I'm not a woman but I don't think men will ever understand what it's like to have someone else put their hands on you in such a manner. As a comedian once said, "if you’re a man, don’t say anything to a woman on the street that you wouldn’t want a man saying to you in prison”

It would be interesting to hear about all of the "open secrets" around the lobby that we as the public have no idea about

"The rats that lick the parliamentary dinner plates" is a perfect name, I just can't decide if it's perfect for the MPs, the lobbyists or the journalists. All of the above?

i worked in parliament during the pincher case and the documents i read about sexual misconduct and allll the problems parliament has with them getting away with it 💀💀 its full of it, and they hide it from us all. the documents also specified how there’s a huge concern since it’s a public building and has schoolchildren and so fourth.

Just a second, the doorman was a witness and thus the person should have been sacked immediately.

As a man, it sounds awful to have someone put their hand up your skirt. I can’t imagine it happening, and it must be quite scary a lot of time

Reminds me of the quote in the Simpson's Movie where one of the characters says "Whats the point in having power if you cant abuse it?". I think that must be a very popular mindset in Westminster. Just look at the subsidised food /bar, coke in the toilets, partygate and normalisation of corruption and sleeze in the headlines. Disappointing to see Labour infected by it.

Is this any surprise? When you consider that Politicans deem their immature and pathetic attitudes in House Of Commons debates suitable for public viewing, imagine what they do behind the scenes. Untrustworthy, self-serving, malicious, righteous and living above the law. Politics needs to be torn down and restructured from scratch.

What Ava went through I have also experienced as a younger man when wearing my kilt by women of all ages and the occasional man. I don't know what the compulsion is but it is quite obviously there. Like deployed 👍

That Strangers bar story is horrifying. How is the process, the doorman tells the whip, are there not plenty of police officers around parliament to tell instead? It raises so many questions, is there not cctv in the bar? Why is the offender not then walked out of parliament in cuffs for everyone to see?

For goodness sake! Why is it so hard to identify PATRIARCHY in action.

I had a woman I worked with put her hands on and try to have sex with me in the office after hours after a previous work night out when we flirted but I didn't want it to go further. I put my hands out and asked her to stop, which she didn't, instead she started groping me and taking her clothes off. I could have physically stopped her (though it may have turned into a brawl) but I was afraid of what she might have accused me of (she was more senior and I was the new guy) and I didn't want to lose my job. The next 18 months were hell, until she left. If this is how much it can affect a man, I can only imagine how traumatic it must be for a woman.

That Schofield clip is wild given what we now know about him and his brothers seedy goings on.

Ava-Santina an educated, intelligent women, tells us she was sexual assaulted, in the "Westminster Bubble" & this criminal act was not reported, so in the real world there is no hope for the any poor women & girls.!

Lost the healthy ability to keep his hands on his pockets had me rolling 😂😂😂😂

‘I don’t recognise these allegations’ 😂😂 as if he would remember what he got up to anyway. Guy Fawkes was a national bloody hero

Dirty wrong uns,hence why they can't show their depraved messages with the public,sick people,sick I tell ya.

let's close all the bars in Parliament, they are at work not there to get pissed. Make them pay full central london price for their meals and finally anyone there who commits a crime is not allowed to be a MP

My heart sunk a tad when I learnt these were all educated at selective schools. When will there be a channel/movement propelled by comprehensive school students? Just shows how embedded the class system is across the showbiz (sic) paradigm ☹️

The first step in changing the culture would be getting rid of the bar and alcohol

There are only 650 MP's and the fact that so many are being investigated for sexual issues is sick and worrying about the type of people who are there.

This is just ridiculous - the bar of decency is so stunningly low. As a voter I expect zero tolerance of sexual misconduct - anything less is unacceptable

Just to tie into the Private Eye angle I once wrote a letter to the editor about a columnist’s opinions. I was then directly emailed by the columnist concerned, who was pretty defensive. It felt very public school boys all together.

OMG, when will it end! People, grow a spine and call out this behaviour immediately! And I mean people with the power, not the people who are trapped at the bottom of this hierarchy.

Only privately schooled yahoos would stick their hand up a woman's skirt? Most men would only consider doing that to a partner in private. What a jerk!

Like the metropolitan police, westminster needs to be completely overhauled root and branch.

If the politicians hate you, you must be doing something right.

Geoffrey Cox buying a drink ? Don’t be silly when he was drinking in our pub he left without paying his tab haha😂

Culture: Where the most powerful get to do whatever they want. That’s “culture” For the elites.

Its not about your sexuality or gender....its about power!

So disappointed that private eye didn’t exercise their spine.

