Continuing her recent charm offensive, Ellie Reeves MP has taken the unpleasant step of criticising the female Chief Inspector of Prisons, Glenys Stacey at a parliamentary select committee and then singling her out by sharing the video on her timeline on Twitter, without including the woman’s reply. Reeves has frequently complained of the treatment of women on social media.

Ellie Reeves MP supports women in public life by publicly criticising a very successful female civil servant but not including their reply. Click for full size.

Reeves’ Tweet is here and its archive is here. She is apparently concerned that Dame Stacey said she might have fewer time commitments than a younger woman. Reeves thought this might undermine women in the workplace. Of concern to me however is that the video clip she shared does not include Dame Stacey’s reply. Under the circumstances I thought it was only fair for me to share the full section and in particular the response.

It was no chore to listen to Dame Stacey’s reply as it was only three seconds long. She simply uttered a gracious “thank-you”, an eloquent contrast to the grandstanding MP. Parliamentary proceedings are privileged but I feel that it was wrong to hold up a public servant for pillory on a social media network like Twitter in this way, when their ability to reply or defend themselves will of necessity be constrained.

Reeves of course has repeatedly railed against the abuse of women on Twitter, for example rape threats. It is of course a foreseeable risk that some misguided individual might harass Dame Stacey in reply to such a tweet – although checking the replies Reeves’ video appears to have only a small number of likes and no replies. Reeves also shared a Huffington Post article quoting her but only seemed to have three replies – all of the respondents criticising or questioning Reeves. They are lucky she did not try to have them arrested.

SOCIAL MEDIA FAIL: Ellie Reeves had shared a Huffington Post article quoting her, “lambasting” a civil servant. The respondents criticised or questioned Reeves. Click for full size.

It is always uncomfortable when a Member of Parliament singles out someone with limited ability to respond. Reeves is an employment lawyer and one would expect she would have a sensitivity to how it looks when a senior person publicly targets a more junior person in the same (or related) organisations in this way.

The problem is that Reeves, like many left-wingers, perfectly embodies the misleading stereotype so often directed at Conservatives. Oxford educated Reeves went from University into the law and has spent much of her life in a privileged position as a barrister and Labour Party national officer. She is used to being in a position where it is hard for the less privileged to criticise her.

The incident also shines a flood of illumination on the intellectual bankruptcy of the Left and indeed the Equalities movement. It is hard to argue that women are unfairly treated by society when “fighting sexism” means attacking women in positions of power for remarks they disagree with.

It appears to have come as a nasty shock to Reeves that she is not the only person with power, influence or legal knowledge. It is worth reminding readers that my first article about Reeves led to a failed attempt to have me arrested or given a police warning. The article, “Ellie Reeves and the Corpses of Children” criticised Reeves for failing to assist a cross party campaign against a group which (amongst other things) had engaged in anti-Semitism and paedophilia.

Ellie chose not criticise the group’s leader for asking Jews for their fingers for a necklace of Jew fingers and ignored a Jewish journalist who had related child protection concerns.

Given Reeves’ recent plain chant whining at police and her more general concerns about alleged online, “harassment” directed at women (for example on Twitter) it is profoundly regrettable she chose to address her concerns about a successful female by holding them up for pillory on social media in this way. Ellie Reeves MP should remember that her own conduct is not immune from public scrutiny and criticism.

[Note Ellie Reeves MP has permanently opted out of the opportunity to comment on MHN articles pre-publication]