The most uncontrite resignation ever

The press conference by the Green co-leaders over the resignation of Golriz Ghahraman for alleged shoplifting was incredibly tone deaf. You would have thought that Ghahraman was the victim, rather than the actual victims.

Trying to excuse what happened as being due to stress from the job is insulting to all the people who are also very stressed but don’t shoplift.

Yes it seems bizarre that someone who is in the top 1% of income earners would shoplift, but that doesn’t make it less worse. And the value of the items allegedly stolen were high enough to be difficult for even someone on an MPs salary to afford.

It is not as if this was a one off moment of madness. There were (at least) three incidents. How many more were there? A truly contrite person would actually apologise to the victims.

The resignation was stated to be the best thing for Ghahraman’s mental health. That isn’t why she should resign. The resignation should have been about the fact you can’t be an MP and commit serious crimes. Both her statement and the co-leaders statements made it all about her, rather than the victims and the importance of MPs not to repeatedly break the law.

Golriz, like all of us, is imperfect. Few of us never stuff up, do something we regret etc. You shouldn’t judge people by the worst thing they have done, but by their overall contribution. But when you do stuff up, you should be contrite.