The reason that Mark Field attacked the lady who had just passed by him was that she wore a sash clearly identifying her as a climate change protestor. She had entered with the other guests, already wearing her sash, and making no effort at concealment. Field knew exactly that she was a climate change protestor when he attacked her: it is why he attacked her. Had she just passed by him without that sash, he would not have attacked her.
There is zero history in the UK of personal violence or terrorist attack by climate change protestors and nobody could claim they had a reasonable fear that a climate change protestor was carrying a weapon – something which has simply never happened. I could equally rationally grab Mark Field by the throat any time I saw him, and claim he might have been carrying a concealed weapon because he is a Tory MP. His excuse is a complete and utter nonsense, a post hoc effort at justification.
He only had a genuine fear of her carrying a weapon if he is suffering from a serious psychological derangement, and one dangerous to the public.
Unlike Mark Field, I happen to have led a life involving real danger, and had guns pointed at my head in both Uzbekistan and Liberia, whilst in the service of the UK. But in my sixty years I have never once raised my hand in anger to a woman. Field’s unprovoked attack was cowardly and ungentlemanly in the extreme (and I really do not care if you find my attitude outdated or not).
It is worth observing that there was not a gentleman at this gathering of Britain’s bankers and upper classes. Nobody stood up to try to assist the peaceful woman who had been grabbed by the neck. Sickeningly, they applauded Field on his return. I find the extraordinary tirade of Tory defence on twitter this morning says a great deal about the kind of party it has become.
One point that appears to have been missed in media comment, is that it seems to me extremely likely that the woman had an invitation or ticket for the event. She was dressed in evening wear as the other guests, but was not attempting to infiltrate or gatecrash or she would not have worn the sash. The most probable reason for someone to follow the dress code but identify themselves with a protest sash is that they were a legitimate guest wishing to make a point.
It is essential to our society that Mark Field is immediately arrested and charged with assault. If Tories are allowed simply to assault people lest they make a speech that Tories disagree with, society has turned a corner to somewhere very dark indeed.
Suspect he wanted to project an image of a ‘no nonsense’ character, to win favour in a tabloid fashion, but his actions seemed all to natural to him… making you wonder if he has a history violence against women.
Hope the victim presses charges.
She has already said that she’s not going to press charges.
I wonder who got to her.
No-one got to her. It’s huge PR win against the Tories. You can even spin ridiculous conspiracy theories about it. That’s why Craig’s writing about it.
Because I am sure she knows if she does, the Tory press, much like Mark Field, will go for her throat. The usual pseudo moralistic misdirection the right specialise in, something like.
“Woman who accused Mark Field of assault gave blow job on first date”
As if that’s even a bad thing.
Not in the least, but the media does not need someone’s conduct to be bad to vilify them for it. Look at the dog whistle racism the media used to turn Corbyn’s relationship with Abbot into something somehow seedy and shameful.
Indeed. And now I see how The Guardian is twisting the story, how it is now being used to suit the perverted agenda of tirelessly boring authors like Moore, who seem to get paid to do nothing more than ejaculate, day in and day out, a politically correct form of pseudofeminism, which is all about taking attention off of the real problem here, turning ‘the male’ into a scapegoat. Not sure what is worse really! This horrific incident or its misandritist press coverage.
Presumably the people that funded her stunt. Most likely right-wingers who don’t like Hammond.
right wingers “funded” her “stunt”? what?
That’s a smear. Evidence, please, that the ‘stunt’ was funded by anyone, let alone right-wingers. What a load of tosh.
Not who, how much?
A victim’s saying she doesn’t want to press charges is insufficient for the police or prosecutors to decide not to proceed when they have clear evidence of a crime and they know who committed it. Assault is not a civil wrong.
Seems she’s much classier than that. She said she won’t press charges but that he should attend anger management classes 🙂
‘Pressing charges’ is an Americanism. You can’t do it in England. It’s up to the courts and police to decide if a crime has been committed and whether to proceed with legal action. No victim (or someone who claims to be a victim) can make the decision to press charges no matter what the crime.
The victim can make it clear they do not intend to pursue charges, and will not cooperate with any attempt to do so. In such cases the prosecutor, absent cooperation of the victim, drops the case.
In such cases the prosecutor, absent cooperation of the victim, drops the case.
___________________________________
In some countries– Sweden comes to mind, for some reason– prosecutors with an axe to grind, and a frame to build, are happy to drag uncooperative “victims” along, willy-nilly.
“The victim can make it clear they do not intend to pursue charges, and will not cooperate with any attempt to do so. In such cases the prosecutor, absent cooperation of the victim, drops the case.”
Don’t matter in this case.
They have documentary evidence and plenty of witnesses in the hall.
Prosecutors, as you say, cannot drop any case until they have a police report to consider. Whether. A victim wishes to make a complaint or not any police officer can if they witness, or are made aware of an incident, conduct an investigation and present a report to the CPS or Procurator Fiscal if they believe the elements of an offence are present. Given the public and high profile nature of this issue you would assume that the so called man involved would wish the full circumstances of this issue, including any illegal conduct of the protester to be fully considered and dealt with in an open and clear way.
Rubbish.
