Russell Brand: victim or villain?
Excellent. JIM McNAMARA
You always seem to come thru with a rational and fair cover of a topic and you have with this. It feels that the women’s experience in this and women’s treatment generally with the police appear to have taken a back seat on social media. Sadly I’ve had to unfollow some people over the way they cannot understand how reluctant women are to go to the police, particularly in light of all that has been in the press about the police in general and women. To be sexually assaulted is traumatic in itself, but not to recognise that is disheartening. CYNTHIA WILLIAMS
When you see the media hysteria over this case, which by the way is glossing over the current Online Safety Bill, it seems overreaction when compared to the comparable coverage of MPs who have been accused of similar crimes. But maybe their addresses were in Epstein’s black book whilst Brand’s is not.
As always, most of the population are busy looking over there whilst the government elected by less than half the voting population continues with its nefarious skulduggery. DAVID STIRRUP
I rarely watch Russell Brand anymore because his sensational headings leave me annoyed, like the chicken that keeps shouting the sky is falling. His politics at the start seemed to be anarchist but as his channel and celebrity status have increased so has it fed his narcissism. His politics seem to now be: “Can’t we all just get along?” I have no problem listening to the Libertarian right, as even a one-handed clock is right once a day, but I listen critically and try to learn how they are messaging so I can combat it. I suppose it was inevitable that he would be brought down, as YouTubers like him and Joe Rogan exceeds the listeners of legacy media. Julian Assange’s case started with a bogus rape allegations. NIGEL THOMAS
I’m pretty sure Brand remains a self-absorbed sexist with ADHD. He may no longer be a sex addict and may no longer hold misogynistic views, but that will only become apparent in his reaction to the growing accusations from women, and it hasn’t been a great start.
He may not believe his actions amount to criminal behaviour, he may not recall all of it, and, as he is potentially facing prison time, he will fight.
At the moment he is framing it only as a media attack that dismisses his accusers’ experiences. However, he very much courted and enjoyed all that mainstream media brought him; he was mainstream, and his appalling attitude to women was dressed up as humour.
His reinvention may be genuine, but it would hardly be a surprise to find that his past abuses of power over women included criminal behaviour, and that should be investigated and addressed, no matter the motives of the media. LINDA FERGUSON
And who’s got the Libyan oil now? BP?? Shell? Certainly not the Libyan people anymore. NIGEL THOMAS
Life long socialist. Now retired, I have been an office junior, a bookseller, a docker and a teacher. I write a lot and read a lot more. Committed member of the Society of Authors, English PEN and the National Education Union. Never voting Labour again.