A complaint to Portsmouth City Council
I don't think an elected official should be involved with threats of sexual violence against women.
On October the 19th I wrote the following email to Cllr Claire Udy.
I was a participant in the FiLiA conference on 16th and 17th October 2021 at the Portsmouth Guildhall. I understand you are one of the organisers of a protest against this event - as is your right. When I attended on Saturday morning it seemed the protest was calm and respectful and I was grateful for it.
Later than day however I saw a variety of offensive and threatening signs offering sexual violence to women, some chalked on the floor, visible to all families and children passing through the square. From your Facebook posts you seem to be in support of these messages.
I would be grateful for your reassurances that you do not support such offensive and dangerous misogyny and that you did not encourage any protester to engage with it. If you are not willing nor able to do so, I will take this further. I do not think engaging with or supporting this kind of behaviour is acceptable for a politician.
Foolishly, I mispelled her surname and the email was returned to me. So I sent it again, and added this
Apologies for mis-spelling your surname which meant my email below was returned undelivered.
I would be grateful for your response by October 26th 2021 otherwise I will make formal complaint regarding breach of paras 1, 2 and 7 of your Code of Conduct.
It is November 3rd and I have received no substantive reply, nor even any acknowledgement. I shall therefore proceed with my complaint. Ms Udy has chosen to comment via Facebook so it is odd that my emails are simply ignored.
At #FiLiA2021 we were urged to do one thing every day. Unless sarcastic/exasperated tweeting can count, I can’t promise to do one thing a day. But I will definitely do one thing a week. This is one of my things for this week. You can read more about the misogynistic abuse at the conference here.
I should not have had to stand adjacent to a chalked pink penis inviting me to ‘suck it’ as the names of women murdered by male violence appeared on a screen before me. This might not cross the threshold for criminal behaviour - but I certainly think that it is behaviour that no credible elected politician, in receipt of public money, should support.
Well said Sarah. Force an answer out of this disgraceful person, who should not be holding a position of public office at all.
She acknowledged the "potentially" offensive sign calling women c*nts but failed to condemn it. She didn't distance herself from the protesters but tried to shift blame to women for taking pictures of them holding signs inciting misogynistic hate and sex based violence. She called their anti woman propaganda "beautiful artwork". All pretty damning really. No wonder she's too cowardly to respond to you as an elected representative or at least as an adult. She is certainly unfit for office.