I am saying “rubbish” to Ross’s contention that “The victim can make it clear they do not intend to pursue charges, and will not cooperate with any attempt to do so. In such cases the prosecutor, absent cooperation of the victim, drops the case.” That is simply not how the criminal justice system works. A crime means a wrong against the state. The victim’s cooperation or assent is not required. In any case she has not said she will refuse to cooperate with any police investigation or public prosecution, namely that she is content for this violent criminal to walk free and perhaps do it again. And there is an overwhelmingly strong prima facie case against him.
You’d better let the BBC know that.
Principle
A private prosecution is a prosecution started by a private individual, or entity who/which is not acting on behalf of the police or other prosecuting authority. A ‘prosecuting authority’ includes, but is not limited to, an entity which has a statutory power to prosecute.
There are a number of organisations that regularly prosecute cases before the courts of England and Wales but they do so as private individuals, using the right of any individual to bring a private prosecution. One example is the RSPCA.
The right to bring private prosecutions is preserved by section 6(1) of the Prosecution of Offences Act (POA) 1985. There are, however, some limitations:
6 Prosecutions instituted and conducted otherwise than by the Service.
(1)Subject to subsection (2) below, nothing in this Part shall preclude any person from instituting any criminal proceedings or conducting any criminal proceedings to which the Director’s duty to take over the conduct of proceedings does not apply.
(2)Where criminal proceedings are instituted in circumstances in which the Director is not under a duty to take over their conduct, he may nevertheless do so at any stage.
Surely it should not be left to the victim to press charges. There must be a ‘public interest’ clause somewhere that allows the public prosecutor to instruct the police to arrest this man?
If that was my wife (in the days when I had a wife) I would now be in goal without bail having been charged with ‘common affray’ and ABH.
Because I too will not tolerate, in my presence, a man abusing a woman in such a manner.
Does that include, say, Peter Hitchens and Peter Oborne?
And does it exclude, say, Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell?
All you have to do, in other words, is to look for the appropriate Party rosette, in order to know immediately and effortlessly whom to hate, to the point of calling for them to be murdered as “subhuman scum”: is that what you’re saying?.
If so, how simple life must be for you!
As indeed it must be for this Mark Field character, who sees red, and knows immediately what to do.
Hard to believe such people even exist in 2019 let alone run countries.
They like to portray themselves as the “cream of society”. But cream is not the only stuff to float to the top. Just look at any sewage outfall. Shits, the lot of them.
An assembly of plutocrats who also applauded Hammond’s boast that he had balanced the budget on the backs of the poor and disabled. Damned fine show, sah, heeyah, heeyaah!
if that protester woman had tried to protest against the high ups in the French Regime, they would have fired a flashball at her, potentially blinding her.
20,000 flashballs have been fired at protesters in France over the last nine months.
Remember Banalla, Macrons boy who pretended he was a cop so he could thrash protesters.
This country is more moderate than many.
Field’s actions were an embarrassment and he is a disgrace ,so I don’t know what’s compelling you to defend him (although I can guess.)
In any case, I didn’t mention him or the protester. I mentioned the people in attendance and the policies they were applauding. They are not moderate people and they were not applauding moderate policies. (The very same policies btw that Macron is inflicting on France.)
Moderate? By what definition?
I think you might be really confused, and meant to say extremist?
I don’t see anything moderate about grabbing someone’s neck and violently shoving them.
There is nothing moderate about British politics.
A moderate reaction would be to let the protest stunt take place, and then politely ask for quiet afterward.
But I suppose goons, thugs and other assorted criminals will always have a very strange definition of moderate.
So what? You’re quite right the assault didn’t blind her. Field didn’t give her a broken nose either. There’s nothing like a comparative argument presented as a denial.
Benalla was not a minister or even a politician, just one of the ‘help’ at a low level. Your comparison is completely irrelevant. The gilets jaunes have been extremely violent (which you pass over in silence) and menacing, I’ve seen it personally. How the authorities react under stress while being attacked is quite different from here where there was no threat at all.
Completely agree that he should be arrested and charged.
Maybe he had been on the white lightning or sniffing some “icing sugar” with one of his Tory mates,
It was a banquet for senior Tories and bankers. I doubt none of their noses saw any action.
Murray, I read your blog from time to time, but you are such a self-hating CUCK! Your sentiments regarding the treatment of women are pathetic. Perhaps you haven’t realised that there is a misandrist agenda in the West, and you have just debased yourself. The days of treating women with deference are over, belonging to the patriarchal system. Women are soldiers, police, fire people and bouncers now!
I loathe the Tories but I despise social justice warriors who thuggishly break up public meetings in preventing somebody from being heard. It was wrong for the guy to have gone to her throat, but she was quickly and safely led from the room. A HEARTY WELL DONE is in order! And I know the authorities will not be interested in pursuing this unless to make an anti-male political point.
YUCK!
I don’t know if this will merit a direct response from “Murray”, but it’s one of the most hilariously convoluted attempts to blame the victim that I’ve ever come across.
Yes, Orr – She was asking for it, turning up in a red, sleeveless dress, flaunting her sash… the poor man was only doing the decent thing, etc.
Funny how Defender! describes the woman’s behaviour, walking in a straight line, was “thuggishly” breaking up the meeting! Some interpretation of events.
Ha, Charlie Glueboy bostik always addressed Craig as Murray. He seems to have disappeared. Is he Defender in disguise?
