Justice Denied This month’s blog should probably be focusing on the General Election that has just been announced. After all, there are only a few weeks to go until July 4th. Not quite yet though. Soon we’ll be inundated with the vox-pops, the polls, the debates and the party-political broadcasts. But before the party campaigners with their rosettes, leaflets, banners, buses and megaphones get underway, there’s some unfinished business. Let’s take a look at some different campaigners, remarkable women and men who deserve our total admiration. We’ve seen a lot of these campaigners recently. As the dismal and squalid procession of scandals and cover-ups has grown larger, we’ve become aware of people who have devoted years of their lives to exposing terrible wrongs. People who have been denied justice, who have lost their livelihoods and whose families have been devastated. People who, in spite of experiencing terrible personal trauma, have found the courage and resilience to speak out a...

May 2nd will usher in a round of local elections across the country. Sooner or later there will also be a general election. If a candidate comes knocking at your door, or catches you in the street, do you have questions ready to ask them?  Will you be able to pin them down and get answers that make some kind of sense? Women from the Milton Keynes Fawcett Group have been thinking and talking about these issues and putting some ideas together. How can Milton Keynes become a better place for women to live and work? How can the wellbeing of the whole population be improved by making our city safer, healthier and fairer? And of course, these ideas and questions are not restricted to MK – they can broadly apply to any setting, large or small, village, town or city. Here are our thoughts. We’ll be putting them together in the form of a manifesto. It’s a work in progress and we are showing it here in a shorter format before the upcoming local elections. More detailed flyers and posters wil...

Skipping to the Loo! Joining the Queue Marylebone railway station is rather a nice place. Some splendid Victorian architecture, a florist, coffee bars and an airy, friendly atmosphere. A pleasant place to arrive, until you leave your busy train and need to access the ladies loo quickly. Looking around you might notice an odd little construction advertising the dubious joys of Bicester village and staffed by enthusiastic young people in fancy dress. Nestling behind it and near to the posh chocolate stall, you will spy the weary queue for the toilets. You know that queue. Your visits to cinemas, theatres, motorway services, festivals and other events have taught you all about recognising that queue and all its implications. But, hey, you’ve actually found the loos. And they are open.  And at least you are not visiting one of those places where you have to take potluck on the likelihood of finding anywhere at all. Sometimes you are fortunate and find a central, visible, well signposte...

  THINGS ARE DISMAL. IS POLLYANNA THE ANSWER? In the past, the emphasis in these blogs has often been about searching for glimmers of ‘hope’ rather than relying on relentless optimism. We’ve been a bit sniffy about bouncy positivity, the ‘Hello clouds, hello sky’ way of seeing the world. Little Miss Sunshine does not go down well with gritty realists and to call someone a ‘Pollyanna’ can be a bit of an insult. We are women who roll up our sleeves and confront. But frankly, at the moment, a bit of vacuous joyfulness might actually be quite nice. Because, well, everything is really pretty awful. It’s hard to escape from an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. Whether you are trying to find a dentist, looking for a decent public toilet, or standing aghast at what’s happening on the world’s stage and wondering about any prospects for peace, justice and a decent environment, it’s the same feeling – that of your head banging fruitlessly against a wall. The original nightmare vision of th...

EQUALITY? FREEDOM? FAIRNESS? ELECTIONS IN 2024 So many elections! Two billion people are eligible to vote this year, and more than 60 countries will be holding elections. The freedom and fairness of these elections will vary. The results of some of them are in the bag already, before even a single vote is cast, and others will take place in dangerous and unpredictable circumstances. Two major elections have already taken place this year. In Bangladesh, following mass arrests of opposition activists, the unsurprising result was to keep the sitting premier for another year. Taiwan also voted to keep their president, but citizens did so in the full knowledge that this would incur the wrath of China which insisted that ‘the motherland will eventually be reunified’. Ukraine is due to hold a presidential election on March 31st this year, but their state of martial law may lead to a postponement. Other elections, from Mexico to Somaliland and from Tuvalu to Russia are all scheduled for this y...

Grit your teeth, find inspiration and get ready for 2024! Was there anything good about 2023? It’s 8.30am on Christmas Eve 2023, a blustery, grey and unseasonably mild morning. It’s very quiet, but Christmas lights have begun to glimmer in a few windows. Over in the park, two women walking their dogs wave at each other and then stop for a chat. A grandmother brings out a toddler to play on the swings and a cat sits hopefully on a doorstep, waiting to be admitted. The only disturbance comes from male blackbirds squabbling over food. There’s nothing unusual here, it’s a peaceful and familiar British suburban scene. But when the morning news comes on the radio, it’s almost unbearable. The world is covered by dark clouds, horrors upon horrors are reported from the Middle East, the ‘futile logic of war’ seems to have domination and our own relative safety can bring feelings of guilt for those of us whose lives are a comfortable exception. As 2023 ends, women and children in so many places a...

  What? Not another one! November 25th. Another date to remember. Another ‘awareness day’. So, why should you bother with this one? It’s a month before Christmas, and you’re probably thinking that you’ve got better things to do at this time of year. ‘For heaven’s sake’, you’re muttering to yourself, ‘can’t we have at least one day in the year without some kind of celebration, commemoration or appeal. And all these ribbons? Why?’ Look at them – pink for breast cancer, green for mental health, purple for LGBTQIA+Youth, even black for the anniversary of the fateful Molotov Ribbentrop Pact, and blue (which is proving to be a bit controversial for the police at the moment). Not to mention all those songs - like the Harry Belafonte weepie about scarlet ribbons, and that 1973 hit urging you to ‘tie a yellow ribbon round the ole oak tree’. Surely we’re all ribboned out by now? And the days, the days – many of these of course are deeply embedded in our brains, whether we celebrate them or n...