What a week. It started well. Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate
activist gave both barrels to world leaders at the UN Climate Action Summit. In an impassioned speech, she called upon
those same leaders to do more to address the issues facing our climate and the
self-inflicted damage that we are doing to our environment.
Notably in her speech, she highlighted that they “have
stolen my dreams and my childhood with [their] empty words.” She’s right, she should be enjoying a
childhood instead of having to implore politicians and businesses to do better,
reminding them (and us all) that “we are in the beginning of a mass extinction
and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth.
How dare you.”
How dare you indeed.
President Trump attempted to patronise Thunberg by tweeting “She seems
like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future.
So nice to see!” His infantile attempt to
ridicule her was trumped by Thunberg’s response. She updated her twitter profile to read “A
very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future.” Let’s hope she’s right, although I suspect
that her childhood is lost to her as she becomes a heroine for our age, as has
been evidenced by her profile reverting to the customary reminder of what she’s
all about.[1]
On Tuesday, the UK learnt the news that its Government had
acted unlawfully in proroguing Parliament.
The ruling was read by Lady Hale, President of the Supreme Court. A nasty headline over a piece in the Mail Online
read, “Ex-barmaid with a spider brooch who spun legal web that snared PM:
ANDREW PIERCE on Supreme Court president Lady Hale”. The headline is contemptible. I just hope that most of the Mail’s readers
will digest the full article, where we learn that Lady Hale read law at Girton
College, Cambridge, where she graduated with a starred first; she taught law at
Manchester University, and achieved the top results of her year when sitting the
Bar exams. She is a formidable
proponent of equality and diversity and when she became a Law Lord, she opted for
the motto on her coat of arms of ‘Omnia Feminae Aequissimae’ – ‘Women are equal
to everything’. But that headline … I hope
Andrew Pierce has enough morality to be embarrassed and ashamed of it.
Lady Hale’s ruling follows the actions brought by equally
inspiring women, Gina Miller and Joanna Cherry QC MP, in defence of this
country’s parliamentary democracy. They’re
not only inspiring, but brave. Gina
Miller suffers much hatred on social media, an example of which was from Rhodri
Philipps, the fourth Viscount St Davids, who wrote on Facebook that he would
put up “£5,000 for the first person to ‘accidentally’ run over this bloody
troublesome first-generation immigrant”.
The courts sentenced him to 12 weeks in jail for his abuse of Miller and
ordered him to pay her £500 in compensation, unlikely to be enough to pay the
weekly cost of the security that she probably needs for her protection.
In May, Joanna Cherry had police protection following abusive
messages and death threats on social media.
The reason for this onslaught? She
had the temerity to quiz Twitter and Facebook bosses at Westminster over social
media abuse of females. Being acutely
aware of what she was likely to face, she still had the courage to bring her
action against the Government. That
takes balls, of which we should be reminded, she has none.
Later that day, news broke in the US that the Speaker of the
House, Nancy Pelosi, was launching an impeachment investigation into President’s
Trump’s conversation with Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, where it is
alleged that Trump pressured the Ukrainian to come up with dirt on the business
activities in his country of Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President,
Joe Biden. Beforehand, Trump had
suspended $400m in US military aid, purportedly presenting Zelensky with a
choice: cough up on Biden or lose the aid.
Pelosi has been a tolerant voice in the calls from Democrats
to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump.
Despite being repeatedly abused and harassed online by the President,
she has resisted these calls. Her action
on this occasion is measured and considered.
It is also a reflection of her professionalism and dignity that she hasn’t
been driven to act sooner out of spite for the man.
These talented and courageous women filled me with hope. I went to bed on Tuesday night feeling that democracy
and the rule of law was beginning to assert itself and that much of what is
wrong with the world was being put right. I should have known better; the shift isn’t
remotely seismic. Depressingly, it’s
barely a tremor.
By Wednesday, the patriarchy had reasserted itself. Having returned to Parliament, we witnessed the
Attorney General, Geoffrey Cox; the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster,
Michael Gove; and finally, the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, collectively pour
scorn on the Supreme Court’s judgement, fail to show remorse for misleading Queen
and country through the unlawful proroguing of parliament, and inciting further
abuse through the use of pejorative language and insults in the House of
Commons.
Politicians including Alison McGovern, Paula Sherriff, Anna
McMorrin, Caroline Lucas, Karen Buck, Tracy Brabin, Rosie Duffield, Anna Soubry
and Janet Daby sought to have the Prime Minister moderate his language so as
not to incite more hatred and abuse, with Rosie Duffield reminding him that her
colleague, Jo Cox, was violently killed while campaigning with her young family
to remain in the EU. The Prime Minister dismissed
all their remarks, referring to Paula Sherriff’s observations as “humbug” and he
disgracefully annexed Jo Cox’s memory by suggesting that the best way to honour
her would be to get Brexit done. His responses
were incendiary, insensitive and deeply offensive.
Across the pond, meanwhile, Donald Trump resorted to his usual
Twitter-fest to spread further hatred and dis-information against the
Democrats, the Fake News and others that he despises, and after just 48 short
hours, the flicker of hope I felt was replaced with the restoration of the toxic
status quo.
There remains some cause for hope. These powerful women, who are taking a stand
against injustice and holding others accountable for their misdeeds, represent another
step in the long overdue move towards gender balancing. Regrettably, it is likely to take decades before
the imbalance is addressed, but more will follow and with them, one can yearn for
a day when their influence, and the efforts of decent and reasoned men, come
together to diminish the toxicity in both our politics and our climate. Until then, let’s hope the extremists that
are exercising control over both today don’t irrevocably destroy what we’ve
got.
Twitter: @GOMinTraining
Copyright © Craig Brown, 2019
27 September 2019
Copyright © Craig Brown, 2019
27 September 2019
[1]
@GretaThunberg – 16 year old climate and environmental activist with
Asperger’s Join the global climate
strikes on September 27th! #fridaysforfuture
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