FELLOW columnist Harry Mead left me spitting with rage last week.

In his column (The Northern Echo, January 18) he wrote: “Drink and sex – yes, a perilous combination. Especially if the drink, particularly by a woman, gets out of hand.”

He went on to quote the accused’s barrister from a rape trial of a student, in which a jury failed to reach a verdict, who warned young men of the dangers of drinking heavily and then having sex.

She warned that if a woman appeared to be drunk, men “shouldn’t go there”, and called for a campaign to educate young men about taking advantage of intoxicated women.

But Mr Mead, brought up in the generation when, tragically, drunken date rape was almost acceptable, and the blame was usually placed at the feet of the “wanton” women, seemed to have a problem with this. Apparently, women shouldn’t get themselves drunk, or it seems, they get everything they deserve.

No, no, no. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Just. Don’t. Rape people.

Sex without proper consent – and that involves the victim being conscious and aware enough to give that consent – is rape. The onus here is on the rapist not to rape, otherwise we just go back to the old “she was asking for it, getting that drunk”, victim-blaming culture. I say old, but this attitude is unfortunately still alive and kicking.

A study just this month found that two in five men – that’s 40 per cent of the male population – believe a drunk woman wearing a short skirt is to blame if they are sexually assaulted.

We live in the 21st Century. Women should be free and safe to enjoy their lives, to have a drink, to walk the streets, and wear whatever the hell they like, without the blame being placed at their door for male violence.

Why should a woman still have to justify her behaviour in a court of law if she is raped? Why should she have to explain if she was drunk?

And why is there some kind of automatic assumption by the general public and some parts of the media that she is probably lying, or over-reacting, if a woman makes a rape complaint, or that it is somehow her fault? No wonder the rape conviction rate is a pitiful seven per cent.

At the weekend, an estimated five million women marched to send a message to the world that women’s rights were human rights. Harry Mead, you would do well to remember that.

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A letter was sent to our editor last week from a reader complaining about my (he didn’t get it, but tongue-in-cheek) reference that being British “sucks sometimes”.

He was complaining vehemently about people’s use of “Americanisms” in everyday speech and was angry about my choice of words.

What didn’t come across in the letter, as our editor politely corrected his spelling, was that the reader had mis-spelled “Britain” as “Briton”.

Here’s an Americanism for you. If you’re going to be a smartass, make sure you’re smart, otherwise you’re just an ass.