Westminster is once again being renamed these days as Pestminster. This is how the British Parliament is popularly known for “plague” of sex scandals that do not stop and that mainly affect the Conservative Party, with a dozen cases accumulated in the last legislature and two very recent ones.
The suspension of Peter Bone, 71, for hitting, verbally abusing and “putting his genitals in the face of a male worker in his parliamentary office” was still pending, when the arrest of MP Crispin Blunt, 63, made headlines. accused of rape and illegal drug possession.
The two cases occurred in a matter of hours, and the most astonishing thing is that no one tore their clothes in the upper echelons of the Conservative Party. The reaction was more of a already seen, as if it had been known for a long time and only the final confirmation or the MEA culpa of those involved (given the open secrecy that usually surrounds these cases).
The most ironic thing is that it was a woman, the Secretary of Education, Gillian Keegan, who had to say publicly that We are not facing “a cultural problem” of the tories, but in the face of “isolated incidents”. In his opinion, the suspension of the two deputies is simply due to the “clarity” with which the premierRishi Sunak is maintaining “high standards” among his coreligionists.
Another rooster was crowing in 2017, when Theresa May She was prime minister and took matters into her own hands in the face of another wave of scandals at the height of #MeToo. May wrote directly to the speaker of the House of Commons, the irate John Bercowand asked him to create a “mediation” and support service, in the event of possible complaints of sexual harassment against deputies, as well as an urgent reform of disciplinary measures.