. Immediately Human Rights organisations came out screaming blue murder. It remains one of the most poorly and vaguely worded Acts of Parliament introduced in recent times. It is a blueprint for false allegations and the criminalisation of mundane acts and its compatibility with the Human Rights Act is questionable at best, particularly considering that Labour have since somehow managed to make it even worse by criminalising peaceful protest.

Much has also been made in the last couple of years about the shockingly low number of rape convictions. The Government’s response? Try and come up with new legislation to make it easier to convict. How exactly are they going to do that? Go too far and put the onus on the defendant to prove that he didn’t do it, which is the line that the Protection from Harassment Act walks dangerously close to, and you run the risk of having the legislation struck out under the Human Rights Act. But it’s yet another anti-male knee-jerk reaction by Harman and her cronies. Of course, they are refusing to address the one single and most damning cause of the fall in rape convictions … false rape claims. If stiffer penalties were made available and used against those women who think it’s clever to abuse the law for their own selfish and malicious ends then you’d see a drop in false claims and juries having much more faith in the system.

I completed a Law degree at the University of Glamorgan in 2006. Two weeks ago, there was a report of a young woman being raped on campus. Ten days later, another rape complaint was made by another woman. She had apparently been raped on the same day as the earlier reported attack. Certainly, my initial response was that it was a copycat rape claim and so it came as no surprise when, a few days later, the rape claim was withdrawn. And what are the police doing about what appears to be yet another false rape claim? They are counselling the complainant over an unrelated matter. At this point I’m struggling to avoid swearing …

In having a pop at The Sun over its Page 3 girls, Harman misses the point in the age old relationship between men and women and it’s one that women still continue to pursue. Women, particularly young women, are invariably attention seeking. They will use everything at their disposal to get what they want and, by and large, men will succumb. It’s not that The Sun is exploitative of young women who are forced to get their kit off. It’s the models who are exploiting men to make a good living for themselves for very little effort.

We are regularly bombarded with ‘facts and figures’ that show nearly half of all women in the UK will be beaten at some point in their lives. Really? And how many men will be beaten by their partners? We are also fed misinformation that men are bigger sex pests than women. It is, in fact, the other way around. There is nothing worse than being the only man taken out in what is virtually a girl’s night out. The quiet ones are the ones more likely to be targeted by women who consider it ‘a bit of harmless fun’. Unfortunately so do the authorities, irrespective of any distress or discomfort caused to the victim. Women do it because they know they can get away with it while men think twice because they know they won’t. So in that climate, who’s going to do it more often?

I am reminded of an old Two Ronnies serialised sketch, The Worm That Turned, of a police state run by women. It’s turned out to be quite prophetic. So maybe the feminists’ job is already done and they can be put out to pasture. Feminists are dinosaurs who have made themselves extinct. Their war against men shows no sign of abating, however, with Labour and its resident suffragette in place as their flag bearers.