Vote for women, for students, for anything
On Tuesday at 7.15pm the Sheffield Fems will be hosting 'What About Women?' One part of a national campaign to get our prospective new MPs to be up front about the policies that will affect women in the next Parliament.
You may have noticed that the major political parties are clamouring over the new 'young mums' vote. As far as I was aware young mums always existed, but it seems to be the first time West minister has even noticed they are a significantly large part of the electoral pie. Cue a deluge of snappy policies designed to woo the politically unaligned woman, ranging from 20 hours free childcare, 19 months parental leave and various niche tax breaks, women have a wealth of policies to pick and choose from.
However I was disheartened when absent mindedly watching 'This Morning' in a Coventry hotel room, I realised the Lovely Lorraine and a female journalist were bemoaning this new interest politicians had in their lives. The general tone was 'stuff it Gordon we've got this far without your help we don't need you now'. Whilst I can understand this attitude I was horrified at the thought of spurning this communication out of pride. Yes it's a gimmick and yes they all want to get their mits on a few more votes, but I'm of the personal opinion that it's about time to get our moneys worth. You want Lorraine's endorsement that you're the right party to vote for? Well then you had better come up with something better than these half baked excuses for a manifesto policy on women.
Essentially I would rather use this new flattery and fawning the political parties have developed towards women to its best advantage. The pay gap still exists, Parliament is only 20% female and paternal leave is currently available to fathers for only 2 weeks. I am ecstatic that parties have started to address these areas as serious vote winners but I'm looking for something better in a political party than a vacuous statement about how terribly awful the pay gap is. I'm hoping that at tonight's hustings I'll get some better answers from the Sheffield prospective parliamentary candidates.
The event takes place on 23rd March at 7.15pm at the Quaker Meeting House, 10 St James Street, Sheffield.
You may have noticed that the major political parties are clamouring over the new 'young mums' vote. As far as I was aware young mums always existed, but it seems to be the first time West minister has even noticed they are a significantly large part of the electoral pie. Cue a deluge of snappy policies designed to woo the politically unaligned woman, ranging from 20 hours free childcare, 19 months parental leave and various niche tax breaks, women have a wealth of policies to pick and choose from.
However I was disheartened when absent mindedly watching 'This Morning' in a Coventry hotel room, I realised the Lovely Lorraine and a female journalist were bemoaning this new interest politicians had in their lives. The general tone was 'stuff it Gordon we've got this far without your help we don't need you now'. Whilst I can understand this attitude I was horrified at the thought of spurning this communication out of pride. Yes it's a gimmick and yes they all want to get their mits on a few more votes, but I'm of the personal opinion that it's about time to get our moneys worth. You want Lorraine's endorsement that you're the right party to vote for? Well then you had better come up with something better than these half baked excuses for a manifesto policy on women.
Essentially I would rather use this new flattery and fawning the political parties have developed towards women to its best advantage. The pay gap still exists, Parliament is only 20% female and paternal leave is currently available to fathers for only 2 weeks. I am ecstatic that parties have started to address these areas as serious vote winners but I'm looking for something better in a political party than a vacuous statement about how terribly awful the pay gap is. I'm hoping that at tonight's hustings I'll get some better answers from the Sheffield prospective parliamentary candidates.
The event takes place on 23rd March at 7.15pm at the Quaker Meeting House, 10 St James Street, Sheffield.
posted by Amy Sutherland at
03:58
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