Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Melanie Phillips & the rape of justice

Provocative article from Ms. P responding to "the growing discrepancy between the number of rapes that are alleged to have taken place and the number of convictions that result."

Rape of justice

Daily Mail, 6 June 2005

Would love to post an opposing view for balance but the annoying Indy won't give you Deborah Orr's article for free.

Anyway, here's the news story itself as reported in the Guardian.

Also, although it's not part of the same story I'd like to draw your intention to this sexual discrimination case. (It's an old one but there's a new law suit attached.)

Last year Mrs Weston claimed a senior lawyer, Nathaniel Norgren, made "disgusting" comments about her breasts at a Christmas office lunch in 2003 in a London wine bar.

He allegedly said "Elizabeth has great waps", before drunkenly arguing with a colleague about whether the correct slang for breasts was "waps" or "baps". Having knocked over a table, sloshing red wine down her front, he was also accused of saying her husband was a "lucky man" and joking about their sex life.

Mr Norgren allegedly pestered Mrs Weston with questions such as: "How many times a week?" He was also accused of making an offensive comment about the bottom of a woman seated at a nearby table.

Am I alone in thinking that £1m is a helluva payout for some crass lunchtime banter. Wouldn't the phrase "Shut up you twat" do the job just as well?

2 comments:

JP said...

Great article, luv ya Mel. The one off-note: I wonder why she considers the Brixton dope experiment a "catastrophe".

No pics anywhere of the waps in question, I note.

JP said...

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=125&art_id=vn20050607063033640C157944
New device gives women teeth where it matters

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