Reform activists depict female cabinet ministers as cows in abattoir.

Don’t mind me, I’m quite happy to hand any insult back.

The cow jibe was aimed at politicians, in that game you shrug it off or get a proper job, police the same, it’s a dirty trade. As for abattoirs, crass and distasteful but got him the publicity and no doubt played well with many Reform voters.

It gets even dafter.
David, we need the Police, why swipe at them? Its a thankless job for little pay and every time they go out their lives are on the line.I for one am grateful to them and saying that everyone I know feels the same, so leave them alone. We also need politicians we can’t run around with no rules or boundries.. There are bad apples in every walk of life.

David49

Don’t mind me, I’m quite happy to hand any insult back.

The cow jibe was aimed at politicians, in that game you shrug it off or get a proper job, police the same, it’s a dirty trade. As for abattoirs, crass and distasteful but got him the publicity and no doubt played well with many Reform voters.

... and with men like you maybe?

It sure gets dafter your post is an example.

I wasn’t criticizing the police, they have a dirty job to do and have to tolerate face to face abuse every day, dealing with the dregs of humanity is not a job I would want any of my family doing.

When something goes wrong GN posters always blames them

David49

It sure gets dafter your post is an example.

I wasn’t criticizing the police, they have a dirty job to do and have to tolerate face to face abuse every day, dealing with the dregs of humanity is not a job I would want any of my family doing.

When something goes wrong GN posters always blames them

I don't think it's true that GN posters always blame the police. However, there are people around who will "blame" anybody with any kind of authority for anything. It's fairly typical of Reform's way of thinking.

What you have written suggests that politicians and police (and, no doubt, teachers and other public service workers) should expect to be treated like dirt by the general public.

On we go.

Dafter again, they all should get respect, it is a fact they have to tolerate high levels of abuse and are not able to respond.

It was a crass political jibe by Reform, nobody is arguing that it wasn’t.
And it is a fact that any authority figure both male and female have lost the respect that used to be there by a lot of people.
I think overall that the ‘joke’ by Reform won’t help them get more votes but that female Cabinet members won’t be over worried by it either, they have enough pressing problems to manage.

Oreo

It was a crass political jibe by Reform, nobody is arguing that it wasn’t.
And it is a fact that any authority figure both male and female have lost the respect that used to be there by a lot of people.
I think overall that the ‘joke’ by Reform won’t help them get more votes but that female Cabinet members won’t be over worried by it either, they have enough pressing problems to manage.

Maybe it's about time society started respecting people in public service roles again. It's just sooo easy to blame them when things go wrong. Conversely, I also think people in public service roles should be governed by strict codes of conduct.

PS. You can probably tell I was brought up in an extended family of public servants (in a variety of roles) and it has always been drummed into me that public servants serve the public.

David49

On we go.

Dafter again, they all should get respect, it is a fact they have to tolerate high levels of abuse and are not able to respond.

Which is why the law must step in at times. They should not have to tolerate the level of abuse they receive.

It may be ‘about time’ but you can’t force people to be respectful and I think that ship has sailed.We do have to remember that most of the population do have respect for authority and that it’s a minority that doesn’t.
Respect has to be earned tho and there are so many instances of police doing the wrong thing, and politicians too, that these high profile cases stick in the public mind.Then all the good they do can be forgotten.

Tbh it’s teachers I feel most sympathy for where lack of respect is concerned.
Now they have not only to contend with disrespect and class disruption but abuse from some parents and abuse online.

Respect has to be LEARNED, whether its a parent teacher or police or any other authority.

At school I learned very quickly disrespecting a teacher was the very worst thing you could do. They would tolerate bad work being late or uniform non compliance with detention, disrespect was serious.

Female politicians who get into key positions have to be tough to get there so I doubt they will lose any sleep over this.
It may even have helped Labour by showing Reform to be the inane oafs that they are.

AGAA4

Female politicians who get into key positions have to be tough to get there so I doubt they will lose any sleep over this.
It may even have helped Labour by showing Reform to be the inane oafs that they are.

I don’t think whether the individual ministers lose any sleep over it or not is not the issue here though, it’s the tacit acceptance by some that this is just part of normal political behaviour (as Nigel Farage said). It isn’t. It wouldn’t be tolerated by the public, or by their politicians if any of the other parties did it to Reform, so why should Reform be different?

I did say in an earlier post that this should be called out by Farage as unacceptable and also Starmer should defend his own staff.
There's no tacit acceptance from me. I have no respect for Reform and feel there's not enough condemnation for this disgusting cartoon.

It’s better for Starmer to ignore it as getting involved just makes it even more public. Ignore it as the stupid thing that it is.

After Trump seemed to approve and encourage the use of extreme violence his supporters took him at his word on Jan 6th. If Farage doesn't actively discourage his supporters, even the very supportive and wealthy ones, from seeming to back extreme violence towards female politicians for their temerity in leaving the kitchen or bedroom, then he is being as irresponsible as Trump. Not a good trait for someone hoping to lead the country.

The cow jibe was deliberately aimed at female politicians from the Labour government.

Andrew Perloff is a climate change denier who blames rising inflation on climate policies. So why isn’t David Miliband depicted in the tableau?

The message here is clear. Farage as Moses who will lead his people to the Promised Land while female opponents are lead to the slaughter.

Look at the commentary. Andrew Perloff is available for interview if you're not already intercepted by a cow with a manifesto.

Perloff one of Farage’s long term major donors to both UKIP and Reform.

I agree, I don’t think Phillipson, Rayner of Reeves will lose sleep over this but it’s still abusive and has caused distress to some. As such, it a criminal offence under Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986.

I don’t believe we should ignore crass, inflammatory stunts like the one under discussion. They need calling out.
We need more respect, less public rudeness and bad behaviour
Like growstuff im from a family where public service was ever present
Less so now two of our adult children left public service to run their own businesses

It isn’t a criminal offence to cause ‘distress’ or offence.If it was then the police would never have time to investigate anything else.
It was crass and ultimately stupid as already said many times but not a criminal offence I bet.
He sounds a charmer doesn’t he?😖 Reform need to rid themselves of similar types and prepare to be more mainstream with their political views and future policies if they want to succeed.

The cow-calling connection is a straw in the wind of the whole storm ethos of far-right thinking. The main intention of Reform is hurricane-like destruction so that, they think, they can rebuild with their own attitudes as a foundation.

Iam64 hear hear. There are certain things you can ignore but blatant sexism from a so called political party isn't one of them. By ignoring, you give them the message that it's ok to be offensive and they and their followers will ramp it up.

Iam64

I don’t believe we should ignore crass, inflammatory stunts like the one under discussion. They need calling out.
We need more respect, less public rudeness and bad behaviour
Like growstuff im from a family where public service was ever present
Less so now two of our adult children left public service to run their own businesses

Well, it has been called out hasn’t it? It’s not a matter of ignoring it as we have had our say on it in print on SM.I do think that Starmer should ignore it tho as all it would do is draw even more attention to it from the public and make it seem even more that Labour is afraid of the success of Reform.

We may need or want more respect, less public rudeness and bad behaviour but achieving it is another matter.
Yes Elegran think your last comment is correct.

I don’t agree that it should be ignored by Starmer Oreo. Not only should he defend his female ministers from crass sexism, but he should make it clear that any future similar transgressions which clearly cross the line will be dealt with formally by the courts.