For the last few years, Ruth Davidson has painted herself as the acceptable face of the Tory Party. This time last year, she was an ardent Remainer willing to call out her London colleagues on human rights and the like. Now, she’s a hard brexiteer who is prepared to trivialise the effects of the dreadful family cap which prevents families claiming benefits or tax credits for more than two children – unless they can prove to the satisfaction of a civil servant that a third or subsequent child was conceived by rape.
To do that, women have to complete this shocking form and in the process disclose to a third party that they have been raped. This is information that they may never have shared with someone. What gets me is that someone had to draw up that form. The draft must have gone through various people who all signed it off? It seems incredible that nobody actually thought about the effect on the person filling it in. And what happens if some decision maker at the Department of Work and Pensions decides that somehow they aren’t eligible after all? Has anyone thought this through?
Anyway, tonight, Ruth Davidson made light of all of this, saying that all women had to do was “tick a box.”
Ruth Davidson is wrong to make out that completing this form is a trauma free exercise. Imagine how you would feel writing down your child’s name & signing that their conception was non consensual. What would be going through your mind?
The Tories are bureaucratising the unacceptable and Ruth should be calling her colleagues out on it, not defending their actions.
Willie Rennie, who took part in the demonstration against the rape clause at Holyrood last week, slammed Davidson’s cavalier comments:
It is shameful that Ruth Davidson has sought to trivialise something so horrific as rape. This is not simply ticking a box. This is re-opening probably the most traumatic moment in someone’s life.
We need to abolish this policy and bring compassion back into the Welfare State.
This is the moment the Tory mask slipped.
The nasty party is back in business and nastier than ever.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
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7 Comments
Very glad you posted that, Caron, and well done Willie for saying it (along with Kez, Nicola and Alison Johnstone of the Greens).
I hadn’t looked at the form before. I thought “Yes, I know, it’s dreadful.” But even knowing that, seeing the thing in black and white is quite shocking. That anyone can think this is all right – that this is justified by the tabloid terror of paying for the children of a few “irresponsible” families … well, it beggars belief; it defies compassion. It appals, disgusts and astonishes.
Further to the “RapeClause”. We know that the State is not good at keeping confidential information to itself. What if the information falls into the hands of criminals who use it to blackmail the Mother ?
What if the names of those involved are made public – how would the Child in question feel?
This thoughtless policy could go on causing pain & wrecking lives decades after it is finally abandoned.
If the form is badly designed it probably means that only one person designed it.
We should concentrate on the legislation which tries to reduce benefits in a way that is likely to cause poverty, or exacerbate existing poverty. There is also a privacy issue.
I agree , Caron is correct.
One other aspect of this nobody is mentioning which is potentially controversial and , contrary to our arguments as opponents of this thinking in favour of the applicant, the problem with the “controlling or coercive relationship ” phrase, it can encourage those in bitter divorces or break ups to malign their ex, it happens anyway in custody cases, ask any custody lawyer , and I have friends who are !
It puts power in the hands of civil, or uncivil servants , as Caron says , and as I have several times.
It is all nonsense and Ruth Davidson, otherwise a genuine more liberal Conservative, probably knows it !
“It is all nonsense and Ruth Davidson, otherwise a genuine more liberal Conservative, probably knows it !”
Glasgow Herald, 18 April, 2017 ” The Scottish Tory Leader Ruth Davidson has said she supports the exemptions the UK Government has put in place on restrictions to child tax credits”.
Lorenzo, in the politest possible way, you should stop being starry eyed about Ruth Davidson. I’m sorry, but from Nottingham, you are not best placed to know much about her. Cracking jokes on Question Time is a partial view.
….. and the rape clause is the tip of the iceberg.
The changes will push a quarter of a million children into poverty, while wiping thousands of pounds off payments for bereaved families, “Analysis for the Guardian reveals that a family whose third child is born before midnight on Wednesday ( 5 April) could be up to £50,000 better off over 18 years than one whose child is born on Thursday.”
In addition, a terminally ill man told the Guardian that his wife and children will see tens of thousands of pounds wiped off their bereavement benefits if he survives beyond this week’s welfare deadline. – sadly, the poor soul died two days too late.
The author of the changes, George Osborne, has gone off to millionaire pastures new.
David
A view that is fair is not starry eyed, as you see I criticise all who deserve it from my or our party perspective.
I do agree that you see far more of the politics of Scotland. But are you in that country therefore unable to comment on England, in that case , perhaps you could stop your digs against me and others who express our liberal and Liberal patriotism !
The examples you give revolt me as much. They are from the uk government which she is not part of.Many Liberal Democrats served in a government they did not criticise enough. Expediency is not my thing . It is found everywhere some days in this party too.
When you once in a while , and the party at the moment, can find something good to say more about those not on the left, of this party or the spectrum,I would be more inclined to be less kind , to those I am, perhaps to balance things.
I loathe the right wing cruelty. But you are not defending Macron in France, and those like me , who , merely because we are not left wing, are sometimes seen as not , quite , where its at !
The right wing of the Tories needs challenging, even by the centre and , yes the centre left , of the Tories too.
Agreed.
Do you like Heidi Allen ?!