#BeingBritish

The murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, a serving Metropolitan Police officer, shocked the UK and made headlines around the world: “In Britain, a London police officer has been sentenced to life in prison for the kidnap, rape and murder of a young woman. In a case that has caused anguish across the UK, a court heard how PC Wayne Couzens pretended to arrest Sarah Everard and used his police handcuffs to kidnap her.”BBC News Wayne Couzens was given a rare whole life term for his crimes – which means he will die in jail. But the fallout from the scandal continues to plague the Metropolitan Police.  Some of his colleagues in the police force had been aware that he was a dangerous sexual predator and had even nicknamed him “The Rapist’”.  Other victims have claimed that Sarah Everard would still be alive if their reports about  Couzens’ offending had been taken seriously in the days before her murder.  A parliamentary inquiry found that the Metropolitan Police breached fundamental human rights when they broke up a vigil for Sarah Everard in South London: [Sound of protests] The handling of the Sarah Everard case – and a number of other scandals involving sexism and misogyny at the Met – would ultimately cost the commissioner, Cressida Dick, her job.   *** It is against this backdrop, that the former victims’ commissioner, Baroness Louise Casey,  launched her year-long review into the conduct of the Metropolitan Police.  And the findings contained within her 363-page report are absolutely damning: “There is without doubt a discriminatory culture right across the Metropolitan Police. It’s not in pockets, it pervades the whole organisation, um, and I think that institutional racism, institutional sexism, institutional misogyny and homophobia are definitely present across the organisation.”BBC News The Casey Review – which includes harrowing testimony from officers about how they have been treated by colleagues – has found that:  Freezers used to store victim rape kits were overfilled. One broke down in the 2022 heatwave meaning rape cases had to be dropped – putting women and children at risk. Around a third of women in the Met Police say they have experienced sexism, with around 12 per cent of female officers experiencing either sexual harassment or assault. Complaints were “likely to be turned against” ethnic minority officers, with Black officers significantly more likely to be in the misconduct system than white colleagues. Casey also noted that Black people in London are ‘over-policed’ and significantly more likely to be stopped and searched, batoned and Tasered than Londoners of different races.  And the detailed review found that one in five lesbian, gay and bisexual Metropolitan Police officers had experienced homophobia at work. Her conclusion is that the Metropolitan Police Service must now be forced to clean up its act… or it faces the prospect of being disbanded.   “I think the Met is not able to assure all of us that its officers are of sufficient integrity and standards to be serving police officers. So, it needs to clean itself up.”BBC News So, what happens now? *** The home secretary, Suella Braveraman, offered this response to Baroness Casey’s review: “The report is clear that there are systemic and chronic problems with leadership and culture and what we need to do is change the culture, change the practice and change the systems in place that are running and regulating the Met.”Sky News The Metropolitan Police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, added that the findings are accurate – but that some of the details had blindsided him:  “It’s upsetting, it’s angering, it’s frustrating. We have let Londoners down. I’m very, very clear about that. The findings are brutal and I think they are accurate. Like lots of others, I have to reflect on why didn’t I see the depth of these issues. Why didn’t I see the toxicity that Louise is calling out in this report?”BBC News But can the Metropolitan Police reform itself? Here’s Mark Rowley again:  “I’ve been more outspoken about the challenges we face than probably any commissioner in decades. Month by month, Londoners will see the issues dealt with. They’ll see policing improve and we’ll make the difference that people expect.”BBC News Others are more sceptical: one woman who reported being raped to the Met Police called the force an “abhorrent institution” and said there was no chance of reforming it.  Baroness Doreen Lawrence – the mother of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence, who was murdered in London in the 90s – said the report laid bare the challenges facing the Met.  *** So, what needs to be done?  Baroness Casey says there are “systemic and fundamental problems in how the Met is run” and the problem with the force is not its size but “inadequate management”.   t the current Metropolitan Police commissioner, Mark Rowley, is committed to addressing disciplinary issues and misconduct in the police force. But Baroness Casey says that London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, and Mr Rowley must now work together to fix the organisation. If not: it may well be the end of the Met as we know it.  This episode was written by Rhys James and mixed by Karla Patella.

