Emily Thornberry joined a women’s walk in Islington in February

SINCE the people of Islington South and Finsbury gave me the honour of representing them in parliament almost 17 years ago, I’ve learned that certain experiences repeat themselves.

Take the past week, as the latest swirl of accusations swept around Westminster concerning misogyny and sexual misconduct.

The report that a Tory MP had repeatedly watched pornography in the Commons chamber was a fresh twist, but otherwise it all felt very familiar.

And it would be easy to become jaded by that, to say it’s always been like this, that the cast of male MPs may change over time, but the behaviour of some of them towards their female colleagues or staffers will keep plumbing the same depths.

But it doesn’t make me feel jaded. It makes me angry. And the reason is very simple. If we cannot get serious about changing the behaviour of the men who serve in our parliament, and make the women who work there feel safe and respected, how the hell can we do the same in the rest of society, and the communities we represent?

Is it any wonder that reports of violence against women and girls are the highest since records began, while the rate of men being charged for those offences is at an all-time low?

Is it any wonder that – in the tiny minority of instances where rapists are charged and prosecuted – many of those cases collapse before they ever reach trial, because the survivors cannot cope with the months of delay and trauma waiting for their day in court? It should make us all angry.

Whenever we talk about sexual violence in Islington, sociologists like to gauge how things have changed since the famous crime surveys conducted in our borough in 1986 and 88.

Do women feel any safer now than they did back then going out after dark? What per­centage have experi­enced harassment in the past year compared to the 1980s?

But frankly, I am sick of debating whether a woeful situation is marginally better or marginally worse than it was 35 years ago.

What I want to know is why we are having the same debate.

We cannot carry on like this. We cannot hand over the epidemic of sexual violence in our society to another generation of young girls, and say: “Here, it’s your turn now.”

It has to end. And for me, the very first step isn’t about streetlights or visible policing or tougher sentencing, as vital as all those things are.

The first step is getting a government and a parliament in place which treats this issue like the crisis it is, not one which can’t get its own house in order, or even stop its own MPs watching porn.

Thank you…

THE Islington Tribune has a proud history of campaigning and investigative journalism – and we make a commitment to tackle violence against women and girls around the year and not just in the aftermath of a tragedy.

The newspaper is not immune to the financial pressures that everybody is feeling at the moment and the Covid pandemic has had a punishing effect on the advertising market.

We do not want to give up producing special editions like the one are reading today – impactful publications which aim to help steer positive change.

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