Published: Wednesday, 10th March, 2010 1:00pm

Dawn Fyfe - Voice of Dissent

YOU would think at times of crisis everyone would pull together, buckle down and try to move forward together.

It always amazes me that people do not.

West Dunbartonshire is going to witness some of the most difficult cuts we have seen over the next few years.

The initial cuts of £2.6m will probably only be the start. As we know, once Government gets wind that we are willing to accept cuts, more will come.

The Labour Group in the area is focusing on the potential loss of the Early Intervention and Network Support Team. Now, although this would be a great loss to West Dunbartonshire, by focusing on one area, the Labour Group is avoiding all the difficult questions.

Why are we funding Trident, why are we still bombing Iraq and why are we still no further forward with the reduction in child poverty?

We need our local elected members to stand up and be counted within their parties.

What is the point in local elections if those elected do not ensure that our needs are represented at national level?

The Labour Party flies on the coat tails of how Scotland was destroyed by the Tories, how it fought for working class people's rights against the Tory attack.

Well, what happened to "things can only get better"?

People believed that the Labour Party would deliver and now here we sit awaiting the latest attack of cuts.

Not that the SNP is much better.

It has not had so long to make a mess of the country, but already we are worrying about the transference of housing stock, just after the schools debacle.

The Trade Unions Council in the area has created a petition (http://www.gopetition.com/online/34057.html) that people can sign and there are meetings being held over the next few months, which hopefully people will get along to.

However we need elected representatives to pull together for the good of our community.

Ongoing tit-for-tat letters in the local press do not instil confidence in residents.

So let is pull it in and put political party squabbling aside during this time.

A RECENT survey of women has shown that almost three quarters thought women shared some responsibility when raped.

I do not know why we are surprised at this.

From birth women are told to curtail their behaviour to avoid abuse.

Do not wear short skirts, do not talk to strange men, do not drink alcohol, all the rules to be obeyed.

I have even read research that suggests that it is women going to work that has seen the increase in attacks.

These messages tell girls and women by taking these steps you will avoid rape, but this is not true.

Women are most at risk of rape and abuse at the hands of a man they know, probably someone they have been intimate at some time in their lives.

Women do not go into relationships believing their partner will abuse them, just like they do not drink alcohol with the intention to be raped.

It is the responsibility of the abuser alone for the abuse. It is the intention of a rapist to rape and therefore his crime to be answered.

Survey findings like these are disturbing, however it is frightening for women to think that all these restrictions might not work and as the United Nations has acknowledged: "In today's world, to be born female is to be born high risk. Every girl grows up under the threat of violence."

It is sometimes easier to blame women than to recognise the horror of the facts.