What should companies that profited from slavery do now to make amends? Our daily digital ThinkIns are exclusively for Tortoise members and their guests.Try Tortoise free for four weeks to unlock your complimentary tickets to all our digital ThinkIns.If you’re already a member and looking for your ThinkIn access code you can find it in the My Tortoise > My Membership section of the app next to ‘ThinkIn access code’.We’d love you to join us.In the early 1800s, Benjamin Greene was running his own brewery and managing of a number of sugar plantations in the West Indies. When the British government abolished slavery in 1833, he was paid the equivalent of almost £500,000 in today’s money to compensate him for the loss of his ‘property’ – that is, men, women and children who had been kept as slaves on the plantations. Greene’s brewery is now the highly successful Greene King brewery chain, just one of 43,000 UK companies – including several major banks – named on a database at University College London to have directly or indirectly benefited from these compensation payments. What can and should these companies do now to make amends?Editor: James Harding, Editor and Co-founder, TortoiseHow does a digital ThinkIn work?A digital ThinkIn is like a video conference, hosted by a Tortoise editor, that takes place at the advertised time of the event. Digital ThinkIns are new to Tortoise. Now that our newsroom has closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, we feel it’s more important than ever that we ‘get together’ to talk about the world and what’s going on.The link to join the conversation will be emailed to you after you have registered for your ticket to attend. When you click the link, you enter the digital ThinkIn and can join a live conversation from wherever you are in the world. Doors open at 6:25pm for a welcome and briefing. Come early to get settled, meet the team and chat to other members. ThinkIn starts at 6:30pm. Members can enter their unique members’ access code to book tickets. Find yours in My Tortoise > My Membership in the Tortoise app.If you have any questions or get stuck, please read our FAQs, or get in touch with us at memberhelp@tortoisemedia.comRead our ThinkIn code of conduct here. What is a Tortoise ThinkIn?A ThinkIn is not another panel discussion. It is a forum for civilised disagreement. It is a place where everyone has a seat at the (virtual) table. It’s where we get to hear what you think, drawn from your experience, energy and expertise. It is the heart of what we do at Tortoise.

Have the twin pressures of Brexit and Covid gifted independence to the SNP? Our daily digital ThinkIns are exclusively for Tortoise members and their guests.Try Tortoise free for four weeks to unlock your complimentary tickets to all our digital ThinkIns.If you’re already a member and looking for your ThinkIn access code you can find it in the My Tortoise > My Membership section of the app next to ‘ThinkIn access code’.We’d love you to join us.Some commentators suggest that Nicola Sturgeon’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis may be boosting support for Scottish nationalism. The Brexit Trade Bill, some have said, could trigger support for a ‘snap’ independence referendum. One recent poll showed 55% of Scots now favour independence. How has the economic and social case for an independent Scotland changed in a post-Brexit and post-Covid world? Does Sturgeon have the political capital to push through a second referendum, and on what timetable might it play out?Editor: James Harding, Editor and Co-founder, TortoiseOur invited experts include:Fiona Hill is a British political advisor and former Chief of Staff at Number 10 for Theresa May. John Lloyd is a journalist and co-founder of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. He is currently a contributing editor at the Financial Times. How does a digital ThinkIn work?A digital ThinkIn is like a video conference, hosted by a Tortoise editor, that takes place at the advertised time of the event. Digital ThinkIns are new to Tortoise. Now that our newsroom has closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, we feel it’s more important than ever that we ‘get together’ to talk about the world and what’s going on.The link to join the conversation will be emailed to you after you have registered for your ticket to attend. When you click the link, you enter the digital ThinkIn and can join a live conversation from wherever you are in the world. Doors open at 6:25pm for a welcome and briefing. Come early to get settled, meet the team and chat to other members. ThinkIn starts at 6:30pm. Members can enter their unique members’ access code to book tickets. Find yours in My Tortoise > My Membership in the Tortoise app.If you have any questions or get stuck, please read our FAQs, or get in touch with us at memberhelp@tortoisemedia.comRead our ThinkIn code of conduct here. What is a Tortoise ThinkIn?A ThinkIn is not another panel discussion. It is a forum for civilised disagreement. It is a place where everyone has a seat at the (virtual) table. It’s where we get to hear what you think, drawn from your experience, energy and expertise. It is the heart of what we do at Tortoise.

