There are some weeks or days when you just shake your head at the evil or stupidity of our fellow human beings. This week was one of them.
What gets into someone’s mind when they think it is OK to fell a tree which is a regional if not a national icon. What gets into a teenager’s mind when they think it is OK to carry a knife on a bus and then use it to kill a 15 year old girl on her way to school? What gets into a Home Secretary’s mind when she thinks it is OK to make a speech in a foreign country about immigration to this country wich is full of racial dogwhistles? What gets into the mind of a self styled leader of a political party when he thinks it’s OK to utter misogynistic bilge on a TV channel where he actually has his own show, and then for the host of the show to not only go along with it, but giggle? Well, at least Laurence Fox and Dan Wootton have had their comeuppance and been suspended from their positions.
I really do despair about the future of humanity when things like this occur with increasing regularity. What happened to a presumption of basic human decency. Teenagers acting stupidly has always happened and probably always will, but grown adults? Just because they can.
Ava Evans is a former colleague of mine at LBC. She was James O’Brien’s producer. Since she left she has forged her own path as a political journalist with Joe.co,uk and a political commentator. Being thrown into the national media limelight like this cannot have been easy for her. She shouldn’t have had to put up with all the misogyny which has followed and been provoked by Fox’s comments. Ironically, for Fox, it may turn out that he has turned her into a national figure. She would have made it anyway, because of her own talent. I know many people who have been dragged through the media spotlight. Many of them emerge fine, others not so fine. Ava has handled it all brilliantly so far and kept cool and her dignity despite severe provocation. Others should take inspiration from how she has fought her corner and exposed the hatred and misogyny of those who have attacked her.
