Another Tory Mp Suspended

[Jackdaw33]

Is there some sort of witch hunt going on here?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

[237SJ]

Douglas - I always think that your are funny but do actually work or are you just posting from a retired person's perspective?

[ichkeria]

Witch hunt or ‘leader ignored the signs’ depending on your politics lol
Boring news story of the year continues

[mikey4444]

Not sure why this is being called a witch hunt, as some of these allegations have been referred the Police, including Spacey.

Shouldn't we wait until the Police have done their job, before we come to any conclusion about false allegations and witch hunts ?

[Kromovaracun]

It looks quite likely that this stuff was initially leaked in a bid to get rid of political rivals, but has spiralled out of control. (It has since emerged, for example, that Andrea Leadsom played a key role in ousting Fallon).

The trouble is, because the government's control of parliament is paper-thin, they'll soon be forced NOT to suspend people and in so doing make the perception of Westminster even worse.

[gulliver1]

Wait until Chris Evans hits the news .

[ichkeria]

Leaks getting out of hand on the govt side . Attempts to remove non card carrying members of the communist party on the labour side :-)

[TWR]

Daily Mirror this morning, Jockey's are at it now.

[Jackdaw33]

Now another Labour one.

[Jackdaw33]

Sorry, link.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41867416

[jno]

it seems according to the Times that Fallon was trying to dump Leadsom for being useless. The issue here sounds suspiciously political rather than sexual, with the Tories tearing themselves apart as Brexit approaches. This isn't necessarily true of all these allegations, though, on either side..

[anneasquith]

No pointless allegations are wrong, on the other hand any actual evidence should not be taken lightly, At this time though I don't feel hysterical !!!!

[Peter Pedant]

I agree this is a witch-hunt
any sociologists out there - Mushie do you want to put the sociologists' hat on ? - well you are an -ologist

a small boy has come out of the crowd and said
'has any of this been proven - or are people just believeing the allegations as made ?'

and the adults are just about to turn to each other say
good point - the lad is right - is there any proof of this ?

[dannyk13]

One complainants description of a serious sexual assault " his hand fleetingly touched my knee". Inappropriate behaviour? Yes.Serious sexual assault? No

[jim360]

"Innocent until proven guilty" doesn't preclude investigating. If we applied that logic then no crime could be prosecuted at all because you could never gather any evidence.

I don't know if this MP is guilty or not. But suspension pending investigation, if the allegations are serious enough to go to the police, seems the right procedure.

[mikey4444]

Jim....^ common sense post !

[Old_Geezer]

There does seem to be an excessive number of claims of late. Turns out that when a few have spoken out everyone keeping quiet feels they can too. It seems a very strange situation with this sudden explosion of complaints. Still maybe, with any luck, all the politicians will be gone soon and we can get on with stuff in peace.

[jim360]

Quite. I don't think it's an accident that one of these claims leads to another. You can either see that as jumping on the bandwagon for no good reason, or as one (alleged) victim finally speaking out encouraging others who had kept their silence to do so. Or maybe some mixture of these two extremes.

[jno]

I suppose if this were Washington it would be hailed as "draining the swamp". Maybe all the claims are wildly inflated but it's starting to look as if the only real victim so far - Fallon - was not sacked for a knee-brushing incident early this century.

[Togo]

Word in the "bush" is that Leadsom raised her complaint because she was aware that she was to get the push in the next reshuffle. Who can sack a woman who's complained of sexual harassment? Nice. Then it emerges that a dossier of allegations against 42 MPs has been put together by a researcher who now works for the malevolent Mandelson. Blair's legacy still poisons Britain.

[andy-hughes]

The response of 'Witch Hunt' is the yang to the accusations' ying - a natural response.

As advised, it is only actually a witch hunt if the accused are innocent, but it does seem to point to inappropriate behaviour by people who are by definition, old enough and intelligent enough to be able to conduct themselves better in public and in private.