What does Churchill symbolise now? Our daily digital ThinkIns are exclusively for Tortoise members and their guests.Try Tortoise free for four weeks to unlock your complimentary tickets to all our digital ThinkIns.If you’re already a member and looking for your ThinkIn access code you can find it in the My Tortoise > My Membership section of the app next to ‘ThinkIn access code’.We’d love you to join us.In a poll run by the BBC in 2002, the British public voted Winston Churchill number 1 in a list of “100 Greatest Britons”. No Black people featured in the list. Everybody knows that Churchill led the country to victory against Hitler in WW2, but Churchill scholars are the first to admit that he is a controversial and complex figure. Popular history struggles with such nuance. As awareness of his racist language, association with eugenics and accusations of corruption and neglect (particularly in relation to the Bengal famine which killed three million people) has grown, many, especially young, British people are demanding that the role he presently occupies in the national imagination be revised – or erased entirely. Like it or not, Churchill is an enduringly significant symbolic figure. The question is: what does he symbolise now? Following on from the Future of History File published by Tortoise in August, please do join us to explore how, and whether, we can begin to reframe our relationship with Churchill’s legacy.Editor: James Harding, Co-founder and Editor, TortoiseOur invited experts include:Professor Richard Toye is professor of history at Exeter University. He specialises in global and imperial British history from the late nineteenth century to the present day. His latest book Winston Churchill: Politics, Strategy and Statecraft was published in 2017. Chris Bryant MP is a Welsh Labour Party politician and former priest who has been the Member of Parliament for Rhondda since the 2001 general election. How does a digital ThinkIn work?A digital ThinkIn is like a video conference, hosted by a Tortoise editor, that takes place at the advertised time of the event. Digital ThinkIns are new to Tortoise. Now that our newsroom has closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, we feel it’s more important than ever that we ‘get together’ to talk about the world and what’s going on.The link to join the conversation will be emailed to you after you have registered for your ticket to attend. When you click the link, you enter the digital ThinkIn and can join a live conversation from wherever you are in the world. Doors open at 6:20pm for a welcome and briefing. Come early to get settled, meet the team and chat to other members. ThinkIn starts at 6:30pm. Members can enter their unique members’ access code to book tickets. Find yours in My Tortoise > My Membership in the Tortoise app.If you have any questions or get stuck, please read our FAQs, or get in touch with us at memberhelp@tortoisemedia.comRead our ThinkIn code of conduct here.What is a Tortoise ThinkIn?A ThinkIn is not another panel discussion. It is a forum for civilised disagreement. It is a place where everyone has a seat at the (virtual) table. It’s where we get to hear what you think, drawn from your experience, energy and expertise. It is the heart of what we do at Tortoise.

Is Britain becoming more intolerant? It’s fashionable to talk about a creeping nastiness in British life, about a rise in racist attacks and anti-Semitic language, and the fading of a long tradition of live-and-let-live. But not all the evidence points the same way. Injustices are still being ironed out (on gender, gay, or trans rights) and some of the most striking examples of a newly tolerant, accepting Britain – our attitude to same-sex marriage, for one –  seem to be holding steady. What’s the truth about intolerance in the UK? Our special guests for this ThinkIn included: Tasnime Akunjee, criminal defence lawyer who specialises in terrorism law. Asad Dhunna, founder of The Unmistakables and director of communications for Pride. Claire Fox, director of the Academy of Ideas. The Readout What’s the truth about intolerance in the UK? Are we as tolerant of different people and cultures as we think we are?  Let’s start with the data.  Recorded hate crimes have risen in every strand since 2011-12 – with hate crimes relating to transgender and religious issues both increasing by more than 400 per cent. But how are they recorded? Claire Fox (now a Brexit Party MEP) pointed out that the victim does not have to justify or provide evidence of their belief and police officers don’t have to challenge the victim’s perception. Tasnime Akunjee agreed that the definition of a hate crime is problematic, but saw a clear link to political events (the EU Referendum). My colleague Matthew D’Ancona echoed this. Politicians need to take responsibility for the way they affect our public discourse with intolerant language.  Secondly – technology. Asad Dhunna said people increasingly live on the internet, and to function as a society, interacting is important. But we now live in a world where that interaction can happen through a screen with the ability to mute and block. Internet users can then end up living in their own bubble, hearing the same views, not getting perspective. As those online behaviours migrate to the real world, our problems may multiply. And finally there is nothing like lived experience. A common theme in the room was the prevalence of microagressions whether because of gender, race, religion or class. They’re difficult to measure, and can only really be heard. What next? Measurement: can we get to grips with the link between hot political language and events in the world? Like climate and weather, we know that change has consequences. Understanding: the idea of microagressions is relatively new and contested. How do we walk a mile in the shoes of people on the receiving end?

