Friday 26 August 2016

The Humbug of Professional Feminism


by Les May
I AM not a feminist.  I dislike feminism as a philosophical stance, because I see no reason to privilege one section of society over another and as a political stance it seems to me self serving, inherently reactionary, intent upon perpetuating unfairness and hierarchies, and destructive of personal relationships.  

Now simply writing this is probably (certainly?) enough to get me lumped with the men that Julie Bindel was writing about in her 2006 opinion piece for the Guardian, 'Why I hate men'.  Seemingly writing that you 'hate' men is OK but writing 'I hate EMOs or Goths or..' well fill in you own list here, could get your remarks logged as 'hate crime'.

Perhaps the height of absurdity has now been reached when a recent piece in the 'i' newspaper turned out to be an interview with a 'professional' feminist, a job which I assume is more lucrative and less tiring than say working for Sports Direct or Amazon.

But whilst 'professional' feminists are still mercifully rare, building a career around feminism is not.  I've already mentioned Julie Bindel who certainly falls into this category, but she is almost unknown outside feminist circles.  Much better known is Labour's  Harriet Harman, she of the 'pink bus' and cousin to David Cameron.  The 'pink bus' campaign did not go down well with some women as you will see from Ella Whelan's comments at Spiked Online.

Harriet's silence on Simon Danczuk's past and recent activities in Spain is telling and suggests she is a bit of a humbug.  In 2002 the BBC reported:

'Crown prosecutors are to be urged to press on with prosecutions in cases of domestic violence, even if the victim wants the case dropped.

Solicitor General Harriet Harman is backing the move as part of a range of measures to crack down on domestic abuse.

'It is about where the public interest lies when the victim is insisting the case be dropped," she will tell a police conference on domestic violence on Tuesday.

'She might want to forgive him, but the next time he assaults her she could be killed.'

So why did she not speak up when the Mail on Sunday reported at length in July 2015 on what Karen Danczuk's family claimed happened in Spain in 2008.  And why, after Mr Danczuk was arrested in Spain recently following an incident which has striking similarities with the 2008 incident, is she still silent?

And before anyone tells me that Mr Danczuk is suspended from the Labour party at present and does not hold the Labour whip, you should know that he is once again trying to sail his ship with a Labour flag, as you will see if you check out his job advert.

Labour MPs have other things to think about at present, like their holidays, but even if they are wise to keep their mouths shut about Simon's recent constituency office tryst, the story Karen Danczuk told in the Sun on Sunday only a few days ago merits a response.  At least from a woman who was once a Labour Solicitor General.  Ironically it is a group of men who were expelled from the Labour party who have made the link between the events in Spain in 2016 and 2008, and want the fallout from the latter re-opened.









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