How wrong for sarah everard's death to be hijacked by men-haters

By SARAH VINE FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY Published: 20:14 EDT, 13 March 2021 | Updated: 04:56 EDT, 14 March 2021 As the mother myself of a beautiful, vibrant young girl on the cusp of womanhood,

Sarah Everard’s abduction and killing cuts me to the quick. I look at photos of her big, clear eyes, see that hopeful, happy smile, and my heart breaks. On this, Mothering Sunday, Sarah is

all our daughters, and her family’s loss an agony we all share. The fact that the person charged with her murder is a Metropolitan Police officer makes it so much more shocking. If it

transpires that the people responsible for protecting the public can’t be trusted, then who can? Understandable, then, that so many have wanted to come together, like the Duchess of

Cambridge, to share their distress and remember Sarah.  Also to share their own stories of late-night fear on the streets. All perfectly normal responses to a horrible tragedy. But one thing

I do object to – indeed, I find distasteful and disrespectful – is why some have sought to turn the tragedy to their political advantage. For them, it is part of a culture war against

so-called ‘toxic masculinity’ and men in general. Typical was Green Party peer Baroness Jones who suggested that the best way to prevent violence against women is for a 6pm curfew for men.

She subsequently claimed she hadn’t been serious – but was highlighting the danger of ‘victim-blaming’. But that was too late. Not only is Parliament, where she made the comment, not a place

for such loose words but in an age of social media, many are apt to jump on such a bandwagon. Soon after, the hashtag ‘curfewformen’ began trending on Twitter, with various rival factions

trading insults in the usual unedifying way. All the while 33-year-old Sarah’s body was lying undiscovered in woodland in Kent.  Then, last night, there was something very wrong about male

police officers manhandling distressed women at Sarah’s vigil. It can’t be the best look for the Metropolitan Police right now. But the fact is her killing and her family’s deep personal

tragedy have been turned into a public slanging match. There is no doubt in my mind that our streets are not as safe as they should be for women – of all ages. Even I have felt this. Once,

quite recently, a man accosted me as I was walking my dogs late at night with a variety of unseemly suggestions. As a young woman in my 20s, I was attacked at knifepoint in Herne Hill, South

London. Thankfully a neighbour (a man, as it happens) intervened. On a separate occasion, a man broke into my bedroom and stood at the end of the bed. Once again, I was very lucky: my

flatmate chose that exact moment to come home and the intruder bolted out the front door. My daughter tells me that not a day goes by that someone doesn’t harass her on the London Tube or on

the way home from school. Every time she leaves the house, I worry for her safety. But the notion that any one man’s despicable actions should in some way define the entire male sex is

patently absurd. It’s the same as suggesting that just because a tiny minority of Islamists hold extremist views, then all Muslims are capable of committing acts of terror.  To hold such

beliefs is the height of prejudice, and calculated to incite hatred against innocent people – in this case the millions of good, kind men who would never even contemplate doing anything

violent to a woman. The truth is, the only person who matters here is Sarah Everard. A young woman who, one night, met a dreadful evil on her way home. A woman whose life was about so much

more than her death. And who deserves better than to have her memory hijacked in such a callous and opportunistic way. Apparently there’s another 30 minutes of unseen footage from the Oprah

interview. Must be the bit where she asks Meghan about the bullying allegations and why she wore those tainted Saudi diamonds. Or maybe not. BBC’s Terror is a sheer delight  I rarely

binge-watch shows, but The Terror on BBC2, about a doomed attempt by two British warships to carve a route through the Northwest Passage in 1845, is so superb I can’t stop myself.  The

incredible cast – Jared Harris, Tobias Menzies, Ciaran Hinds – combined with superlative cinematography (Ridley Scott is executive producer) and a brilliant script make this one of the most

gripping things I’ve seen all lockdown.  Best of all, it avoids so many of the heavy-handed cliches about colonialism and race that seem to infect period drama these days – and just lets the

actions of the c  Striding across a windswept Clapham Common in a Barbour and jeans, the Duchess of Cambridge pays her respects to Sarah Everard. No fuss, no gloss, no drama, just honest

sentiment. Watch and learn, Meghan, watch and learn.  My niggling issue with Vogue’s Anna US Vogue, whose editor-in-chief is Anna Wintour, this week absurdly accused me of racism for the use

of the word ‘niggling’ in a headline on a piece I wrote about the Sussexes’ engagement pictures. My accuser compounded this smear by dismissing me as ‘wife of’.  My son was furious. Funny

old world where a 16-year-old boy shows more feminist empathy than the woman who oversees the world’s most famous fashion mag.  At the ripe old age of 97, Murray Walker has gone to the great

Grand Prix in the sky. I’ll always associate him with Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain, the theme tune to the BBC’s Formula 1 programmes. RIP, Murray. I hope they play the song at your funeral. 

Hurling insults isn’t clever or funny, Nish Responding to the cancellation of his so-called satirical comedy show The Mash Report, Nish Kumar posted a picture of himself gesturing to a

graphic that read ‘BORIS JOHNSON IS A LIAR AND A RACIST’.  Which sums it all up – although not in the frightfully clever way Kumar no doubt imagines. Satire, as defined by the dictionary, is

‘the use of humour, irony, exaggeration or ridicule to expose and criticise people’s stupidity or vices’. Which is not the same as just lobbing crass insults.  After years of playing fast

and loose with the truth in The Crown, Netflix announces a crackdown on viewers who play fast and loose by sharing subscription log-ins. Bit rich for a firm that rakes in $2.8 billion a

year?  * With hairdressers re-opening tomorrow in Wales, it may be time, as a Swansea girl, to rediscover my (grey) roots.  Last week, I wrote about why I thought nurses deserved more than a

one per cent pay rise; this week I see some GPs are earning £700,000 a year. Whatever else this pandemic has taught us about the NHS, it’s that – as an organisation – it clearly requires

urgent reform. Hillary Clinton has a brass neck lecturing the Royal Family about ‘cruelty’. This is the woman who turned a blind eye (and that’s putting it kindly) to the character

assassination of Monica Lewinsky. If anyone knows anything about the lengths some people will go to protect their power, it’s her. Sarah Harding, ex-singer with Girls Aloud, says she doesn’t

expect to live to see Christmas after she put off getting her breast cancer symptoms checked because of Covid. She’s 39, beautiful and a talented young woman. An absolute tragedy.     Sarah

EverardKate Middleton