There no excuse for that creep’s behaviour.

Terry Pratchett’s had it right. Four Eks politicians are put in jail as soon as elected because it saves time.

Best opening so far

Excellent reporting

Sex, Drugs, drink are part of Parliamentary life.

So why is Eva not naming the guy?

Thanks guys ,

Drinking before lunchtime?! Just another day in the office.

It must be culture related. It reminds me of the first time I went to the European Parliament (EO) as part of my job. I didn't see or experience anything inappropriare. But it "felt" unlike any workplace I had ever visited. I remember being pleased to leave, thinking "that's a sexually-charged environment". Politico went on to raise awareness of this (potential) issue within the EP, so hopefully things have improved.

It's ok to harass women after a few drinks, everyone knows that, poor Cohen! He's the real victim here.

another good one, keep it up!

Well at least Labour deal with there nasty people , sadly people will be people good and bad. What matters is these people are sorted out when found out. Conservitives try and cover it up. That’s truly disturbing

Isn't that sexual assault? I think MPs should be held accountable. In any other situation that person would be sacked and reported to the police. Surely, as representitives of the people they should be held to higher standards and not lower.

If you still feel you were assaulted you probably could and should report the matter to the police and press charges.

inb4 the "YEBuTNObUt they are All THe SaME INnIt" 9:17 "Probe it a bit further" - not an ideal choice of words there.

It has to be stopped, and if that is by naming and shaming these people publically to drive them out and bring prosecution against them for their actions then so be it. The sooner the better.

Excellent 👌

I can't watch or listen any more the behaviour of this government has been a disgrace I'll just be voting Labour at the next election and hopefully wake up to a new government.

56, and they seem very casual bout it. Wow

The reason for the pleasant goodbyes: NDAs and payoffs. If newspapers printed only confirmed allegations of the rest of society, they'd be half the size.

Hah! Wrong 'uns? Hah! It's plainly obvious.

56 perverts who should not be addressed as the HONORABLE member until they are proved innocent of sexual harassment

I’ve just watched someone tell me that Elvis was a wrong’n! Where does it end!?

Adequate punishment? It was a criminal pffence?

Any candidate for MP who wants to relate to the public should adopt the policy position already found in bars outside Westminster, where a sexual assaulter will get whacked by a thing called a "man" or "men" who have seen it happen in plain sight.

I disagree .... they're looking at tractors for sale not porn

For crying out loud report it to the police, it's an offence. It surely is more important than a job. Other young women may have been assaulted because of your lack of action in not going to the police . Sorry to be so harsh and I hope you're ok.xxxxxx

Hmm... to be fair, sexual assault is criminal activity, and most people aren't law enforcement. I get that there can be problems going to the police, but I think that's the underlying problem here... the complete lack of involvement of any effective law enforcement. So we're asking employers to be a substitute for law enforcement, either firing a person based on rumour without any due process, even if it's strong rumour, that just moves the problem elsewhere for someone else to deal with. A bouncer working on the door of a bar can only stop a person coming back into that bar. I think people need to know, it's not a "sackable offence", it's a criminal offence, there needs to be trained law enforcement that people can come forward to... if you're not trained in anyway for law enforcement, you're not going to know what - if anything - you can do, except to warn others. It's almost like we've given up on law enforcement and so need better vigilante responses! It's a dangerous road, relying on newspapers to inform its readers of criminal activity... it's not like they can be trusted not to just make stuff up to get rid of a person for political reasons, like the whole antisemitism issue with the certain Palestinian rights activity. Yeah, there needs to be a process that can actually work, nobody seems to know what that process is

I feel like the tone of this chat wasn't as serious as it should've been. I usually like the relaxed tone of PoliticsJoe but this is one issue that I feel like unless we, as a collective, do not have a unanimous concerted no-tolerance policy to this issue, it will never go away. It's scandalous. It's horrific. Let's get these deviances behind bars.

