Julia Hartley Dooda Rape Joke Fail

News that a Tory MP, revealed to be someone in his 50s from the 2001 intake, had been arrested on suspicion of indecent assault, sexual assault, rape, abuse of position of trust and misconduct in public office between 2002 and 2009, was a serious revelation, or rather, it was for most people. For those more interested in promoting Themselves Personally Now, however, it was just another means of scoring some notoriety points.

Pretentious? Who, moi?

Those in this category, to no surprise at all, included Murdoch property TalkTV’s tedious self-promotion specialist Julia Hartley Brewer, another of those clever people who talk loudly in restaurants and know everything about everything. For Ms Hartley Dooda, there would be no barrel remaining unscraped in her quest for more attention.

And so it came to pass: after TalkTV’s Twitter feed brought the news “BREAKING: A Conservative MP has been asked to stay away from Parliament amid an investigation, the Tory whips office said, after it was reported an unnamed MP has been arrested on suspicion of rape”, she was in there like a shot. “Top tip for male Tory MPs: make sure you are VERY visible at Westminster tomorrow”. Laugh? I thought I’d never start.

She was also prepared to gain notoriety points by excusing the appalling Michael Fabricant, who apparently made light of the matter and later deleted a Tweet after being leaned on by the Tory whips. “I think male Tory MPs have the right to make it clear that they are NOT the (as yet unnamed) MP accused of rape. Seems pretty reasonable to me” she trilled. And she was ready and willing to argue this with her own colleagues.

So when Kate McCann, political editor of, er, TalkTV, countered “I don’t think that’s the main issue with the tweet”, another self-promotion opportunity beckoned. “But it was the main point of his tweet. Exclamation marks and emojis don't take away from this”. She was right, she had more followers, and that was that. And then she went totally OTT.

After one Tweeter responded to her assertion that Tory MPs had the right to show they were not the accused by telling “You're right, they do. However, they don't have the right to make a joke out of it”, she just had to play the contrarian. “1. He didn't. Exclamation marks don't = joke. 2. Yes, everyone has the right to make jokes about everything, including rape and worse. It's called free speech”. FREEZE PEACH! FREEZE PEACH!!

You do not, repeat do not, repeat DO NOT joke about rape. But after someone prodded her with “Tell us a rape joke”, off she went. “I don't really tell jokes, but I've laughed at many good jokes about rape. If you don't like a joke, don't laugh. But people can make jokes about anything they want”. Good jokes about rape? Shine a light.

Moving right along from the thought that not going anywhere near those summer parties held by the increasingly alt-right Spectator magazine may be a wise move, one Tweeter responded “'I've laughed at many good jokes about rape’ … No you haven't because there's no such thing as a good joke about rape … I’ve talked about my own rape frequently. As a rape survivor I'm asking you to tell me just ONE of the GOOD jokes you've laughed at about rape … I’ll wait”. There were many more in the same vein.

Not many people tune in to TalkTV. And after this latest self-promotion failure from Ms Hartley Dooda, that situation may be highly unlikely to change. Good thing too.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton