when that culture coughs up the likes of Brand and his apologists.

When he had completed writing up the American Constitution people asked Alexander Hamilton what had he produced. ‘A Republic,’ he replied ‘if ye can keep it.’ The point is that democratic politics can only work if those seeking power are motivated to behave themselves when they achieve it. Checks and balances in the system are all fine and good but as we have seen with Johnson Trump Modhi and others, in the present age a bad actor with the right enablers can undermine the whole edifice.
It’s the same story with personal relationships. Societal norms and pressures can give a guide to what’s acceptable but contained within are so many variations as to make any argument you like. So once again all this is wide open to the bad actor. When women hook up with a fella in the public eye they only know from media they make the reasonable assumption, ‘how bad can he be’ . After all his reputation is on the line. This misreading of the reality is what these guys can exploit. There are other factors too not least of which is the whole celebrity culture where so called fame and wealth is elevated to a status which is poisonous to a society. In other words there is plenty of blame to spread around when that culture coughs up the likes of Brand and his apologists.