All Power Institutions protect themselves. Defense of the Institutional status, image and wealth always prevails over accountability and the care of those victimised. Churches cover up child abuse, Governments ands Police collude. London Met has covered up most cases of sexual abuse within it's ranks. Corporations cover up pollution, Political Parties cover up corruption, and only deal with it to remove those perceived as 'disloyal' to the team. Check in with Mhairi Black or Caroline Lucas on their insights. A significant % of people who seek power seek it to leverage their own position and status, and if they are corrupt, the system will protect them rather than expose itself to accountability. That means that non corrupt team members stay silent. 'More than my job is worth'. Patriarchy and Misogyny are twins, and they dominate the culture of power politics. And just to stretch this - Parliament voted for illegal, amoral wars and the parties and the Parliament remain War Criminals, unindicted. They FEARED Corbyn because they felt that if he gained enough votes to win a substantial majority, he'd have used that to launch detailed war crimes investigations - because THAT is the only way to prevent such criminal activity in the future. A PM in the slammer at the Hague would undermine the entire set-up, because it would necessarily expose exactly how Power operates. Starmer refused to prosecute British agents involved in Rendition and Torture, and started the persecution of Assange. The Power Inquiry 2OO4 - 2OO6 looked at the power disparity inherent in the existing systems and suggested rational ways to reduce that Power disparity. Power Disparity is the name of the game. JOE ought to review that study of Power and how to make it safe for ordinary people. it certainly is NOT SAFE for ordinary people. People who occupy Power Disparity rarely devolve it, they protect it.

I remember Nick Cohen now, was a rent a gob on TV, but I see he isn't any more much.

Interestingly, wrt US media reporting on issues in UK politics and media, I also observe the opposite - frequently stories relating to US interests and broken by UK media and then discussed on US shows once broken.

Not surprising just tragic that these personas operate with impunity. Well until they get really caught out.

13:33 Do you know the miltary, construction, the service sector... "Corporate office" rules may not be as main stream as you think.

The problem with Westminster is that it is essentially all about the exercise of power and that power relies on 'trading favours'. Ministers and MPs have all the power and they are essentially small businesses who are not employed by Parliament. The generally young employs who work for Ministers and MPs often want to be MPs or advisors in future and therefore the pressure to 'keep quiet for the good of your future career' is always there. Turning a blind eye from more senior figures 'for the good of the party' is also a real pressure. It is not an ordinary workplace and therefore the normal safeguards are not there. Everybody who is a lobby journalist knows all of this and yet they also depend on 'access to MPS and Ministers' for their job and so they don't rock the boat either. The only news stories you hear about a scandal are the ones that the politically powerful want in the news. That is ultimately how the Govt Whips control MPs. They know the secrets of all of them and the threat that a scandal will emerge or promise that a scandal will be supressed is all it takes. I know full well that there are political scandals that will never be aired as long as the subjects of those scandals do exactly as they are told. That is how political power really works on a day to day basis. Not via the ballot box. As a result, there is almost no control over anybody that wants to abuse the power they have. EDIT: By the way that was a terrific interview. It needed to be said and it was absolutely the raw truth. One word of warning. You are 'outside the tent' now but they will invite you in and you will become 'accepted opposition' but there is a price to pay. It has happened to others.

Quite simply these things are destined to continue until we have a republican democracy of shared values, something akin to France perhaps. We have a traditionaly right wing press dedicated to maintaining the status quo so there will never be equality of any kind in this nation until we've dissassembled the historical higherarchical social structer of our society.

Geraint Davies? Met him years ago in Croydon when he lived there, the local MP there then, in my MSF union shop steward days.

Seriously? That’s it? He tried his luck after a few jars lol. Smells like a set up to me.

Just think, voters elected their MP's to represent their interests. Then you get an "honourable" fellow with a bloody whip, enforcing policy. 👀 Oh no! We suspended your privilege of decision making being whipped. 🤔👀😂🤦‍♂️

They're all tories now

First day? Was probably a dare?

Why did a former Celtic footballer get found guilty in court for sexual assault when the guy who done the save to Eva got barred from the bar ? Eva, you enabled that guy by letting it go, name and shame him !!

At the end of the day being an MP is a position of trust and should be held to a higher standard of the Law and if found guilty of a sexual assault they should be forced to resign. (obviously that may be against the interests of their party and hence why it sits on the whips desk for a year). But also if such a high percentage of Mps are commiting these crimes doesn't that mean that may be affecting the results on how certain Laws are passed. (say for instance laws on procecuting commiters of sexual assault). I'd hope they wouldn't be so brazen but with all the news stories of corruption I really wouldn't be shocked tbh

There are a load of others. They haven't - and won't - have the whip removed because they're Starmerites. Davies isn't and they want to eliminate him from a three-into-two-doesn't-go scramble for the reduced number of seats in and including parts of Swansea. The other two are , of course, Starmer loyalists.

That "bloke" that touched you actually identified as a woman. How bloody dare you!!??

Keep complaining about it. It definitely will help shift power to Davos, which is what you don't want(?), if we keep complaining about Westminster.

The Ladies gallery is in the rafters. Are you saying women are wrong'uns?