If it’s CB, he sounds pretty desperate 😉
Bostick/Habbabkuk always seemed to favor Tories, this guy Defender! claims to have always loathed the Tories. Think he’s telling the truth?
Defender
Clearly a contrived argument for someone working to someone ekses agenda without merit. The most obvious lie is your statmernt “I loath the Tories”, as someone who did genuinly loath the Tories would not put together such a contrived argument.
So, crashing an event for those that run society, results in being frog marched out ? Admittedly she should have been attended to by female security, but all the video’s of the event do seem to show the security folk being rather reticent in laying hands on the Greenpeace publicity seekers.
Lets be clear here, protest will result in being subjected to rather more in the way of personal inconvenience than merely being told to stand on the naughty step for a while. Thats the way it has always been, and always will be, and its probably best that those considering protesting bear such thoughts in mind ?
None of this is to say people should not protest, but go into it with realistic expectations. 🙂
we have a realistic expectation that scumbags like field won’t get away with assaulting us in public, no matter whether he agrees with our politics or not.
Obviously my impression of ‘Assault’ is of a rather higher order than that which we saw in the video. No doubt if the general perception of what constitutes an assault is so low these days, Greenpeace, a rather large and successful business by now, will have anticipated this and will be highly delighted by the result.
The woman was treated in a Brusque manner that may or may not befit those who crash events of national interest ? There does seem to an idea abroad these days that disruption, as long as it carried out by nice middle class folk, should not attract any noticeable comeback. Case in point, the over a thousand folk arrested at the London event a while back, last I heard the Met was pushing for most to have their day before the Magistrates. It will be interesting to see if any of those incur legal penalty ? The other side of the coin from this Field fellow ?
It may as well be worth remembering the case of ‘Two Jags’ when he was hit by an egg ? He landed two punches, and whilst the first may well be overlooked by the bench, the second was certainly assault, but it was not pursued. So despite what most here seem to think, it seems that judicial discretion is afforded to both of our major political parties.
In the video clip that I saw, a man slammed a woman against a pillar without warning (indeed, he didn’t seem to speak to her at all), with no hint of violence on her part. He grabbed her clothes, turned her round, grabbed her by the neck, and marched her out of the room.
It’s hardly excessively technical or lawyerly to call that an “assault”.
What happened in the apparently quite different clip that you saw?
Slammed ? You must live a very sheltered life 🙂
Casual Observer [sorry, no ‘Reply’ button was available] —
In her place, would you feel that you had been assaulted?
Be honest now.
Who knows what does he enjoy, it is a pretty private question, but the hints are there.
Casual Observer
You are being disengenius, just try doing exactly the same to any policeman, magistrate or heath worker while not being a privelidged self entitled tory (or Blairite) rulling elite and lets see what you are charged with?
Are you seriuosly trying to sugest that if you or I tried that on we would not be halled away by the police?
Or do you just support a two tiered jusctice system for the benefit of the rich and powerful?
Law is not a matter of evidence free speculation by someone without legal understanding.
Common assualt is defined in law.
As the link below states “Common assault or battery normally involves the unlawful touching of a person (where they have not ‘silently’ consented, i.e. if jolted during a concert) but does not require there to have been any injury.”
Agravating factors could increase the severity of the offense or sentencing.
I am not even remotley recomending this, but imagine what would happen if you did exactly the same to your partner in the supermarket, do you think posibly people would call the police?
Do you think you might be arrested?
https://www.lawtonslaw.co.uk/resources/varying-degrees-of-assault/
Yes, the protest was obviously an attempt to provoke a reaction. Field’s reaction was totally over the top, and amounted to a criminal offence to boot. That is: the protest was an outstanding success, mainly because of Field’s ill-considered violent assault.
1. What a little Cowardly Slime bag.
2. as some commenters have noted – if that was a well built man, this serious assault would Not have occurred
3 Nevermind and Muscleguy are 100% Correct, That is an extremely dangerous way to grip a woman’s neck.. there are two pressure points that can render one unconscious in seconds
4 Jail the bastard.
Totally agree, Brian.
Fleetwood Mac released a single a long time ago, with the A-side being ‘Man of the World’. However, the B-side is probably more appropriate when talking about Mark Field…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O7xGIMCYNuA
(PS. I’m more familiar with the cover by the Rezillos)
Indeed. She was seriously underthreat then and had every right to defend herself. A direct eye jab for example will be justified.as she was at risk of losing consciousness.
Brian
Mark Field comes from a military family. It’s totally inconceivable that he does not know how to kill someone by hitting the back of the neck. Armed with that knowledge, his response to her should have been purely verbal, unless he wanted to pretend that he hadn’t meant to hurt her if she collapsed.
He has, rightly, been suspended from his post. MPs can’t be sacked from Westminster for a crime such as this (Can they be sacked for ANYTHING?) But I see that, at least, we ARE beginning to see MPs get ‘recalled’ by constituents but this depends on his constituents wanting to do the right thing, and if he has enough backing in his own constituency – he’ll get away with it.
In no way, shape or form was he in any danger at any time. I have, in a much more minor way than Craig, had some ‘dangerous’ experiences in the Civil Service, shot at once, knives pulled a few times and cars driven at me on occasions too numerous to mention. I didn’t grab anyone by the throat and still managed to live to tell the tale!
