Claire Black: Online attacks diminish us all

I MAKE no secret of my fondness for salty language. But the vitriol that’s floating about the internet like a thick, rank layer of scum is starting to make me feel queasy.

Tory MP Louise Mensch is the latest in a growing line of women in the public eye willing to highlight the abuse she is subjected to online. Mensch “favourited” some of the tweets she received after her various TV appearances discussing the parliamentary report on Rupert Murdoch. Truly grim reading.

Frankly, it doesn’t feel great to agree with Mensch on anything – our politics aren’t exactly sympathetic – but when she says “Abuse directed at women is always sexual or violent”, I find that I do. I might use “far too often” rather than “always”, but the gist is the same.

In recent days Mensch has been called a “slut”, a “whore” and a “bitch”. There were jokes about her being raped and lots of others about whether men “would”. By that they mean they would have sex with her. Not sex as in a mutually satisfying, pleasurable experience – they mean they’d like to give her a good seeing to; the impulse is a violent one.

I wonder what @AberdeenBastard feels when he sees the gem he sent to Mensch (“Heard you licking Murdoch’s ring earlier you twit. Fancy a ride?”) in her list? Do you think he’s ashamed? Do you think he regrets what he said?

Thirteen people have been arrested so far for naming on Twitter the woman raped by footballer Ched Evans, using language not dissimilar to that thrown at Mensch. It feels as though the volume and vitriol that women face online is increasing.

Some have argued that anonymity is the problem. In part, I agree; why shouldn’t people use their real names when tweeting? But the real shock I feel when I read these tweets is that men, even just a few, harbour this level of rage and aggression towards women they don’t even know. And more, that they feel they are entitled to share it. There’s the real challenge.

And if the police bringing prosecutions, as well as more of the naming and shaming that Mensch has begun, are the first steps towards doing that, then bring it on.

THE new Good Beach Guide is out. Scotland has 5 per cent fewer beaches – just 45 out of 110 – where bathing is recommended. Heavy rainfall is to blame, apparently.

Obviously this is bad news. I love our beaches: Yellowcraig in East Lothian, Sandwood Bay in Sutherland, the Singing Sands in Ardnamurchan. But as soon as I think about entering open water anywhere near Scotland, my brain freezes. Being discouraged from such foolhardy behaviour strikes me as entirely appropriate.

ERM, what’s going on, Barbara Broccoli? First we hear James Bond is eschewing vodka martinis for Heineken in his new escapade, Skyfall. And now we hear he’s going to be knighted by the Queen as part of the Olympic ceremony. No. No. No.

Frankly, as a pint lover, I can live with the lager – surely he’ll be drinking it from a chilled glass rather than a can? But a knighthood? Bond wouldn’t. At least that’s what he said when he was offered the honour in The Man With The Golden Gun.

His grounds? Only that he is “a Scottish peasant and will always feel at home being a Scottish peasant”. Too true. «