Why has a Commons bullying report been met with a deafening silence?
by Amy Leversidge
The findings of Dame Laura Cox’s inquiry into bullying, harassment and sexual harassment in the House of Commons will come as no surprise to those who work there. And yet, the individual stories in her 155-page report still have the power to disturb. As an official at the FDA union, which represents many Commons employees, I frequently speak to members on this subject, and even I was shocked reading the sheer extent of the evidence submitted to Cox.
She hits the nail on the head when she describes “the sense of loyalty” in the House of Commons, that “has been tested to breaking point by a culture, cascading from the top down, of deference, subservience, acquiescence and silence, in which bullying, harassment and sexual harassment have been able to thrive and have long been tolerated and concealed”.
Those four words – deference, subservience, acquiescence and silence – encapsulate the culture in the Commons. They are also the exact words I would use to describe parliamentary response to the Cox report.
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Thank God for Margaret Beckett: the last remaining honest Labour MP
by Stephen Bush
Margaret Beckett has had the decency to end the charade that Labour MPs have been playing all day: by telling the BBC’s Chris Mason that it is more important to guarantee that the Speaker of the House of Commons gives Parliament maximum manoeuvrability over Brexit than to take action over bullying. The interview came after an independent inquiry into workplace harassment in Parliament was sharply critical of John Bercow and said that the present leadership of the House was incapable of bringing about meaningful reform.
Beckett’s remarks are worth quoting in full: “Yes, if it comes to it, the constitutional future of this country, the most difficult decision we’ve made for hundreds of years, yes, it trumps bad behaviour.”
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Women accuse leaders of Seattle’s Mount Zion church of bullying
By Nina Shapiro
In an emotional news conference tapping into the anger and power of the #MeToo movement, four women said they have been bullied and disrespected by leaders of Seattle’s Mount Zion Baptist Church.
The accusations of the women — who have all held important positions in Mount Zion and include two ministers and a daughter of the late, famed Rev. Dr. Samuel B. McKinney — bring another blow to a storied Central Area church that in recent years has been wracked by division.
“This doesn’t come easy for anybody,” said former King County NAACP President Carl Mack, who flew to Seattle from his current home in Maryland to preside over the Tuesday news conference at the Central Area Senior Center.
He called Mount Zion, more than 125 years old, “the mother of black churches” in Seattle.