This speaks volumes for his attitude to women and his sense of entitlement that he would do this in front of a camera at a public event where his senior colleagues are speaking. Of COURSE he doesn’t regret this, but his justification is nonsense, he simply believes that this person has less rights than he does, because firstly, she is a woman, and secondly, she is a protestor!
I can see why the woman in question is not pressing it. I mean, how likely is it that a prosecution would succeed against a Tory junior minister? Especially when they have a wafer thin majority? (majority in the sense of having just enough votes with their terrorist sympathising friends) Besides which, the film is out there, his career has been mortally wounded and hopefully even his friends and colleagues will be sickened by this behaviour. Although it’s NOT necessary for the victim to have to bring forward a complaint, the police CAN decide on their own that this is actionable. They won’t of course, the story will die in the next day or two, he will quietly resign his post and this will be drowned out by the Tory leadership contest and Brexit…
@Gary – “MPs can’t be sacked from Westminster for a crime such as this (Can they be sacked for ANYTHING?)”
An MP will lose their seat (without the need for a recall petition) if they receive a jail sentence of more than 12 months. That would be unlikely if the charge were common assault, but if she sustained any bruising to her neck or head then that is actual bodily harm when it becomes more likely although not probable if the bruising was slight and this was the attacker’s first offence.
“MPs can’t be sacked from Westminster for a crime such as this”
Actually MPs can be “sacked” from Westminster if they get a jail sentence of 6 months or longer. The former Labour member for Peterborough, Fiona Onasanya, got just a 3 months sentence for perverting the course of justice (she was a solicitor, for dog’s sake – what’s the point of a justice system if the lawyers themselves are perverting it?). She lost her seat anyway, because of a recall petition in her constituency.
Her excuse for not resigning her seat was that she had no other source of income than her £70,000pa MP’s salary. Are there really no vacancies for supermarket shelf-stackers, or McBurger flippers?
I don’t know what it will take, what level of extreme behaviour, extreme damaging policy and extremely damaging economic policies to the poor and the vulnerable it will take for the MSM to actually start to seriously question this corrupt Tory Government’s behaviour. If this had been a Labour MP my God, he would have been crucified by the MSM mercilessly. It’s even worse that Hammond made a speech saying he had balanced the budget on the backs of the poor and the vulnerable and Bojo the Buffoon is talking about giving the Higher earners and the rich £10bn worth of tax breaks. Who is going to pay for this might I ask. Bojo or Hunt, the lesser of two evils, one of whom is heading for No. 10 will be, despite being pathological liars, serious warmongers, utterly corrupt and grossly incompetent will be full supported by the MSM by the continued distortion of the truth. Yet they continue to attempt to run a vicious, malicious, unwarranted campaign of lies and personal attack on Jeremy Corbyn who is the only decent, honest person amongst these criminals, liars and cheats we call our two Tory Leadership candidates.
People often say the truth will out but I am beginning to believe that it will not in this country. We don’t have one MSM newspaper who isn’t linked to the security services, to the Tory Party and who seem to delight in perpetuating and broadcasting lies, lies, lies. The Guardian is now a Right Wing, reactionary, addition to the Tory’s official propaganda machine; the MSM.
I am shocked, deeply saddened and utterly in despair about where this Tory Government have dragged the UK – I .e. as far down as it could possibly go yet there is not one MSM press or broadcaster that is willing to put their head above the parapet. I hope and pray more than ever that Corbyn wins the next election.
Well said, Jo. I share your concerns.
@Jo – “If this had been a Labour MP my God, he would have been crucified by the MSM mercilessly.”
Yes, this is true. (Or perhaps not if it had been Greville Janner.) Similarly Jeremy Corbyn is hounded for attending a wreath-laying event whereas Boris Johnson doesn’t get any trouble for having lived at a Nazi-style ethnic-supremacist colony for several weeks and having received help in his stay under an ethnic-supremacist regime from that regime’s former ambassador. Imagine if that had been a leading Labour figure and North Korea or the USSR.
Why make any excuses at all? Quite apart from the fact that if you’re explaining, you’re losing, she was a gatecrasher. The bum’s rush is quite in order.
A: “…. the fact that if you’re explaining, you’re losing[…]”
You’re explaining (or trying to), and you’re losing.
What I find saddest of all is that the overwhelming majority of the comments on the YouTube video – up to the point where I had to stop reading, anyway! – were along much the same lines as Athanasius’s.
After that, only something utterly off-topic and completely different on YouTube could cheer me up! I’m deeply grateful to Raskolnikov of The Lifeboat News for posting this little gem this morning, and I hope I may be forgiven for passing it on: http://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/msg/1561096285.html.
Not sure why we need to feel outraged about the Tories anymore.I sense that they have pressed the self destruct button. Guardian reports a ‘domestic’ at the Boris abode. A neighbour has recorded the fracas! I cant see how he can deliver Brexit without further major difficulties. What happens when he fails?I guess it has to be a GE.
As for the incident with the minster and woman, Field has revealed a deep truth about himself and his ilk.
One senses that the cause the woman was supporting (the ‘environment’) is rapidly rising to the top of the agenda and finding the Tories flat-footed and feckless.
