The UK’s General Election campaigning is in full swing and debates about who to vote for dominate social media. As each party, large and small, comes up with policies and strategies, they polish their plans and present carefully worded missives to the media.
What they can’t dodge, however, are the curve balls that come flying at them unexpectedly, often when their own campaigners open their mouths or do something unpredictable. This week, the Tories – desperate to win in the December election – have tripped themselves up numerous times in ways that voters should pay attention to.
- Jacob Rees-Mogg blamed victims of the Grenfell Tower blaze for… dying
Jacob Rees-Mogg is a smug, superior chap. But surely, when talking about the utter tragedy of dozens of deaths that happened when a London tower block caught fire in 2017, you’d think even he would have something thoughtful and appropriate to say.
Instead, he managed to insult the dead and those who survived by saying that they had lacked “common sense” when they followed London Fire Brigade’s advice to stay in their properties. Without the empathy to see that setting off to descend 20 floors down a flame- and smoke-filled staircase could very well kill you as well, Rees-Mogg said that he would have left his flat (as if he has ever even met anyone who lived in a flat) and saved his own life that way.
- Tory MP Andrew Bridgen doubled down on Rees-Mogg’s attitude
Rees-Mogg did apologise for what he had said, but not before Andrew Bridgen MP made it a million times worse. Journalist Evan Davis interviewed Bridgen about Rees-Mogg’s remarks.
Evan Davis said, “But that in a way is exactly what people object to, because he is, in effect saying I wouldn’t have died than the people who took the fire brigade’s advice.”
After an awkward pause, Bridgen responded, “But we want very clever people running the country, don’t we, Evan?”
It demonstrates a reprehensible attitude to the poor folks and those from predominantly minority ethnic communities who died in the disaster to suggest that yes, Rees-Mogg was right. They were actually a bit dim and that caused their deaths. Not the flammable cladding that surrounded every wall of the building.
No, it was their intellect and lack of sense.
- Tory candidate Nick Conran says that the problem of rape would be solved if women could “keep their knickers on”
Running in Norfolk, candidate Conran once said that women could avoid rape if they were “more aware of a man’s sexual desire” and could “keep their knickers on”.
There’s no responsibility on rapists to stop rape, you will notice. Just their victims. He said on the radio that “There’s a huge amount of will and intent and it’s very difficult for many men to say no when they are whipped up into a bit of a storm.”
You know what’s more difficult, though? Being raped. That’s what.
Although he said that if “a woman says no” and a man persisted then that was “absolutely abhorrent”, he went on to clarify that “If you tease, if you jump into bed naked with a man, if you give him all the signals and then he acts upon them, then you are partially responsible.”
Despite this, Conran was picked to represent the party.
- The Welsh secretary resigned over claims of a rape trial sabotage
Alun Cairns, the Secretary of State for Wales, was accused of endorsing a candidate for the Welsh assembly despite knowing that that candidate had deliberately sabotaged a rape trial. Ross England was told by a judge to leave a courtroom after inappropriately revealing details of a victim’s sexual history that she said were untrue. The sexual histories of victims can only be brought up in court in certain circumstances; the judge reacted: “Why did you say that? Are you completely stupid?” before sending him out of court.
The case was retried and the victim got justice.
Alun Cairns initially denied having known about the rape trial sabotage but an email that had been sent to him was released, which referenced the situation. He has since stepped down from his cabinet position but has refused to apologise to the victim.
- They faked footage of a Labour Party interview
A video released by the Conservative campaign appeared to show Labour Party’s Keir Starmer looking uncomfortable, unable to answer a question posed in a media interview. The footage had in fact been doctored; no such difficult pause had occurred in the original interview.
Image credit: Mark Ramsay