The World Has Gone Mad

So I read in this morning’s Telegraph that ‘Kenneth Clarke was forced to apologise yesterday after suggesting that not all rapes were serious’. The paper then goes on to say that Mr Clarke actually said that some rapes were not as serious as others.

What he actually said is something quite different and the paraphrasing used by media sources is the scourge of twenty-first-century-living.

I ask those right-minded citizens out there to read what Mr Clarke actually said and then try and understand that he was merely stating existing fact, nothing more. He doesn’t deserve being vilified for making the observation that some rapes are worse than others. That is evident by the huge sentencing differences. What is the fuss all about?

Certainly not anything Mr Clarke said. Any informed speaker on the subject would have said the same…..surely! or indeed perhaps not in this age of political correctness gone mad.

I have been on various media courses at the behest of my publisher to ensure that when I give interviews I say the right things and give the right signals. Truth doesn’t come into it anymore. The exercise is not to give the media any bait to get their fangs into.

The truth is what I read today is something I have heard and seen discussed in exactly the same way innumerable times both on television and radio. The discussion in the past though has always been about sentencing policy and the act of rape itself but now it seems that it sells more papers to shoot the messenger. I have seriously been considering not reading newspapers or watching television anymore. I am sick to death of the likes of Max Clifford pimping off people’s grief. I am sick to death of reading columns by people like Kelvin Mackenzie pontificating in their holier than thou manner when the truth is these people are media prostitutes – believe me I have had dealings with them!

And for those who don’t know me I am a socialist so have little in common with Tory politicians but am fed up with the truth being bent and twisted to evoke sensationalism. It is bullying plain and simple and until we resolve the problem we as a human race will begin to slip further and further into this dark abyss where truth means nothing and only bland statements will be declared for fear of reprisals.

Do any of you remember those very plausible insurance salesmen that used to come to your home promising they could double your money within ten years only for you to find you would have been better off placing your money under the bed. These media spin merchants are of the same ilk only far far worse - as they KNOW they are misleading you.

I was with Max Clifford the day Fulham legend Johnny Haynes died and his phone didn’t stop ringing. He was telling all and sundry that he was a life-long fan of the great man. In between calls over a sticky bun and a cuppa I questioned him a little about Johnny and it was clear he didn’t have a scooby doo. He deals in illusion you see.

Kelvin Mackenzie jumps on every bandwagon that passes him and yet he is someone known within closed circles to be the most politically incorrect person imaginable. I once did a job for his radio station but my payment did not arrive and when I rang up, and bear in mind I had never spoken to the man before, I was more than a little shocked to have him enter into a one-sided tirade of verbal abuse like you could not possibly imagine. I did not utter a word but was told to “go f--- myself” among other pleasantries. This is the common currency of Mr Mackenzie and yet he is employed like so many of his ilk to act as paragons of virtue when it suits them and to incite the masses when sales need boosting. Truth means nothing nowadays.

Mr Clarke was most eloquent in his words. It is such a terribly difficult crime to legislate against. How many times have we been frustrated when watching television programmes on the subject of rape where justice didn’t appear to be done because the police either advised victims a conviction would be difficult or else at trial a judge found insufficient evidence. How many times too have we heard in our own small lives of people being raped. I know several people who have told me about their rapes and none of them went to the law. The whole subject of rape needs looking at closely. Most men do not understand the intricate nature of rape because they find it too abhorent to contemplate. We understand the violence of course and in fact we always tend to cry out for maximum sentences because of the physical violence aspect - but we cannot comprehend the mental turmoil, the fear, the actual violation. Only another woman can really understand that, which is probably why when someone cries rape falsely women tend to be much less tolerant and forgiving towards a false litigant as they do a disservice to real claimants.

