{"id":2220,"date":"2021-03-24T02:00:08","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T18:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/?p=2220"},"modified":"2021-03-24T02:00:08","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T18:00:08","slug":"the-potency-of-left-field-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/?p=2220","title":{"rendered":"The Potency of Left Field ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Baroness Jones caused quite a stir when, in reaction to the appalling murder of Sarah Everard, she proposed a curfew on men going out after 6pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chair of the Women\u2019s Equality Committee, Caroline Nokes called it \u201ca bonkers suggestion\u201d[1]<\/a> whilst Nigel Farage tweeted it was an example of the left being \u201cderanged\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jones\u2019s suggestion came in the context of advice to women from south London police \u201cnot go out alone\u201d[3]<\/a>.\u00a0 That so few detected any irony in her proposal reflects how few sadly saw the police\u2019s<\/em> advice as \u201ca bonkers suggestion\u201d, as well as revealing the predisposition of many to expect<\/em> politicians of the left to advance \u201cderanged\u201d ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that was both the point and the power of Jones\u2019s idea.  Being ironic doesn\u2019t mean you are only joking.  There\u2019s a logic in her proposal that holds up.  If women out on their own are in danger from men then it surely follows that men\u2019s liberties should be curtailed, not women\u2019s?  Ah, but not all men are to blame.  That\u2019s true, but all women suffer the consequences and the police advice (and hands up who amongst us mightn\u2019t have called it \u201csensible\u201d) was to all<\/em> women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve all experienced it from our schooldays and look back with a groan.\u00a0 Someone drew a fat penis on the white board, nobody\u2019s owned up and the whole of the class is held in detention.\u00a0 But did you ever hear of a case where the class down the corridor<\/em> were punished instead, even though it was known the culprit was not among them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why am I writing about this here?\u00a0 Because left field ideas have the power to release us from our intellectual shackles.\u00a0 To ask questions of ourselves, to challenge our prejudices and assumptions.\u00a0 We need to do better than just cast them off as \u201cbonkers\u201d.\u00a0 Otherwise we\u2019ll carry on doing things, believing things, just because we always have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However much we want to protect our ecosystems, you could never completely overhaul the tax system \u2013 that would be bonkers.\u00a0 Like Jones\u2019s idea, or imagining the earth a sphere that orbits the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[1]<\/a> https:\/\/theconversation.com\/baroness-jones-why-did-so-many-people-take-her-6pm-curfew-for-men-proposal-at-face-value-157183<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2021\/mar\/13\/men-curfew-sarah-everard-women-adapt-violence<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a> https:\/\/www.lbc.co.uk\/news\/peer-jenny-jones-calls-for-6pm-curfew-for-men\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being ironic doesn\u2019t mean you are only joking. There\u2019s a logic in her proposal that holds up. If women out on their own are in danger from men then it surely follows that men\u2019s liberties should be curtailed, not women\u2019s?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10],"tags":[12,14,13],"class_list":["post-2220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all","category-general","tag-baroness-jones","tag-curfew-for-men","tag-sarah-everard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2220"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2228,"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220\/revisions\/2228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abtax.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}