Continuing the theme of how Tory so-called “men” behave:
“A neighbour told the Guardian they heard a woman screaming [at the flat where Boris Johnson lives with Carrie Symonds, who is known for dancing on a car bonnet outside the Palace of Westminster – were chemicals involved] followed by ‘slamming and banging’. At one point Symonds could be heard telling Johnson to ‘get off me’ and ‘get out of my flat’.” After knocking on the door and not getting any reply, the neighbour called 999.
How many times have the police been called on Johnson before?
A number of women who have come into contact with him have ended up pregnant (how come that happens so much?) or made to sign non-disclosure agreements. How many, I wonder, have ended up in hospital or worse?
This despicable “man” is on record as expressing the belief that making the rich richer is good. Need we say more about what the attitude of such people is towards relations between those who are stronger and those who are weaker?
I hope Ms Symonds is OK.
Should the cops swab the place for drugs?
I ask again: how many times have the cops been called on Johnson before? The Guardian report that when they contacted the police they claimed they had no record of a domestic incident at the address. It was only when the Guardian gave them “a case number and reference number (sic), as well as identification markings of the vehicles that were called out”, that police issued a statement saying: “At 00:24hrs on Friday, 21 June, police responded to a call from a local resident (…). The caller was concerned for the welfare of a female neighbour.”
Why did the police lie at first?
OK the answer is that obviously they’d be acting above their station to cause problems for any senior Tory politician or diplomat or member of the royal family or senior civil servant or intelligence officer, etc. It’s the same in any country: equality before the law is a complete sham. So they have a “list”, and there is a number that Johnson can call if he gets in trouble, but I still reckon the police “know” this guy. The question is whether the huge scandal will break that brings this scumbag down. I did think it would. But little will surprise me now,
The neighbour actually sound-recorded the trouble. Johnson can be heard refusing to leave the flat and shouting before there is a loud crashing noise. It was so loud that the house shook, and we’re not talking about a suburban semi or former council flat here. There were loud screams from Symonds, after which there was silence. No wonder the neighbour called the police. This may be difficult to spin as “lefty neighbour in cahoots with Guardian victimises a decent man”.
For the sake of millions of people’s wellbeing, this audio needs to be released.
C’mon Carrie, bring the b*stard down. Show a black eye or wound or whatever at a press conference and he’s finished.
According to the Daily Mail, Boris Johnson “may seek an injunction to suppress any attempt to release the recording”.
He’s on the defensive. Get the file out now!
Neighbour Earl McDermott says he thought someone was being murdered.
At least one neighbour seems to have been got at, a nursery worker who has been quoted as saying the woman was screaming and the man was telling her to calm down.
That, by the way, is called a “cover-up”.
Of course there is no excuse for the police lying about such a thing, but it would be foolish to jump to conclusions about the rights and wrongs of a domestic incident without knowing a whole lot more about it than has been shown here.
You virtually seem to be calling for Johnson to be lynched, on the basis of evidence that is open to a wide variety of interpretations – in a kind of inverted, #MeToo-style witch-hunt. (BTW, I’m not sure if I’m being fair to #MeToo by making that comparison – I know little about it.)
Even the clear video of Field assaulting the protestor is open to a variety of interpretations (short of denying that an assault took place – that is just unreasonable); how much more so is a recording of a shouting match between two sexual partners? Isn’t there enough “trial by media” already?
OK, if the woman has actual injuries, that is a different matter. But aren’t you just speculating?
boris johnson sounds like an overgrown child who has received an unaccountable amount of protection and cossetting through his political career. I find it truly staggering that the rule of a major country is being entrusted to him without the voting public having any say.
“a case number and reference number (sic)”
“sic” is quite correct; thenumber is called a “Case Reference Number, or CRN. There are not two distinct numbers. Any journalist should know that – isn’t the first job you get as a cub reporter to report cases at the local magistrates court for some local free-paper?
Tells you something about Uk morals that this is an outrage but killing 1 million foreigners unites Parliament in agreeing that it was humane and necessary.
Of course, no woman should be assaulted, but harsh truth dictates that it be declared that the woman concerned is neither injured, nor has she been hospitalised, let alone exposed to depleted uranium, having stood an a buried explosive device nor having been imprisoned underground and threatened by highly aggressive barking dogs controlled by unfriendly adversaries.
If this is a career derailing offence for the odious Mr Field, why on earth is voting for the Iraq war not the basis for ten years in prison and a lifelong ban from public life?
We really are a nation demanding godlike sainthood at home whilst being apathetic toward genocidal murdering overseas.
If all of us spent some time pondering over that, maybe 95% of faux outrage would disappear from our lives?
Interestingly Carrie Symonds’s company Final Straw Limited is registered at the same address in Hoxton, N1, at which several phantom companies were registered that the High Court ordered into liquidation for being bogus and vehicles for engaging in systematic fraud.
(Note that this is not the address to which the police were recently called. That flat is south of the river, in Camberwell, SE5. Nor is it Boris Johnson’s own house in Highbury, N7, or his other house in Sonning, Berkshire.)
Very pertinent observations, Rhys. Truth is, for all the bleating emanating from those in power about a democratic society and equality for all, they regard Johnny Foreigner – especially those who haven’t seen the light and emigrated to the ‘fair, humanitarian and law abiding’ UK – as ‘pond life’.
