Abuse

• The alleged victim, known as Alice, has suggested that a discussion should take place around changing the age of consent to protect young people from older adults.
• But unfortunately, changing the age of consent alone may be too simplistic a solution for a complex problem.
• In some cases, a young person over the age of 16 may be considered to not have been able to give consent.
• A change in the age of consent would not stop this kind of grooming happening to young people under 18.

• It is becoming increasingly evident that life in modern politics is presenting women with a stark choice – endure almost constant online threats and abuse or get out of public life.
• But the social media era has normalised ever more aggressive forms of abuse.
• The abuse against Ardern has been so intense that even in retirement she’s expected to have extra police protection.
• The Economist Intelligence Unit has reported that more than one in three women have experienced online violence.

Driving women out

• A global survey by Washington-based non-profit National Democratic Institute found that more than half of young women who posted political opinions online were attacked for their views.
• This amounts to compelling evidence that the problem runs deep, illustrating that people attempting to undermine a government have recognised attacking women as a winning strategy.
• The examples highlighted in the report don’t merely revolve around hatred towards these women.
• After years of progress on increasing female participation in political life, democracies around the world are now in real danger of regressing if women are driven out of politics.

We know the problem, we know the solutions

• Laws already exist that are supposed to protect women from this kind of abuse but they are not being vigorously enforced.
• It’s also time to rein in the tech platforms and hold them legally accountable for the toxic content they host, pushed out by their algorithms.
• And if the issue isn’t addressed, it could lead to dire consequences for democracy as women retreat from positions of power.

• President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni – Africa’s fourth-longest-serving head of state in 2023 – has cemented his place in history.
• When his men marched into Kampala in 1986, Museveni became the first leader of a popular insurrection to oust a sitting African government.
• Keeping the politically instructive memory of the dark past vividly alive has been his enduring achievement.

The politics of salvation

• His father was a member of the clan of noblemen; his mother was a born-again Christian, a convert of the East African Revival.
• Revivalists were renowned for their loud professions of rectitude and for their wilful disobedience towards traditional authorities.
• It was in politics, not religion, that the young Museveni sought to author other people’s salvation.

The ‘black Che Guevara’

• By the time the Amin regime collapsed in April 1979, Museveni had 9,000 volunteers under his command.
• In December 1980 Ugandans went to the polls to vote in a new government.
• There followed a long guerrilla war, fought between Museveni’s band of militants and the brutal, incompetent military of Obote’s government.
• In January 1986 National Resistance Army militiamen marched into Kampala and formed a new government, with Museveni as president.
• Commentators sometimes referred to Museveni as the “black Che Guevara”.

Commemorating the Bush War

• The awful violence of the Bush War, as it is called, made Museveni’s new government seem essential.
• Today the memory of the Bush War remains a key part of the liturgy of public life.
• Museveni periodically tours Luweero, where the Bush War was largely fought.
• In September this year he celebrated his 79th birthday at Katonga, scene of a key battle of the Bush War.

• Dorothy Bain KC, Lord Advocate of Scotland Scotland’s most senior law officer, the Lord Advocate, has released a statement that would enable NHS Glasgow and Clyde to open a safer drug consumption facility (SDCF) in the city.
• Also known as overdose prevention centres, SDCFs are spaces where people can take their own drugs under supervision.
• They also provide non-judgmental settings where people who use drugs can access wider support or be directed to other services.
• Safer consumption rooms are viewed by many as a critical element of this broader response.

Changing approaches to drug harms

• The request was declined on the basis that what it sought was too broad and beyond the remit of the Lord Advocate.
• Last year a new, narrower request was put to the current Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain.
• The Scottish secretary Alister Jack has since confirmed that “the UK government will not intervene” to prevent a safer consumption room being established.

An essential first step

• It is of enormous significance and will be welcomed by many across the UK who believe these centres can play a vital role in tackling drug harms.
• The terms of the Lord Advocate’s statement are, however, strictly constrained.
• It applies specifically to the Glasgow pilot and is based on assessment of its particular design, setting and operating procedures.
• If we are to really understand the role safer consumption rooms can play in tackling drug harms, we need multiple pilots and evaluations.