All Women shortlists and why we need more of them in politics not less....

The issue of an all women shortlist is an issue of great contention for many in politics, Labour has had since the 90s and we have seen 36% of MPs in the Labour Party being women, compared to the days of the 70s and 80s when Parliament was seen as an old boys club, women in parliament has changed the make up of Parliament for the better, it has lowered the age of MPs it has led to changes in the hours of Parliament meaning it is a lot easier to have a family and be an MP than it was before, it means that MPs within commuting distance no longer have to live in London for most of the time due to better hours of work for MPs, and it means parliament is finally become more representative to the people of Britain.

Half the populace are women it is only fair that as close to that percentage of women are MPs, the argument given by some of the populace is that women have children and take maternity leave and thus are more likely to be lower down the career ladder and less to run for MP due to lack of "career development", I say boo hoo to the argument put out, if women don't have enough career development why are 30 year old people standing to be MPs? Surely this is an ageist policy older people are more likely to have a greater CV and career history, being an MP shouldn't just be about what job you had previously whether a Special Advisor or a bin man, both of which are perfectly valid career paths.

Most people enter Parliament in there late 30s-40s by this time the majority of the populace have finished having children and will not need to take the cursed maternity leave which so many opponents of an AWS will inevitably call will occur when a female MP had a child. All women shortlists are there to correct millennia of wrong against women, the inevitable sexism within all fields of life mean that action has to be taken to enable women to do well in life, an AWS leads to a greater amount of women in parliament and gives a different perspective on policy than that of men, as humans we are all different and divided by gender and other sorts. 

An AWS can also lead to a really great candidate that may have not otherwise won due to other factors, a good example of this would be Victoria Groulef in Reading West and I'm sure there are many more up and down the country for the Labour Party, an AWS leads to a more representative CLP and party in general it does not bar women from standing in non AWS seats and there are selections that women have won without an AWS but this can be seen as the success of All women shortlists in the long term, they are not here for the long term, it is set out to right the wrongs of the past against women and should be encouraged further and be adopted by all political parties.

Ed's policies and why it changed my opinion on his leadership

I should start this blog with an up front statement about my previous opinions on Ed Miliband, going back to September 2010 Ed won; and David didn't, this was turbulent time for my relationship with the Labour Party a fresh faced new member who joined in March 2010, partially for the upcoming general election and partially because I'd get a vote in the inevitable leadership election as our hopes of winning in 2010 were about as slim as they have been in my lifetime (benefits of being young some might say). I was outraged at the union vote and how it stopped a candidate (David) who had the support of the MPs and party members by quite a way; as well as the pretence of "One Member One Vote" for most of us non-union member party people, this was the case, but what I would later find out (through my own naivety I might add) is that certain party members had as many as fives votes in this election due to various union and socialist society memberships, To top it off certain unions had put pictures of Ed on the envelopes of the ballot papers; all of this led to a very disappointed me come Conference 2010, but things have changed............

Jump to 2014 I'm active in the Labour Party (too much according to my mother, who is bemoaning my lack of a paid job in search of a better Britain whilst at uni), and Ed has come out with some policies which myself as a future graduate and hopefully home owner can relate to. Tuition fee cuts, Ed has come out and said that he would cut tuition down to at least £6000 if not £4000 (the fee it would have been factoring in inflation had they not gone up), I myself am not a big fan of a graduate tax; I agree with tuition fees to some extent, top up fees are good they enable the university sector to grow and expand at a time when all other sectors in education are seeing huge cuts to their schools building budgets. Something which BSF (building schools for the future) did, I saw it in my own school, the English department were stuck in temporary buildings which the floor shook if you tapped your feet at a certain tempo, (scary the first time you discovered this, a great laugh when you have new teacher who doesn't know about it and the whole of the class does), and were able to be moved into where DT and art were thanks to BSF funding a new building for the department which enabled the younger years to be able to do food tech, something which had been a government requirement since 2006 but people like myself couldn't do due to lack of space etc.

A few weeks ago Ed comes out with the announcement that the Labour Party would look at renationalising the rail industry, something which I and many others in the party see as one of our major failings in our times in government. Railways are a natural monopoly you can not have competition in the rail industry, it just isn't feasible in most place aside from a few large cities and lines to and from London and the North. Anyone should be against monopolies whether a right wing conservative, a bleeding economic liberal or a Marxist. It is a basic fact that monopolies hurt consumers, competition is needed in all sectors that can have it, the rail industry is one of those industries that can't have it due to the nature of track being owned by the government and the franchise system to ensure the safety of passengers as a completely free market for trains would inevitably lead to collapses without any safety hence why all train companies are on lease.

The Energy price freeze will help many working class families will the cost of living, when I was working at a fast food chain, many of my co workers were either single parents or were the soul bread winners in their household living on minimum wage, some had made mistakes but managed to hold down the job and managed to provide food on the table and provide basic stuff for their kids at christmas and birthdays through prudential savings and other things. I was speaking to one of my former colleagues about the energy companies and prices around the time the big increases were announced in the summer, and they mentioned to me that they spent about £1500 a year on heating and having electric in their household, for someone whose maximum earnings is about £13000 before tax this was a large amounr of money considering that rent would be about £4000 p/a and  other costs involved in the house meant that is they got ill or were low on shifts due to the zero hours contracts, they would have to decide between feeding themselves or heating the house. For me this wasn't fair growing up a middle class household which could go on foreign holidays at leat twice a year some years this was shocking, how could the powerhouse that is Britain have people living like this? This is where energy price increases and a living wage for workers can lead to a much better Britain for everyone it makes economic sense after all.........