Prurience and Puritanism, humanity and frailty

This has been a complicated and depressing week full of shades of grey that few are properly acknowledging. That means we are in a more dangerous moment than we think.

So now we all know two things:

1. The BBC Presenter is Huw Edwards. Who has been hospitalised indefinitely due to mental health.

2. The police have concluded that there is no criminal case to answer.

Some of the behaviours discussed have definitely been troubling and will have had an impact on people in Edwards’ life and workplace. He hasn’t been exonerated as such - and despite what we know in fact one, condemnation of him in the public arena - on TV and on social media - rages on.

This is a difficult post to get right. I haven’t been this nervous about the reaction to a post since I wrote about sex and gender. I know that some of those who liked that post will dislike my lack of clarity on this issue. But I am unclear. And while forthright opinions is the bread and butter of opinion writing, sometimes exposing and examining that lack of clarity is also important.

Because, for me, this is a difficult needle to thread. I’m still puzzling over where I will land on a lot of this stuff. I think my own reactions are moving and, I wonder, if that’s true of me - who was really quite militant during the #Metoo moment - how true is it of people in general and what impact will that have both on victims and on the culture?