Last month Guido reported how new Labour MP Jared O’Mara had been accused of calling a woman an “ugly b*tch” at a nightclub before he got elected. An unfortunate revelation given O’Mara’s previous claim to fame: singing a song about “smashing” a woman in the face. This is becoming a theme…
Below is an open letter to O’Mara from one of his constituents. She details a list of unsavoury allegations about an evening at a nightclub the new MP runs in Sheffield. Including that a bouncer hit her in the face as O’Mara looked on and did nothing…
“I wanted to keep an eye on my belongings without being that 80s cliche of a woman of a certain age dancing around her handbag. So I’d folded my coat up, and put it at the side of the dancefloor. There were no signs saying “don’t leave belongings here” and, anyway, it was a fairly quiet night so I figured they’d be safe. And they were, until you walked across the floor, took one look at my coat, and kicked it. You didn’t “move it with your foot” as you later claimed to one of my friends, you very deliberately kicked it. I had no idea who you were – the bouncers later shouted that you were the owner – but I ran across to my belongings to check they were ok (they weren’t) and to see whether anything had fallen out of my pockets. I asked you what you were doing, and why you’d done that. You took one look at me and, without speaking, called over the bouncers…
At this stage, one of my friends came across to find out what was happening. He put his hand on my arm, and said something along the lines of “Come on, it’s not worth it”. At this point, your bouncers grabbed him, and grabbed me, and one of them hit me in the face. Still, you said nothing. Now I’ve got my Personal Licence, and I’m fairly certain that there is no provision for hitting anyone – man, woman – in the face anywhere in the Licensing Laws…
My black eye faded after a week or so, and while I was waiting for it to do so I joined the legions of women who cover up their bruises on a daily basis… when I heard that you’d be elected, my first thought was surprise. We had a bit of a laugh about it in the pub (“Guess who the new MP for Sheffield Hallam is! Remember that wazzock who had us thrown out of West Street Live by his bouncers, and they gave me a black eye?”). And then that Saturday morning, when someone alerted me to the rumours about you on the internet, and that song … I felt physically sick. And the arrogance and the contempt suddenly made more sense. Did you refuse to speak to me because I was a woman, and you don’t like being challenged by women? Did you deny ever having met my friend because she turned you down and challenged you?
Do you think that women should be “put in their place” by whatever means necessary, even if this means calling in people who are considerably stronger to do so? It’s been over a month now, and you have still never acknowledged that your past behaviour might possibly be ever so slightly misogynistic. I’m not really expecting a response to this which is why, in the light of Yvette Cooper’s excellent speech calling out vitriol the other day, I’m taking the liberty of copying this to some of your colleagues in the hope that somewhere along the line you can acknowledge your behaviour.”
Jared seems one to watch…
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