Ed Miliband called on David Cameron to sack Ken Clarke today after the justice secretary's remarks about rape in a BBC radio interview this morning.
Ed Miliband called on David Cameron to sack Ken Clarke today after the justice secretary’s remarks about rape in a BBC radio interview this morning. At Prime Minister’s Questions, Miliband asked Cameron “to take this opportunity to distance himself”, said “the justice secretary should not be in his post by the end of today”, and urged Cameron to “get rid of his justice secretary”.
Clarke made his controversial comments in an interview with Victoria Derbyshire on BBC Radio Five Live.
To the shock of his interviewer, he spoke about “serious rape… rape in the ordinary conversational sense”, claiming it was different from “date rape”.
Then, when Derbyshire said “rape is rape, with respect”, he replied:
“No it’s not.”
Listen to the key excerpts:
And speaking on Boulton & Co. on Sky News this lunchtime, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said:
“You cannot suggest that there is somehow a category of rape in which somehow the woman is willing. Unless he changes his view very rapidly of course he’s got to go.”
63 Responses to “Interviewer: “Rape is rape, with respect”; Ken Clarke: “No it’s not””
Anon E Mouse
Ash – You’re being too precious – too PC and not letting the individual cases be addressed by the judge. That’s what he’s there for.
Every case is different and your blunt tool approach, whilst fully understandable for a Labour supporter, just doesn’t cut it in this important crime.
I heard the whole interview from start to finish and simply heard a rude obnoxious radio host (and I listen every single day between Ken Bruce and the Today program) who effectively is not living in the real world.
One of the problems with the left is they tend to grab a specific narrow point and argue it to the nth degree instead of seeing the big picture.
Just as there are different types of murder – for example the long term battered wife who lashes out after years of abuse there are differences in the crime of rape.
Personally I’d sack Clarke for leniency and stop this 33% nonsense…
Ash
Anon
I have not suggested a ‘blunt tool’ approach. I accept that some rapes are more serious than others (because there are aggravating factors) and that judges are there to ensure that an appropriate sentence gets handed down. What I don’t accept is that some rapes are not really rapes at all ‘in the ordinary conversational sense’ because there’s no violence involved and the victim is not unwilling. That was what Ken Clarke implied.
I have rather more personal knowledge of two particular rape cases than I’d like: one in which the attacker was a predatory serial rapist who avowedly ‘got off’ on the power trip of forcing himself on unwilling women, and one in which the attacker was a drunken idiot who pushed his luck with a woman he met in a nightclub and who regretted doing so before he’d even finished. I get that there’s a difference. But the difference is not that one case was a case of ‘serious’, ‘violent’, ‘forcible’ rape of an ‘unwilling’ woman, and one wasn’t. They both were. Every case of rape is.
Daniel Pitt
Interviewer: "Rape is rape, with respect"; Ken Clarke: "No it's not": http://bit.ly/mkxYmG #ConDemNation
Adam Mason
RT @myinfamy: Interviewer: "Rape is rape, with respect"; Ken Clarke: "No it's not": http://bit.ly/mkxYmG #ConDemNation
Anon E Mouse
Ash – I’m not splitting hairs, nor is this a personal attack but Ken Clarke (sack him) was simply not acting in the manner you suggest and (to me at least) there is a difference in the CRIME of rape.
I make no comment on the results from the CRIME of rape, just the action itself.
His choice of words may have been ill judged but Victoria Derbyshire is a Labour supporting lackey who always seems to see fit to hassle people she disagrees with. Hope you enjoyed her champagne when Labour won in 1997 (I certainly did) but a bit more impartiality from her would be appreciated.
Ed Milibandwagon blew it yesterday and the Labour Party must be holding their shaking heads in their hands…
On the cases you mention if both rapists got 25 years they may not reoffend again. Certainly not within 25 years.