As reported on the Guardian website, the victim said that
“He continued to grip me by the neck and the arm all the way to the door of the building. Then, when we got to the door, he shoved me outside on to the street, and said: ‘This is what happens when people like you disturb our dinner.”
Never disturb a Tory at the trough is the lesson to be learned from this episode. They act like the animals that they are.
Police called to home of Boris Johnson and girlfriend after reports of altercation.
Never a dull moment.
I’m not a Tory – far from it – but I can’t see what Field did wrong here. There is no right to shout what you want where you want, and all he did was escort the protester out.
Do you know anything about the law of assault?
Why let the law of assault get in the way of boot-licking power-worship?
What was she shouting when he grabbed her by the neck?
Actually, you are mistaken. In this country, what is not forbidden by law is permitted. There is no law against shouting in the Mansion House.
Consider, for example, that man at the podium; he wasn’t exactly shouting, but he was speaking through a public-address system.
Arguably, the lady with the sash might have been trespassing (but then how did she get past the doorman? Surely the Mansion House has a doorman who checks that those entering are invited?). Anyway, the remedy for civil trespass is to apply to a court for an eviction order, which is to be executed by a bailiff.
Criminal trespass occurs when the trespass involves violence to property or the person. I’m not aware that any such thing occurred in this case, but if it did, that would a matter for the police and the CPS, not for random diners to take it upon themselves to enforce. That is, in addition to the common law offence of assault and battery, Field appears to be guilty of wrongful arrest – a statutory crime.
What are BoJo and Mark Field up to? Is it some English summer solstice custom that leaders have to prove their prowess by fighting in public with a woman?
Also today, Donald Trump has been accused by E Jean Carroll of raping her. He has responded by saying he never even met her. But there is a photo that shows them speaking together, so what he says is false. If that billionaire ever gets in a dock, the number of lies he tells may break all records. He will be an utterly discredited witness. The insane liar Trump insists that Carroll is “peddling fake news – it’s an epidemic”. He continued “People should pay dearly for such false accusations.” If he thinks that, sue her for libel and find out what happens. Or does he mean she should be kidnapped off the street before being finished with?
Interestingly, the fact that nearly every utterance that drips from Trump’s pouting lips is a lie, makes him almost completely immune to any action for libel or slander; his defence would be that no rational person would believe the defamatory words he uttered because everyone knows that nothing he ever says is true; and so nobody’s reputation could possibly be damaged by anything he says or writes.
I believe that doctrine has been sustained in court cases concerning Twitter libels: nobody who knows anything about Twitter believes anything they read there, unless they can find independent supporting evidence; so you can libel away on Twitter to your heart’s content, confident in your legal immunity (this case law may only apply in the US courts).
Shouldn’t Assange be released and these two put in his cell?
For goodness sake. What harm was done? She was a trespasser and was intercepted as she headed for the top table. Watching the event on the news, the issue is really why are the media (and this blog) making such an issue of this? It’s not as if he punched her or rugby tackled her!
He could have Killed her…If they both Stumbled and fell..with his hand in that position
Not The Top Table!
The horror of it!
Bloody oiks. In the good old days, she’d be in the gibbet already.
He was defending the holy law of private property and valiantly defending his senior colleagues from indignity, eh, @SkyeMull? He’s a thug, mate. He grabbed a peaceful woman by her neck, verbally belittled her, and marched her along. You can watch him on video. He was probably tanked up too. And I wouldn’t be surprised if his violent attack sexually excited him. Tories are filth at all levels.
The interception was a criminal offence and an unlawful arrest. Are you saying that it’s OK for a member of the government to take the law into his own hands?
I would add that if Hon. Mark Field indeed believed that the lady may be a part of a terrorist attack, his actions were very reckless. He grabbed her by the rear of her neck, like a kitten, and as any mild mannered women, she allowed to be marched out of the hall in that position. A terrorist could very well knee him in the groin, and then, with Hon. Mark Field writhing on the floor or just standing petrified by the shock to his privates, proceed with whatever terrorist action that may have been planned.
As it happened, Hon. Mark Field seemed to know very well how to bring a mild mannered woman of his age to meek submission, and either he calculated that she is harmless, or “reflexes took better of him”. By the way of contrast, a bouncer in a night club would be much more careful in handling, say, a combative inebriated young woman, so this is not a way he got his experience. Hm.
Excellent point – you shouldn’t leave someone’s arms free, surely, to detonate a suicide belt or pull a weapon (assuming for a brief moment, that the highly esteemed Mark Field was genuinely terrified and thought he was preventing an atrocity in progress 🙂
Forget “terrorist threat”. A less pacific lady would stomp on his foot or send her elbow to his ribs and start shouting “Get off my neck!”. Say, a lady from working classes or a female member of the Knesset.
For those who don’t already know, Carrie Symonds is the daughter of Matthew Symonds, who after co-founding the Independent was at BBC TV and then the diplomatic and defence editor at the Economist. He is now a trustee of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, where he rubs shoulders with MI6 figures such as Nigel Inkster, that agency’s former director of operations and intelligence. For those who are interested, he is about 10 years older than Boris Johnson.
Not really interested in the background of any woman who finds Johnson suitable as a partner N_. That she finds him suitable says it all.
