Tag Archives: lynne featherstone

Lynne Featherstone: If you think a girl is in danger of being forced to endure FGM, tell the Police

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 18th May 2013 - 9:45 am

Lynne Featherstone has urged anyone who suspects a girl may be at risk of being forced to endure Female Genital Mutilation to go to the Police with their concerns. She said that she wants to see cases prosecuted to send a powerful message.

She appealed for help to protect girls as what she called “the cutting season” approaches. The procedure often happens during the Summer holidays when the girls are away from school for several weeks.

She said that prosecution and other work to change behaviour were the way forward:

It would be great to have a prosecution and send out the message

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged fgm | 4 Comments

Duncan Hames MP writes… Must we continue to use food for fuel?

By Duncan Hames MP | Fri 17th May 2013 - 8:25 am

The European Union is currently committed to ensuring that 10% of each Member State’s transport energy will come from biofuels by 2020. This originated as a well-intentioned attempt to combat climate change, but time has shown that using food for fuel can have devastating impacts on hunger and the environment. I’ve come to accept that it is time for a re-think.

In addition to concerns over their green credentials, biofuels are now recognised to be a key cause of hunger, affecting millions of people in developing countries. The World Bank, OECD, WTO, IFPRI, IMF, and five other UN agencies recommended …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged actionaid, biofuels, climate change, david cameron, edward davey, european union, food for fuel, justine greening, malcolm bruce, nick clegg, norman baker and oxfam | 15 Comments

LibLink…Lynne Featherstone writes on World Malaria Day

By NewsHound | Thu 25th April 2013 - 1:43 pm

Over at the Huffington Post, Lib Dem international development minister Lynne Featherstone has been talking about the importance of World Malaria Day.

Here’s an excerpt:

Malaria affects over half the world’s population, with a child dying every minute from the disease. In the worst-affected countries malaria has a devastating impact on health systems and economies. When faced with these stark facts it can often seem like there’s no hope.

But amongst the gloom there are genuine signs that we may finally be winning the battle against malaria. Across the world malaria is on the decline. Over the past decade governments, NGOs and multilaterals

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged international development and malaria | Leave a comment

Conference Rally: Confessional, motivational and defiant

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 9th March 2013 - 8:29 pm

A conference rally without Tim Farron is a bit like strawberries without cream. When he wasn’t there telling his bad football jokes, I wondered if he’d been put on the Naughty Step for his interview earlier. But, no, he hadn’t even arrived in Brighton.

What we did have was a sense of almost cleansing, confessional, cathartic and heartfelt speeches tackling the pain of the last few weeks head on.

Nick Clegg made clear that he wanted to change the culture in the party. What he said is not new for him. He’s always been very pro equality, but this was a new …

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Posted in Conference and News | Also tagged Jo Swinson, liberal youth, mike thornton, nick clegg, Sarah Yong and shirley williams | 2 Comments

LibLink…Lynne Featherstone: Bringing a worldwide end to violence against women and girls

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 6th March 2013 - 9:55 am

Over at the Huffington Post, Liberal Democrat International Development Minister Lynne Featherstone writes about her trip to New York for the UN Commission on the Status of Women which is this year focusing on violence against women and girls.

First she talks about what the UK Government is doing to tackle this problem which affects 1 in 3 women worldwide:

The Coalition Government has provided nearly £40 million of ring-fenced funding for specialist domestic and sexual violence services, and national helplines.

We’ve invested in changing attitudes and behaviours. You may have seen the UK television adverts we’ve launched to tackle rape and relationship

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged huffington post and violence against women and girls | 14 Comments

Nick Clegg’s Letter from the Leader: “From Eastleigh to Africa – and back again!”

