Joan Bakewell says 1960s freedom mindset has been subverted, as focus is now on what we 'mustn't do'
Joan Bakewell has said the 1960s freedom mindset has been subverted, as the focus is now on what we 'mustn't do'.
The Baroness disagrees with upcoming strict rules banning Oxford professors from having relationships with students.
She said that the attitude is at odds with the "free" way she grew up, and that she finds it hard to understand.
Baroness Bakewell told the Observer: "Obviously I don't believe in harassment and things like that, but we do risk a situation where anything you don't like, or you feel is inappropriate for your group, should in some way have a limitation on it which borders on legal.
"I don't quite like that. I don't quite like the feeling that these regulations are being enforced on me. I mean, I lived through the 1960s, which was all about gaining more freedom - sexual freedom, language freedom. Religious freedom! Civil rights! Now it's about freedom, in a sense, but, we mustn't do th is, and we mustn't do that. It's quite a different mindset."
However, the Labour politician said she is glad that sexual harassment has become more unacceptable in recent years, because when she grew up, dealing with unwanted attention was "how you lived your life".
She herself was sexually assaulted by a government minister when she had to take a taxi with him many years ago, and said: "But that's how you lived your life, because men were making passes at you all the time. Grabbing. Pinching. Squeezing. You know? And there was no point in complaining because the men you complained to would be doing it, too. It was the water you swam in and you got used to avoiding the rocks and the sharks. You made your own way.
"To see that go away, and to see that suddenly be so unacceptable is? how extraordinary. People are more assertive now. I sort of accepted the world as it was."
The peer recently launched a legal challenge against the government for delaying the second covid-19 jab in order to innoculate more people with the first injection.
She said there were grounds to show the decision taken by ministers to delay the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by up to 12 weeks was unlawful.
Originally, those having the jab were told their doses would be given 21 days apart but the government stretched the timeline for the second dose to between three and 12 weeks.