Guys Its not just Westminster anymore. Rules regulations safeguarding has been sidelined throughout public service jobs. Bit at a time. Then Andrew Tate's of the world and the millions paid to push traditional roles circa 2015. Family courts have become endemic with mysoginy set up to blame victims .. bulldoze It's a retraumarising witch hunt that women get floored by thinking they have truth and laws there to protect... If you are lucky they/clerks/ ley justices may know the rules. Most don't Cafcass are stuck in 50s It's serving male abusers. Shocking the lack of knowledge.. But yeah war on women That's very real.

Christian Wakeford (as a Tory welcomed in to Starmer's hoards) was an interisting example of one with the Labour Whip! With regard to Geriant Davis, I am sure the truth will out, whatever that may be, but note that (Guardian Quote) "No formal complaints have been made about Davies, due to those who were allegedly targeted being said to have a lack of confidence that they would be taken seriously. Labour described the claims of “completely unacceptable behaviour” as “incredibly serious” and said it strongly encouraged anyone who wanted to make a formal complaint to come forward" So #PoliticsJoe, due diligence please and I really hope your reporter reports the abuse she experienced as described here. I write this because, I note that it was the PLP response (an unusual one for the right reasons) seems to have triggered all the frenzy around the GD allegations. He is not one of Starmer's chosen few, but we will see. What a mess, please keep YOUR journalistic standards high! ThankYou 😔

She seems to have normalised it and is part of the inside group she said is keeping things quiet that she’s mentioning. Seemed content that he’s just been banned from the bar when it’s obvious she wouldn’t accept that viewing it from the outside if anyone in a normal job.

Come on mps of all parties. Stop doing things like this. Its all males. I don't do this at my job cos I'd be sacked straight away. If you are being predatory you are wrong.

Assuming it's just the men [...who perpetuate the assaults ...] it's 1 in 4, that is systemic and requires radical action to remedy. (by "willywhonka"​ in the chat)

I would've knocked this Tory advisor right on his nose! You just don't do this.

The cesspool Tories excel at subterfuge and cover-up. Clearly, incriminating evidence is within the messages - the covid lockdown, multi billion pound giveaway scam continues.

😡🤬

Please don't dumb down your podcasts too much. Daytime telly's the domain of banter. I've enjoyed your intelligent observations in the past.

How does this contrast to Ava's behaviour in a very recent vlog?

Sexual harassment is a very serious matter, however what I've heard so far isn't politics or journalism, it's gossip. With no idea who this individual is, I'm out at 5 minutes of hearsay and flimsy innuendo. You two look like you're flirting, so watch out, in five year's time you might sue each other for this interaction.

Hi Joe sent this to the Labour party Hi Conference Team I have had a great idea with the immigration problem we need immigration to help in our hospitals farms engineering etc So with this in mind to get rid of the back log of people waiting to work We should take finger prints an eye recognising of every one coming in to the country give them an social security number for tax NHS and let them go to work not shutting them up for years in hotels if any offends then we can track them here the stinger, No benefits just NHS, you would like to be here So get on with it . pay your way or go back Hard But fair .As fair as the system is with people that have worked all there life and payed in that get nothing oh look it up that's the life we have been dealt. I just wish Labour would wake up an smell the coffee Stop being a want a be Tory party an think of your roots where's the companion for workers I find the disparity between the indigenous population and immigrant's frustrating on a personal point My wife is on strategy sick pay for months even though she has Stelios 'in her hips an spine she's not eligible for PIP yet other people are getting benefit's that where we not allowed. I just think people would not care about immigration if was a level paying field.

I wish I was a tory adviser.

I say old boy - and old gal - you appear not to understand quite (how the British Establishment works. Got to be careful there, you know, because quite a lot who start off appearing to be outside it - comedians, music stars, authors, educators, journalists and so on - seem after a few years to be rather part of it. What!.

You do know both parties create setups like this using younger members in such events with MP’s of either side of party. It’s to discredit and get one over the other political party.

Need to cut out the profanities, the booze and the giggling if you want to rise above the level of a student-union debate. That's to say, if you want to be taken seriously.

The New York Times is still claiming that Oswald killed JFK. Some of their journalism is excellent, but they've also been hand in glove with the CIA/Wall Street cabal since the Agency was created.

HoC has almost zero class diversity. Working class have 'Living' experiences are smart and made up of different ethnicities,sexualities, genders, disabled or able etc. we need to empower ourselves not some bourgeois so called representative of the poor & working people

Great news. A normal bloke at Westminster. A geezer goes out for a drink and tried it on with much younger women well over the age of consent. Good for him; a diamond geezer!!

Maybe these allegations are just made up. Rumours spread to damage reputations.