I dunno. Ms Symonds is 31, making her 23 years younger than Mr Johnson who is 54.
That’s possibly interesting info from N_, since the establishment would almost definitely prefer ‘May in trousers’ Hunt over Johnson. Were I BoJo, I’d be a tad suspicious, especially if strange rows keep erupting that a neighbour ‘just happens’ to be recording. If the audio does emerge and it’s conspicuous by its clarity, even more so.
Hmmmm, I see what you mean, I think, but I’m not going to speculate on what you’re suggesting as it could get libelous.
That said, I’d read the Guardian article earlier about the disturbance and found it positively odd that the concerned neighbour had gone to the trouble of recording the exchanges. Nice neighbour!
Yes, I take it back N_, your post is interesting. Thanks Goose.
Some background: according to Martin Fletcher writing in the New Statesman when Boris Johnson was foreign secretary, “(t)he intelligence services are believed to be wary of sharing sensitive information with him”.
I don’t recall that being said before about any other foreign secretary. He only got the post – his only ever ministerial job – as a result of the Brexit referendum, in one of the most spectacularly bad appointments of recent times.
He probably has at least some supporters in MI6, perhaps in the
gunslingerpart of the agency that’s closest to the armed forces, but from a security point of view it’s a straight no. The man is a security risk.For all anybody knows, she may have had a handbag with a container of ‘Battery Acid’ (as recommended by Jo Brand). Get real folks, the false outrage totally undermines the real concerns that this blog usually covers.
I come here for the false outrage 😉
Yes, but where’s the outrage about the outrage?!?!
This kind of angst-ridden drivel is exactly the reason why I walked away from the left. Oh, in my youth I was just burning with passionate intensity — like all the worst people — for the downtrodden and the oppressed. Then I started to shave and realized that “caring” didn’t make me a good person. Like the “victim” (as contributors here insist on calling her) I had just been assuming my own virtue. It was an unsettling realization, but ultimately a liberating one. It’s a pity so many people go through their lives without ever making that realization and spend their lives taking themselves as the standard of good. You can’t really argue with a mentality like that. All you can do is kick it out of buildings where it hasn’t been invited.
Anthanasius. Yet you spend Friday night coming to our building mouthing off…
Wow… you were just, like… so much like us, before you became enlightened!
That’s deep, man, and just soooo…. inviting.
Just not giving a toss about anyone works for you… good luck with that, and it’s a good thing for society that not everyone is also a sociopath.
so life has taught you that the best people don’t care about the downtrodden and oppressed. the twisted mind of the hard right.
Let’s get this clear: you are proud that you turned from a lefty to a neoliberal who doesn’t care about the downtrodden anymore? What a relief it must have been for you.
Careful bending over Athanasius, you might blind us with the sun beaming out of your shite-pipe.
thanks for this measured response in return, Dermott, not much more to be said.
What if this woman had defended herself? Did she have a right to defend herself against such a Cro Magnon assault? my sincere apologies to Neanderthals. What if she dropped to the ground releasing his hand in doing so and kicked out backwards^^ hitting his ever so diminutive knackers?
She would be in jail now, who knows, it could be Belmarsh, so nobody could visit her without hoops and rigmarole.
He should have been sacked, not just being suspended. This will play at any future election you care to mention, because it says a lot about the Tory’s herd display and their support of anyone in their ranks who is overstepping the mark, if this is side-swiped with a flurry of lame MSM/BBC/ excuses and assumptions galore, hallo Skye Mull and all the other nonsense commenter’s who have populated Craigs blog since yesterday, There is nothing more to be said.
CPS do your blinking work ffs. or be open to the accusation that you are a biased complicit tool doing as you are ordered by politicians.
Ooh, good comeback, there. I see now that I’m completely turned around on the whole left-right thing. All I needed was a visit to a lefty support group and a stay in a safe space to see what I’d been doing wrong.
Thanks for this Craig.
Slightly off, but in the video I looked at the crowd and the venue. I noticed a lot of dressing up and symbols of power.
I also thought this was a policy speech by the Philip Hammond about the UK economy, something that affects us all, and from the chancellor, a “democratically elected” politician.
I also thought how many times would this have been attended by , say, a selection of the people whom the policies actually affected?
Field has been widely and perhaps rightly condemned for his actions against this woman in red. He has been suspeded from his ministerial job by Theresa May. I have no liking at all for this man or for his party but I have an unpleasant habit of questionning consensuses even if it get me into hot water, so I offer these observations and questions as a ‘devil’s advocate’:
Did Field really slam the woman against the pillar as he seems to have done and is accused of having done? Looking at the video I see him putting his arm out to stop her, she is walking quite quickly and his hand on her shoulder breaks her momentum and she has to step back to retain her balance. She steps back against the pillar. Field does not push her against it. It would be difficult for even a big man to apply much force against a person moving past him at some speed and the position of his arm and body do not suggest a shove. He then gets up and tries to restrain her, in doing so he seems to lose his balance and has to lean on the pillar. The woman wants to get away from him and turns or is turned back in the direction from which she came. Field puts one hand on the back of her neck and another on her arm and marches her towards an exit.
