Before I get started on my own true story of sexual harassment, I should set the scene for readers outside the UK. Lord Rennard, a Liberal Democrat peer, has recently been accused of being bad at keeping his hands to himself, an accusation that he denies. It’s been quite tricky and embarrassing for the Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, who has been doing some fumbling himself in his handling of the crisis.

The story has been the cue for women writers and political aides bravely to come forward to air their I-was-the-victim-of-sexual-harassment-in-Westminster stories. Writing in the Telegraph, Cathy Newman described the trauma of being chatted up in a bar by a newspaper editor, an experience she found “intimidating and unpleasant”. Then this newspaper published a blog post from an unnamed woman claiming to have been propositioned by MPs of all parties and by half of Fleet Street too. “We must not accept this behaviour any longer,” she declared.

I feel this is the right time to break my own silence and tell my story of being sexually harassed at work. The reason that I’ve kept quiet about it all these years is not because, as is often claimed, it is painful for women to talk about such things. On the contrary, I’ve been longing for an opportunity to air it, and now – hooray – I have one.