by In his time in office, Rishi Sunak has done much to gain the popularity of an intensifier favored by men who wish to proclaim their commitment to the interests of women while suffering previous indifference: “As father of daughters.”
Without his inner epiphanies, Sunak, “as a father of daughters”, might not have understood the need for girls to feel safe walking around in the evening or to be educated on par with boys. Which is annoying, but still. Better late, etc. His daughters are also credited with Sunak’s tribute to the Lionesses’ victory and – “women’s rights are personal to me” – his understanding of the need for women’s single-sex spaces.
If relying on daughters for instruction in gender equality is less impressive than promoting it on principle, Sunak clearly does not shine compared to politicians who remain, even after being blessed with girls, in the state of nature. Donald Trump has daughters. Ditto Vladimir Putin. David Cameron, along with two others, maintained a primary preference for male colleagues. George Osborne’s daughter could not inoculate him against broadcasting psychopathic fantasies about Theresa May. The fact that Boris Johnson was the parent as prime minister of two, three girls then confirms that, unfortunately, the solution to misogyny in Westminster, the City and the Metropolitan Police is to employ only men who they have daughters.
Unfortunately, misogyny in Westminster, the City or the police cannot be solved by employing men with daughters.
Admittedly, since he dumped another girl, Johnson has apologized to the female colleague known to his old WhatsApp friends as “the cunt”. Maybe in hardened situations you need a ratio of at least four daughters to one brute to achieve the level of insight that Sunak is claimed to be capable of with two?
Although that project is worthy, we find, its limits, if it has not gone backwards. As a father of daughters, Sunak has just confirmed that date-rape drug jokes are not punishable offences.
He specifically decided, as a father of daughters, that the bantz about stupefying women with Rohypnol, the sedative almost synonymous with drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) by predatory men, should be accepted, even when the author – James Cleverly – only. the home secretary but speaking on the day his Department announces measures designed to, in addition to tackling spiking, improve public understanding that it is an “offensive” offence.
Shortly before Christmas, Cleverly’s Home Office colleague, Laura Farris, the victim and the Minister for Protection, told MPs: “Spiking is a horrific, horrific crime that destroys lives.” The evidence of harm, she said describing legislative changes, was “unbelievable: the main victims are mainly young and women”.
In a statement prefacing the Department’s proposals, Cleverly said: “Spiking is a serious crime that can have a lasting impact on victims.” If the word “perverse” seems an underpowered word to choose – it could even be understood that perpetrators are choosing, in temporary poisoning, a unique and unreliable means of achieving their ends – perhaps it is possible recognize this now as another unfortunate clue, to add to the story. extensive collection, that Cleverly is among the best arguments yet for not bringing your whole self to work, unless it is actively unfit for high office.
But nothing, from calling a northern town a “shithole” to describing the Rwandan scheme as “batshit” before it became “common sense”, compares to Cleverly’s achievement, on the day the seriousness of the spiking was officially announced, and the situation was officially portrayed. crime the same evening. No day is perfect for breaking down your own department.
The IS Sunday Mirror he reported saying, from his wife, receiving No. 10, that “a little bit of Rohypnol he drank every night” was “not really illegal if it’s just a little bit”. Les Dawson’s tribute followed (“I said to the chemist, ‘can I have more sleeping pills for the wife’, he said ‘Why’, I said ‘She keeps wakes up'”), on face the benefits of keeping a spouse. “She’s always a bit sedated so she can’t understand that there are better men out there”.
Survivors and anti-espionage campaigners – some of whom contributed to the Home Office report – were quick to condemn remarks that are unlikely to have educated the kind of men who think women are being sedated and violated by memory-impairing drugs but have no trace within hours. mocking. Noting that the fun has been repeatedly mentioned by spy-mongers, the Home Office says unequivocally: “This is not funny, and we need to make sure the message is clear.”
Even without expertise, it is clear that Cleverly’s attitude towards the offense is far from anything commonly understood to be responsible. There is nothing alarming, since the left has been cited in its defense, about recognizing the vagaries of the DFSA as extremely lonely, and that offenders are only in trouble in nightclubs and trauma festivals and attack only politically minded young women.
You don’t have to be a Sleeping Beauty waking problem, or you want to put a trigger warning on Keats’s St. Agnes’s Halloween, understand why men who publicly joke about the DFSA are vague, intimidating on dates, and should expect prompt disciplinary action in any workplace outside of the incel community. Or the Metropolitan police. Or as it turns out, the cabinet.
Since Cleverly could hardly claim ignorance of the offence, his spokesman’s best defense was a “joke”. In addition, unfortunately, No 10’s press reception was “private”. Sunak’s answer is the most difficult, however: the girls’ father considers “the matter closed”.
If there is a potential downside to – a sixth in four years? – home secretary, it’s no use, and Cleverly raises the red flag above Downing Street, signaling the government’s tolerance for fun-loving spies. Especially when the Home Office’s “Enough” campaign advocates a “whole of society” approach to changing attitudes to violence against women and girls and urges viewers to intervene. For example: “If you heard him sipping a booty, what would you do?”
Like many daughters, the Sunak girls may have felt they had some time off for Christmas, but look at the result.
• Catherine Bennett is a columnist