Would we have acted better or differently in a similiar situation? Field did not have a chance to get up and stand in the woman’s way and reason with her. He put his arm out to stop her and once that was done what were his options? To restrain her by embracing her? I think not. To step back and hold his arms out so that she could not get past? Possibly but that would not necessarily be the safest option for either of them as it risks escalating the altercation. In the event he chose to use his greater strength to control her and conduct her out of the room and at this point she did not offer resistance.
Field could of course have chosen not to have intervened at all, he could have let the woman pass and approach the speakers unhindered, assuming that a well dressed woman could not possibly be a threat to them, that she was not armed and merely wished to remonstrate peacefully with the chancellor. He could have made such an assumption, he didn’t. Perhaps it is not always a safe assumption to make.
It has been suggested that Field should apologise to the woman. I can’t agree. I support her and her cause. I donate each month to Greenpeace and have done so for many years. I would not ask her to apologise for breaking any laws. She was doing her job. I think Field was doing his job too. It looks bad but he was doing his job. He used force but I don’t think it was undue or excessive force. I’m sure he’s done worse things, he’s a Tory, but he doesn’t deserve to be pilloried for this
I watched the video a few times, and Craig’s description of it closely matches what I think I saw, but it is good to read a clearly expressed argument, in good faith, for a different interpretation of the same evidence. I’ve seen plenty of unpleasant comments on the subject (far too many of them, on the YouTube page), but yours isn’t one of them. I hope it can be debated helpfully.
I’ve looked at that part of the video several times with your comments in mind, and I don’t see how they could possibly be sustained, or even how you could have possibly formed such impressions in the first place.
“Looking at the video I see him putting his arm out to stop her, she is walking quite quickly and his hand on her shoulder breaks her momentum and she has to step back to retain her balance. She steps back against the pillar.”
There is no period of time in which she “steps back” or loses her balance without an external application of force. Field’s left arm suddenly and without warning reaches out and pushes her with considerable force – it’s almost like a punch – and the upper part of her body is forced back into the pillar. It’s all one movement, not two, as you suggest.
“Field does not push her against it.”
Yes, he does. I don’t know how one *proves* this, although I expect there are forensic experts who could. But it’s simply obvious. And surely a hypothetical jury would be unanimous on the point.
“It would be difficult for even a big man to apply much force against a person”
No, it wouldn’t. Again, I don’t know how to prove this, but again, it’s bleedin’ obvious, as John Cleese would say.
“… the position of his arm and body do not suggest a shove.”
Ditto. He very plainly shoved her. I just don’t know how to make this as obvious to you as it is to me and (I think) most others. It is obvious even to the many who have dismayingly lined up to defend Field’s actions.
“He then gets up and tries to restrain her …”
I see no sign of her needing restraint. She has come to a complete halt. And she was never offering any violence.
“… in doing so he seems to lose his balance and has to lean on the pillar.”
I see no sign whatsoever of this, either. He gets up from his chair without the slightest wobble.
“Field did not have a chance to get up and stand in the woman’s way and reason with her.”
He had every chance to do so; he just didn’t want to.
He did have to react quickly – or at least someone did, because there had evidently been a failure of security – but I dare say most of us would have been able to intervene without resort as much force as he used.
Even if it was not immediately clear, it would soon have become clear that there was no threat, just a demonstration. He could have waited for security, or the police – standing in the woman’s way, if he thought it necessary. (Me, I’d have spoken to her.)
I’m not going to say that his actions were utterly indefensible. He can get away with claiming that they were justified by the need for a quick reaction. But that defence doesn’t wash with me, personally. It’s admittedly a subjective judgement, but as others have pointed out, his body language speaks volumes.
“He put his arm out to stop her …”
He didn’t. He shoved her, hard.
So I can’t really see where you’re coming from on this, even as a “devil’s advocate” – your claims just don’t match the visible facts. But I still appreciate the reasonable way you expressed your opinion.
be glad it wasn’t your mom or wife….
Amazing how many people are showing up to defend Field. Basically, it was not his job to intervene, and he should have left it to the security, instead of acting incompetently involving a physical assault. As can be seen from the video, she was far from the speaker (who is not even in view).
“He then gets up and tries to restrain her, in doing so he seems to lose his balance and has to lean on the pillar.”
That is not what I saw. He spun around from his dinner, stood up, grabbed her by the neck and shoved. Whether he deliberately pushed her against the pillar, or whether she stumbled back into the pillar because of the shove is beside the point; her head clearly banged into the pillar, as a direct result of an assault by a man much bigger than her. I would be surprised if she did not sustain a bump on the back of her head.
“and tries to restrain her” I saw no sign of that at all, unless “restrain” includes “grabbing someone by the neck with one hand”.
“I think Field was doing his job too.” Since when was it a job of a Minister of the Crown to go around assaulting peaceful protestors? If that’s anyone’s job, it’s the job of the police.
I smell a concern troll.
I don’t like the Guardian, but the still picture they ran of the moment when this guy attacked shows a terrifying look of rage and hatred on his face as his hands are around her neck. Like the poets have said, a picture is worth at least 1000 words.
I couldn’t agree more.
You’re losing it Craig.
be glad it wasn’t your daughter
and you never had it, tut, working for such an outfit….
He’s only defending his, the superior tribe. It’s only natural, innit?
The territory was clearly marked!
how about pleasantly escorting her to the bar, buying her a drink and ordering a taxi for her… how hard is that?