Lesley Thomas has an op-ed in the Telegraph about rape and consent. She discusses the complexity of the complex issues and argues that cover-all-consent laws are not the solution to avoid rape. Sugary excerpt:
Sex, alcohol and consent make blurry bedfellows. Which of us hasn't said yes after a drink or two? Who, apart from recovering alcoholics, has sex without it for that matter? Some cruel commentator said of Jo Brand, the chubby, back-combed comedienne, that a man would have to be drunk to sleep with her. She quipped, rightly, that most men would never get laid were it not for alcohol. In this equality-minded society of ours women wear beer goggles, too.
[…] I think it's fair to say that young women can be very stupid. In city centres up and down the country they are binge-drinking their way to oblivion on Saturday nights. Binge drinking can lead to binge bonking.
There's nothing stupid or immoral about having lots of sex but often, these women sleep with men they later wish they hadn't. Regrettable sex is never a good idea but these women are not, as some headlines suggest, crying rape at the moment of regret. They feel the same as men do when they wish they hadn't - except with more guilt.
The key issue is always about to do to make sure that people understand that rape is a general intent crime and not a specific intent crime that is that the state of mind of the defendant doesn't matter and therefore shouldn't be the focus of the discussion. Once this issue is resolved, I believe that the issue of consent becomes less complicated since the only relevant question is not whether the defendant thought that the rape victim consented, but just whether s/he consented.
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