'London mayor's campaign to tackle violence against women is patronising'

29 July 2023 , 15:40

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The billboard in Piccadilly Circus, London (Image: PR HANDOUT)

As I travel around London, I find myself tutting a lot. It starts when I leave home and see what the fly-tippers have dumped on the ­corner, the ­laughing gas capsules scattered by kids and the piles of litter on the road to the station.

As I wait for a train, I tut at the annoying “see it, say it, sorted” announcements and, once onboard, at TFL’s infantilising reminders to “think how you’re gonna get on, then think how you’re gonna get off”. And when I finally make it into the city, there are now giant billboards from the Mayor of London urging blokes to “Say maaate” to a mate to stop violence against women.

Waaait... whaaat? Aaargh! Does Mayor Sadiq Khan REALLY believe that misogyny can be prevented by one fella tutting “maaate” at another who’s gone off on a testosterone-fuelled rant?

An interactive video for his new campaign shows a group of blokes hanging out together, inviting viewers to click when the banter goes “too far”. And it claims “a simple, familiar word can be all you need to interrupt when a friend is going too far without making things awkward, ruining the moment or putting your friendship at risk”.

Rachael believes the campaign is patronising (PR HANDOUT)

Because, God forbid, you actually offend this toxic, misogynistic, potential abuser and put a dampener on your gaming night. There is an epidemic of violence against women in the capital and across the country.

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In the UK, a man kills a woman every three days and Mayor Khan is right to be striving to change this. But his new campaign is patronising, counterproductive and a waste of public money – money that could be better spent on the city’s many other problems.

Because the only words that can truly stop violence against women are police, prisons and ­prevention. First, we have to focus on rooting out the vile ­misogynists within our police forces and restoring shattered public confidence.

Next, we have to improve arrest and conviction rates, lock up offenders and break cycles of violence. And then we need to stop young boys ­developing toxic attitudes to women by providing quality relationship education that challenges what they learn through looking at porn.

Violence against women is an ­unspeakable stain on our society. And the men who commit it don’t deserve to have any mates at all.

Rachael Bletchly