Disunited Kingdom: Does Brexit mean leaving one Union – and then breaking up another?  Brexit has been the spur for the Scottish government to demand a new independence referendum. The vexed question of the Irish border is placing a strain on the relationship between Belfast and London. What will be left of the UK when the constitutional dust settles? What is a Tortoise ThinkIn? A ThinkIn is not another panel discussion. It is a forum for civilised disagreement. Modelled on what we call a ‘leader conference’ in the UK (or an editorial board in the US), it is a place where everyone has a seat at the table. It’s where we get to hear what you think, drawn from your experience, energy and expertise. It’s where, together, we sift through what we know to come to a clear, concise point of view. It is the heart of what we do at Tortoise. Drinks from 6.00pm, starts promptly at 6.30pm. If you are late to a ThinkIn you can ‘SlinkIn’! If you would like to contribute to this ThinkIn, let us know by emailing thinkin@tortoisemedia.com We film our Thinkins so we can watch them back, edit the best bits and share them with members who weren’t there in person. Members can find their ThinkIn booking code in My Tortoise, under My Membership.

Mondays in the Tortoise newsroom get lively. These ThinkIns are the heart of our editorial planning for the weeks ahead. It’s when we discuss what’s happening right now in the world and ask you to help us filter what matters. Come and tell us what you think, what you know, and what you want us to do about it. Together, we’ll figure out how to get to grips with the world around us. At Monday’s ThinkIn we’ll be asking: What’s to blame for the rise of the far-right? What is a Tortoise ThinkIn? A ThinkIn is not another panel discussion. It is a forum for civilised disagreement. Modelled on what we call a ‘leader conference’ in the UK (or an editorial board in the US), it is a place where everyone has a seat at the table. It’s where we get to hear what you think, drawn from your experience, energy and expertise. It’s where, together, we sift through what we know to come to a clear, concise point of view. It is the heart of what we do at Tortoise. Drinks from 5.30pm, starts promptly at 6.00pm. If you are late to a ThinkIn you can ‘SlinkIn’! If you would like to contribute to this ThinkIn, let us know by emailing thinkin@tortoisemedia.com We film our Thinkins so we can watch them back, edit the best bits and share them with members who weren’t there in person. Members can find their ThinkIn booking code in My Tortoise, under My Membership.

The arguments over Brexit, the divisions between London and the rest of the country, the ties between the four nations of the UK have all strained the idea of a sense of nationhood.  How do we refresh the ties that bind us as a country? Do we want to? And, if so, would a modern national service, whether as a period of military or social service, improve social cohesion, social mobility and a shared sense of belonging?   What is a Tortoise ThinkIn? A ThinkIn is not another panel discussion. It is a forum for civilised disagreement. Modelled on what we call a ‘leader conference’ in the UK (or an editorial board in the US), it is a place where everyone has a seat at the table. It’s where we get to hear what you think, drawn from your experience, energy and expertise. It’s where, together, we sift through what we know to come to a clear, concise point of view. It is the heart of what we do at Tortoise. Drinks from 6.00pm, starts promptly at 6.30pm. If you are late to a ThinkIn you can ‘SlinkIn’! If you would like to contribute to this ThinkIn, let us know by emailing thinkin@tortoisemedia.com We film our Thinkins so we can watch them back, edit the best bits and share them with members who weren’t there in person. Members can find their ThinkIn booking code in My Tortoise, under My Membership.