By Stephen Tall | Sun 17th February 2013 - 11:00 am

Nick’s latest weekly missive focuses on two places: his visits as party leader to the Lib Dem by-election campaign in Eastleigh, and his visit as Deputy Prime Minister to Mozambique and Ethiopia to focus on ‘the three Ts’ – tax, transparency and trade. Here’s his letter in full…

Like so many of you, I’ve been to Eastleigh this week. I was there to visit a local college with our excellent candidate Mike Thornton on Monday, and after a brief stop off to see the kids, I headed straight

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Posted in News | Also tagged africa, eastleigh by-election, ethiopia, featured, G8, letter from the leader, mike thornton and Mozambique | Leave a comment

Nick Clegg writes … A fairer and more prosperous world

By Nick Clegg MP | Tue 12th February 2013 - 1:00 pm

Lynne Featherstone and I are travelling to Mozambique and Ethiopia this week, which will be my first trip to sub-Saharan Africa as Deputy Prime Minister. We will see the changing nature of our relationship with these African countries, as well as the UK’s international development programmes in action.

By working with Mozambique, Ethiopia and other developing countries, we are helping to create a world that is fairer, more prosperous and more secure.

This year the Coalition Government will meet our commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income on international development – an achievement that comes with much controversy but one I am proud to deliver.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged ethiopia, featured, G8 and Mozambique | 2 Comments

LibLink – Lynne Featherstone MP: Moving towards a world free from Female Genital Cutting

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 6th February 2013 - 12:16 pm

Today is the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation. Tonight, Home Office Minister Jeremy Browne will be giving a speech tonight (which we will bring you later) and Lynne Featherstone has written an article for the Huffington Post.

She will be taking part in an online discussion here at 12:45pm today.

First she outlined exactly why FGC is a problem.

FGC is a cultural practice involving the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia. In its most extreme form the external genitalia are cut out and the girl’s vagina sewn up, to be cut open on her

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged female genital cutting and huffington post | 10 Comments

Equal marriage: who voted which way

By Stephen Tall | Wed 6th February 2013 - 9:15 am

For those wanting to know the voting breakdown of last night’s historic decision in the Commons to approve equal marriage, here it is courtesy of Andrew Sparrow’s essential Guardian live-blog…

Conservatives

FOR – 127 MPs (42%)
AGAINST – 136 MPs (45%)
ABSTENTIONS – 5 MPs (2%)
ABSENT – 35 MPs (12%)

Labour

FOR – 217 MPs (84%)
AGAINST – 22 MPs (9%)
ABSTENTION – 16 MPs (6%)

Lib Dems

FOR – 45 MPs (80%)
Danny Alexander (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey), Tom Brake (Carshalton & Wallington), Annette Brooke (Dorset Mid & Poole North), Jeremy Browne (Taunton Deane), Malcolm Bruce (Gordon), Paul Burstow (Sutton & Cheam), Lorely Burt (Solihull), Vincent …

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Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged andrew sparrow, equal marriage, Mark Pack and nick clegg | 49 Comments

++ The ayes have it! Equal marriage approved with 225 vote majority

By Stephen Tall | Tue 5th February 2013 - 7:18 pm

The BBC reports:

MPs have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the government’s legislation for same-sex marriage in England and Wales. At the conclusion of the Commons’ first opportunity to debate the The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, MPs voted by 400 to 175, a majority of 225, in favour of the legislation.

It’s estimated some 140 Tory MPs voted to reject equal marriage.

Here was my immediate reaction…

Equal marriage passed by 400 votes to 175 – 225 majority in favour of the state treating everyone equally. That’ll do.

— Stephen Tall (@stephentall) February 5, 2013

And here’s what some …

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Posted in News | Also tagged equal marriage and featured | 4 Comments

Equal marriage: 2 Lib Dem MPs against and a further 9 (or 10) Missing In Action

By Stephen Tall | Mon 4th February 2013 - 3:55 pm

Tomorrow the House of Commons will vote on the Bill to allow equal marriage for same-sex couples which Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone did so much to push forward as Equalities Minister.

