Ed Davey calls for Royal Commission into male violence against women and girls
A party press release brings the news:
Following sentencing of Wayne Couzens and further revelations about the Metropolitan Police, Ed Davey, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, has called for a Royal Commission into male violence against women and girls and for misogyny to be immediately declared a hate crime.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey MP said:
Enough is enough. Since Sarah Everard’s tragic death, 80 women have allegedly been killed at the hands of men. It is time to treat this issue with the most serious response possible.
The undermining of the authority of the police around the safety of women means that only the most senior form of inquiry into this matter will do.
Alongside immediate action to make misogyny a hate crime, a Royal Commission is the best way to bring long lasting change.
The Conservatives promised a Royal Commission in their 2019 manifesto to look into the criminal justice system, in their first year in office. While they failed to deliver then, they should now establish a Commission with a more focused remit, specifically into men perpetrating violence against women and girls.
Violence by men against women and girls is like a pandemic and should be treated with the same attention and urgency. After so many heart-breaking events this year alone it’s beggars belief that too many women still feel unsafe just walking alone. We can’t live in a country where half of the people in it feel unsafe and under threat both in the street and for too many, tragically, in their own homes.
Our criminal justice system is badly failing women, and the Government must act with urgency to do more to support survivors and prevent violence.
Notes:
Ed Davey has written to Prime Minister Johnson today asking for a Royal Commission and to immediately make misogyny a hate crime.
More than 600,000 women are sexually assaulted each year, and only one-in-six report it to the police.
More than 50,000 women reported being raped last year, but only 1,400 rapists were convicted.
In Ofsted’s review of schools and colleges, 90% of girls “said being sent explicit pictures or videos of things they did not want to see happens a lot or sometimes to them or their peers” and 92% “said sexist name-calling happens a lot or sometimes to them or their peers”.
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Twitter seemed to like something I said about this:
“I don’t want women to have more protection. I want them not to need it.”
A Royal Commission must look into the role On Line Pornography and Social Media is having on the welfare of Women. That excuse that “We are only a platform and have no responsibility for what people post or say on our platform is not our responsibility” is no longer valid given the damage social media is doing, particularly to women.