Boris’s Grope?

The only thing you really need to be scared about is that women are still not believed and that the figures for successful prosecutions are woefully low.

I think I’d have believed her more if she had reported it at the time of the alleged incident SirChenGin

Jolly decent of you Urm - but remember who is at fault here (clue: his name is Boris)

SirChengin. I quite agree that prosecutions are low and it's horrendous for women who have been attacked.

However, to suggest that one always has to believe the woman is equally horrendous.

Young men with their lives ruined by false accusations.

You can't deny they happen.

Why wouldn't you believe this? If you look at Boris's record of going from one woman to another it makes perfect sense that he must have approached quite a few more. Add to that that 20 years ago it was probably a much more acceptable and common way of trying it on, certainly for someone with Boris's background and sense of entitlement and it is more likely.
Even then I might not fnd this whole area of his life distasteful and such a concern if he wasn't such a crap PM.

Let’s focus on the woman in question who is the victim, shall we, rather than reverting to whataboutery

Incidentally - what percentage of false accusations are there in comparison to the number of women who don’t even report their crimes because they know that they will have a terrible time in court with a very low success rate?

* Report their attacks

who is at fault here. ? Nobody knows, apart from the 2 people involved. Allegedly anyway.

For the avoidance of doubt Urm - it’s the man who did the groping who is at fault

Lets please be honest here....nobody knows if this leg squeezing actually happened or not.
If it did happen, it was twenty years ago at a party/lunch , and in the intervening years, this accusation could have been made at any time....but wasn’t.What does that tell you?

SirC you have no idea if this incident really happened, so stop acting as if you have secret info that the rest of us don’t!

Trisher your last sentence ( unless a joke) is hardly supportive of the woman , & women in general

That tells me that there is no time limit placed on this - that men who who behave in this way can’t hide away and should expect their past to catch up with them at some point.

I note that Edwardes has waited until now to explode her bomb. She could and should have done it when Boris allegedly 'groped her',

or when he stood for election as an MP,

or when he twice stood for election as Mayor,

or when he led the Brexit campaign during the referendum,

or when he stood for the leadership of the Tory Party,

or when he became PM.

Why only now has this partner of anti-Brexit journalist Robert Peston, friend of anti-Brexit campaigner Roland Rudd (in turn sister of anti-Brexit politician Amber) spoken up?

It can't be anything to do with Brexit could it?

In my opinion, this stinks of a purely political assassination bid.

Oh please, this is all sickening and so obviously trying for sensationalism. Just like the set up in a children’s hospital where the antagonist was a planted opposition activist. Poor man is not even being given a chance!
Pathetic .

Yes, I agree Urmston in fact it’s pretty obvious.

I think the general public will see it for what it is.

I think most of the general public already see BJ for exactly what he is.

It’s only taken her 20 years to say anything about it and we don’t have to ask why she’s chosen now to do so as it’s pretty obvious why.

Bridgeit I happen to think that someone's personal life is their concern and not the general public's. I adhere to the view that "I don't care what they do as long as they don't do it in the road and frighten the horses"
I'd rather have a good PM who had rather dodgy morals than a lousy PM who behaved like a saint.
As for supporting the woman if she had reported this 20 years ago she would have been ignored. Perhaps that wasn't right but it is how things were. I don't see how you can judge an action from 20 years ago by today's standards. Much as I dislike Boris I'd rather criticise his policies and his actions as PM than an historic grope.
As for this idea that men's past will catch up with them. How far should we take this? If women want to be equal shouldn't we admit that things were different in the past and men behaved in ways that we now find unacceptable, then teach boys how to behave and move on? Or should we perpetually insist on thinking of ourselves as victims?

It was only a couple of years ago that Rory Stewart and Dominic Raab were accused of sexually abusive behaviour, which they both denied. Their names were apparently on a spreadsheet " need to be taken seriously ". False allegations and unsubstantiated, written by anonymous individuals which were deeply hurtful.

It's the usual witch hunt that appears to be prevalent among MP's etc.

Interestingly, some posters appear to be reverting back to victim shaming here in order to suit a particular political narrative.

No, it’s not up to women to admit that things were different 20 years ago (they weren’t btw) and that is very definitely not what equality means.

Whether it’s 20 years, months, days, weeks or minutes since the grope, the person responsible is the one who should be answering the questions. Why did you think it was ok to grope a woman Boris? That’s the issue here.

sirchen exactly. I think you can compare it to the way attitudes have changed over child abuse. The child is now treated with respect and listened to, this is now happening to women, which is why women are no longer so afraid to speak out.

Afraid to speak out?! This was a hand on leg situation ( not a serious sex attack) I would have smacked the hand very hard,
And not regarded myself as a traumatised victim.

I forgot the word allegedly.....because it’s one person’s word only that it ever happened.