Two Lib Dem MPs have so far publicly declared their opposition:

John Pugh MP (Southport)

“I will vote against the Bill – against Gay Marriage but not necessarily for all the reasons the churches give but because I think there is a good liberal

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Posted in News | Also tagged equal marriage, Gordon Birtwhistle and john pugh | 167 Comments

Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill 2012-13 starts its parliamentary journey

By Paul Walter | Mon 28th January 2013 - 2:23 pm

Lynne Featherstone (right) proudly brandishes a copy of the newly published Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill 2012-13.

There is a parliamentary webpage dedicated to the bill here, where you can read the document and track its progress through Parliament.

The Government’s Equalities Office has published a range of supplementary materials here, including a short guide to the bill, a Factsheet and a Mythbuster.

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Posted in News | Also tagged Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill 2012-13 | 4 Comments

LibLink: Lynne Featherstone – Darfur is still suffering ten years after conflict began

By Paul Walter | Mon 28th January 2013 - 9:54 am

Just back from a visit to Darfur, Lynne Featherstone writes on Huffpo about continuing concerns for the region:

Britain’s aid programme is about people, not numbers. But sometimes, the figures are so shocking it is impossible to escape them.

This year marks 10 years since the start of conflict in Darfur and the numbers speak for themselves. During

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged sudan | Leave a comment

Nick Cohen: Labour members are “in despair” of trying to unseat Lynne Featherstone

By Stephen Tall | Tue 22nd January 2013 - 9:30 pm

The Observer’s Nick Cohen isn’t Lynne Featherstone’s biggest fan: “I cannot tell you how much I dislike this stupid, two-faced and dangerous politician,” he writes affectionately in The Spectator.

He later labels her a “menace”, a “hypocrite”, and curses her “wittering” (I wonder if that’s a verb he’s ever applied to a male politician, by the way?).

All of which means poor Nick is in despair. Why? Because, he laments, Labour is completely failing to get its act together in Hornsey and Wood Green, allegedly one …

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Posted in News | Also tagged hornsey & wood green, julie burchill and nick cohen | 13 Comments

LibLink: Lynne Featherstone working to transform the lives of women and girls around the world

By NewsHound | Sat 19th January 2013 - 1:00 pm

Lynne Featherstone, Minister for International Development, writes at the Huffington Post, on the opportunities 2013 brings to transform the lives of women and girls around the world.

This year is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a lasting difference to the lives of women and girls everywhere in the world.

Between the Commission on the Status of Women meeting in New York in March, the work on the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals and the UK Presidency of the G8, the international community

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged international development and women and girls | 3 Comments

Lynne Featherstone calls for Julie Burchill to be sacked for post attacking transgender people

By Caron Lindsay | Mon 14th January 2013 - 9:25 am

As Equalities Minister, Liberal Democrat Lynne Featherstone put into place the Government’s Transgender Action Plan. She will be acutely aware of the issues facing transgender people, particularly in relation to violence and discrimination. Hate crime towards that community has been rising as the Independent reported.

Yesterday, the Observer published a piece by controversial writer Julie Burchill which was peppered with hate filled language. Had the target of Burchill’s invective been a particular ethnic group, and she had used similar language, then her piece would have found its way onto the editor’s spike and she would most likely have been …

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Posted in News | Also tagged julie burchill, LGBT rights, observer and twitter | 34 Comments

Opinion: 2013 – Time to think afresh about International Development?

By David Hall-Matthews | Sun 6th January 2013 - 10:15 am

Lynne Featherstone in Zambia. Photo: some rights reserved by DFID http://www.flickr.com/photos/dfid/8220719712/ Another year, another set of attacks on development aid in the right-wing press. Prompted by a spectacularly ill-informed paper from Civitas, the Telegraph, Mail and Spectator tried once again to argue, without evidence, that high proportions of British aid are wasted.

The truth is that, under the Coalition, far more attention has been paid to value for money in aid spending than ever before. What is more, there’s little need to speculate about where

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged civitas, G8, international development and publish what you fund | 22 Comments

LibLink: Paul Burstow, Lynne Featherstone and Paul Tyler

By NewsHound | Fri 4th January 2013 - 12:21 pm

Elsewhere, whilst some of us adjust back into the normal routine after the New Year, some of our tribunes are already up and running.