Consent itself has always been the sticking point in so many cases. I sat and watched a case once where I felt sure the defendant was guilty but it turned out to be his word against hers and no conviction followed because of the strict code the jury was instructed to adhere to. To try and simplify rape as acrosss the board rape too is dangerous. Mr Clarke gave the example of a 17 year old sleeping with a 15 year old. Now I don’t think for one moment he gave this as an example rather than say a 30-year-old man or whatever, he was surely making the point that two immature children do immature irresponsible things. I know several schoolfriends of mine that slept with girls before they were 16. Although I wouldn’t say it was the norm I have to say it happened even in the 1960s and 1970s. I know one close friend of mine that was caught in bed by the mother of a 15-year-old and although she read him the riot act he was not convicted of anything, and yes he was 17 (and no it wasn’t me, I did not lose my virginity until many years later).

It is rightly an emotive subject. Most right-minded people feel that convicted rapists beyond a shadow of a doubt, of the type that Kenneth Clarke describes as those that merely choose their victim from the street, deserve some sort of castration, while perhaps those that come under the heading of statutory rape deserve a lesser sentence dependent on the circumstances.

I have no political sympathy for Kenneth Clarke but I do believe that if we condone his sacking for merely giving his expert analysis as a lawyer and politician, then we will find ourselves up a very sticky gum tree where we will be the castrated ones as a nation. Policy will be impossible to be formed as we will always be upsetting some minority with a voice. To give you a final example of the sort of thing that can happen. Two years ago I asked to be removed from the emailing list of my local Labour Party as I was very upset to be called homophobic by one of the other group. What had happened was that our local chairman asked us to picket a meeting of the BNP in Crawley and I replied rather irritatingly that I feel that we should concentrate on our own party and not be drawn into slagging off others. Well all hell broke loose and several members of the group sent me private email telling me how the BNP had made it personal by ringing them up anonymously and heavy breathing and all sorts of skulduggery. My thoughts were how could this possibly happen unless you continue to incite conflict but I understood their feelings. What I didn’t understand was the one chap who replied to the group that he was so upset because I was clearly condoning the BNP who were anti-gay and so I must be homophobic!! What the poor chap didn’t know was that I lobbied for a dear gay friend of mine to become my local Bewbush Councillor only a month prior to this and indeed he got in after I broke custom by speaking on his behalf before the vote.

You see it should always be about the best man for the job irrespective of nepotism.

Last year the same man was up as the Labour Party candidate to fight the general election and I actually voted against him this time as I felt there was a better candidate for the job. My friend rang me and we had a frank discussion about it and he totally understood. It was the hardest thing I have done for years but I simply could not vote for him merely because he was a friend, and his boyfriend was a friend and the son of a special friend of mine. I’d rather feel guilty of upsetting a friend than standing accused of nepotism.

No I am not trying to be holier than thou. I too have my moments which is why I understand the danger of nepotism and not making rational decisions. I used to quite like Chris Tarrant but immediately went off him when I felt he stitched me up like a kipper on WWTBAM. Now quite illogically when I hear him on the radio I find myself not well disposed towards him. I say illogically because I have never been one to either harbour grudges or understand why grudges are harboured. Words said in anger are often masking deep rooted feelings of love and should never cause terminal rifts - but sadly so often do.

It is hard enough being a fickle human being anyway but to put more temptations in our path, more reasons to show our gang mentality, more reason for us to become institutionalised neutered bullies, never giving anyone the benefit of the doubt.

Once I became a Christian I lost a certain amount of my ego. I no longer felt I needed to be loved by human beings. I did feel I wanted to understand them and I certainly still hated it when I was misunderstood but I no longer felt inadequate, rather I was resigned to the fact that we are all fickle and liable to make irrational decisions from time to time. Few people deserve hate per se. Comment, of course, pity even but serious hate should only be reserved for those that cannot rise above personal tragedy - for instance many of the victims of rape I discussed above. I know that hate destroys the soul and essence of a human being. How many of us know people who have been totally devastated by grief. But even within a Christian community it would be difficult to get across an argument for forgiving the perpetrator of a heinous crime like rape and yet many who have been able to do so have lived much fuller lives. Closure is often easier when you are in control.

These are the sort of questions I would like to concentrate on, the wellbeing of the victims, not a politician who was merely stating the obvious.