Women-friendly politics is not about your beliefs on controversial issues like abortion, as the media report (this is more a personal belief or faith that likely won’t change). It’s about creating societies where women earn the same as men, and laws are in place to protect them like safer streets and penalties for domestic abuse (which also affects some men).
The Suffragette movement was heroic in some ways, but tragic in others. Not only did some bomb buildings, but a poor horse was also injured, when one woman threw herself in its path (the lady had already been imprisoned twice for hurling rocks at the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s car).
Her cause was just – but it was not the horse’s fault, just as dolphins who had toxic paint thrown into their Bristol river were to blame, when toppling the statue of a slave trader. It was only in 1918 that the House of Lords gave ‘approval’ for women over 30 to vote, and only 1928 when women over 21 could vote.
We have had not-very-nice female leaders. But it does seem at present, that most of the ‘mad tyrants’ are old, white and rich. The more peaceful Scandinavian countries all tend to have young female leaders (Finland’s Green Party leader spent time in a shelter as a child, in the first country to hit ‘zero homelessness’).
Some Tories cite Margaret Thatcher as the ultimate ‘great woman leader’. Of course, miners would disagree. But it’s interesting that ex-MP Matthew Harris once got stuck in a lift with her, and said up-close she had ‘the eyes of an exhausted woman’. Perhaps her legacy of not looking after the most vulnerable in society began to haunt her, even before her death.
Outgoing Green MP Caroline Lucas famously campaigned to get page-3 girls off the newspapers, joining the ‘news, not boobs’ campaign! She wore a slogan t-shirt in the House of Commons and was told unless she changed, she would be thrown out. She said it was quite funny that she was getting thrown out for wearing clothes, for trying to protect vulnerable girls who were asked to take their clothes off to let men ogle them!
We Need Fairer Voting Systems
Register to vote (ask to opt out of the open register, so your name is not sold on. And write to your MP on issues that affect you: they work for you!
One way we could get better MPs is to have a fairer voting system, which would encourage more independent MPs that actually have lived life, rather than just studied politics, worked as interns and then become MPs. That’s not likely to happen, as the two main parties want to retain the status quo.
Electoral Reform Society recommends Single Transferable Vote as the best system ((used in Ireland, which has many independent MPs).
The argument given for first-past-the-post is that it maintains strong constituency links (nonsense considering many MPs are ‘flown in’ to fight seats where they don’t live – Nigel Farage did not grow up in Clacton-on-Sea).
Unlike most PR systems, STV maintains strong constituency links, which is also good to reduce the risk of extremist MPs being elected.
It also states that the present voting system means present MPs hold onto ‘one safe seat’ often for decades, and that’s why it’s more difficult to get more independent MPs elected. Under the present system, few seats change hands, unless someone is retiring or dies.
