Isabel Hardman

Isabel Hardman, Lady Walney (born 5 May 1986) is a British political journalist and the assistant editor of The Spectator. In 2015, she was named Journalist of the Year at the Political Studies Association's annual awards.

Quotes

• There is a lesson to be learned from [George] Galloway's comments, though, which is that rape is not well understood at all. When he says something is "not rape as most people understand it", this is because society still largely imagines rape as an unexpected attack on a woman walking down a dark alley late at night. By describing what [Julian] Assange is alleged to have done as "bad sexual etiquette", Galloway demonstrates that he does not understand the legal definition of rape, or of sexual assault for that matter. Neither, he suggests, do many other people.
  • "'Rape as most people understand it'", The Spectator (21 August 2012)

• Last night, an MP who I've only met a couple of times actually said to me as his opening gambit "I want to talk to the totty."
• Have been thinking about whether or not to tweet about it, but actually that is NOT on and lobby women shouldn't have to put up with it.
• So I have passed the MP's name on to a whip. I don't betray sources. But I will betray sexists.
  • From a sequence of tweets, as cited in "MP apologises for calling female political journalist 'totty'", The Telegraph (13 April 2014).
  • The Telegraph (print version known as The Daily Telegraph) and other media sources identified the MP as Bob Stewart who dismissed the story as "political correctness". (Syndicated version of the paywalled Bryony Gordon article published by the Sydney Morning Herald).

• Politicians often repeat the mistakes of the past – the level of turnover in parliament makes it even more likely that no one will notice.
  • "So few can afford to stand for parliament, it’s no wonder we get the wrong MPs", The Guardian (24 April 2022).