I’m not going to defend Brand, I’m not going to defend anyone - but I balk at the idea of having public accusations as a substitute for the legal system. Dispatches is not an impartial judge weighing up the merits of a case, it is a TV show which must get ratings. The court process is slow, evidence is boring, but it is necessary for justice….

Aaaah you’ll say…. What about justice for those who Brand allegedly hurt. Well, if people genuinely care about such things (and they do) they will support specialist police officers, specialist trained forensics, specialist lawyers, specialist experts. These cost money but it’ll be money well spent.

Once these are in place, we will have no need of trial by public opinion. Details of defendant and accuser will remain behind closed doors until the trial is over. The opposite of this is that we will run society like a soviet era terrified citizenship, in which accusations will become weapons - have we learned nothing from Depp vs Heard? That’s not feminism. Feminism (improving the equal rights of both sexes) is done via the courts.

Things need to change. This is not the direction society needs to pick to get there.