Martin Kettle’s piece (Green’s downfall shows that porn needs tougher controls, 22 December) is as muddled and damaging as the rest of the coverage of Damian Green’s resignation.
He begins by identifying the issue at the heart of all sexual harassment stories. “Power would still have won” had it not been for a technicality, Kettle says. Rather than examining why women’s experiences of harassment are being ignored and why Green would have been able to dismiss Kate Maltby’s “plausible” allegations – for which the Tory MP has now apologised – Kettle goes on to make the whole story about sex, not power. This conflation is also seen in the Cabinet Office investigation, Theresa May and Damian Green’s exchange of letters, and much of the coverage since – and it serves to trivialise the abuses that women in all workplaces suffer at the hands of more powerful men.
Specifically, according to Kettle, Green was brought down by the fact that those looking for porn at work can often find porn to watch at work. Green is named as a “victim” of this access, pushing the idea that the Tory MP has been treated unfairly – that Green, hapless and manipulated, fell at the hands of the greater power (in this account porn; in others a young female journalist). In reality it was Green who held the position of dominance at every stage of this process – and he was fired from his job precisely for manipulating the truth.
Too many in Westminster and the media – including those on the left – want to avoid talking about the power imbalance that underpins harassment. The Women’s Equality party will not duck that debate.
Sophie Walker
Leader of the Women’s Equality party
• For the police to reveal confidential information about lawful activities of a politician infringes the latter’s right to privacy and probably cannot be justified. However, exposing that a cabinet minister is being untruthful is an exercise of freedom of speech in the public interest. Bringing legal proceedings for the second disclosure would not be in the public interest because it might deter others who wish to blow the whistle on impropriety.
Professor David Lewis
London
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