Paul Burstow hit the headlines yesterday with his call for means-testing of the winter fuel allowance, with the intention of saving £1.5 billion, to be redirected towards paying for the proposed social care changed recommended by the Dilnot Commission. Writing in the Guardian;

Some argue this is a debate we need to have at or even after the next general election. But by that time it will be too late. The research in my report reveals that

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Posted in News | Also tagged paul burstow and paul tyler | Leave a comment

Lynne Featherstone takes on church leaders on equal marriage

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 26th December 2012 - 4:45 pm

Liberal Democrat hero of everything to do with equalities, Lynne Featherstone, has used her blog to take a coach and horses through the arguments that various church leaders have been using this Christmas to attack the Coalition’s plans to introduce equal marriage.

Sometimes MPs’ and Government Ministers’ blogs can become quite bland. This is not the case with Ms Featherstone’s. It’s good that she is quite comfortable with the idea of talking directly. It’s important that someone does. Willie Rennie did exactly the same up here in Scotland …

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Posted in News | Also tagged catholic church, equal marriage and willie rennie | 25 Comments

Fighting for the rights of women – all over the world

By NewsHound | Thu 13th December 2012 - 5:55 pm

This week, The Independent has run an interview with International Development Minister Lynne Featherstone – and no surprise that equalities feature strongly in her approach to the job:

Today we are talking about Zambia, from where she has just returned from a trip to meet victims of domestic violence, as well as the First Lady and the newly-appointed Minister of Gender, as part of her brief as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Department for International Development (DFID).

In Masabuka, Featherstone discussed ways to empower a population where 63 per cent of women believe domestic battery is justifiable. “It’s a culture that is so

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged equalities and international development | 1 Comment

Alistair Carmichael MP writes…Why I’ve put the whip away for the Equal Marriage vote

By Alistair Carmichael MP | Wed 12th December 2012 - 6:59 pm

Everybody knows that the first rule of Fight Club is that you do not talk about Fight Club.

I am no Brad Pitt but the same is also true of the Whips’ Office.

It is not normally my practice to discuss whipping arrangements for the parliamentary party, nor to discuss publicly the process by which decisions are reached. Today, however, I am prepared (exceptionally) to do so and to explain the decision taken last night to allow Liberal Democrat MPs a free vote …

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Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged chief whip, equal marriage; house of commons, Jo Swinson and nick clegg | 67 Comments

Equal marriage: it’s a matter of religious freedom

By Mark Pack | Mon 10th December 2012 - 5:59 pm

There’s been a lot in the media today from opponents of equal marriage about how the state mustn’t go about redefining marriage.

What they keep on skating over is that equal marriage isn’t something cooked up by atheists and agnostics. It’s also - as Lynne Featherstone has pointed out – supported officially by Quakers, Liberal Jews and some Unitarian Churches, not to mention many people of other faiths that officially take a different view.

Insisting that the state continues …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged equal marriage and featured | 58 Comments

LibLink: Lynne Featherstone in Zambia, part 3

By Mary Reid | Tue 4th December 2012 - 10:49 am

Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat International Development Minister has been visiting Zambia and blogging about her trip. In her first day she wrote about a UK-funded empowerment programme for adolescent girls. She followed that with an account of programmes in the rural south supporting education, health care, private sector development, social support, and reducing gender-based violence.

She spent the final day of her visit with the Minister for Gender, and together they launched 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence in Zambia.

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged Zambia | Leave a comment

LibLink: Lynne Featherstone in Zambia, part 2

By Nick Thornsby | Thu 29th November 2012 - 9:18 am

Lib Dem international development minister Lynne Featherstone is currently on a trip to the southern African country of Zambia. Her first visit was to the capital, Lusaka, and to a UK-funded empowerment programme for adolescent girls.

Over to Lynne:

This programme is supporting more than 1,500 of the most vulnerable girls, providing safe spaces and mentoring to help build their confidence and life skills.

The girls I met told me they were learning about their rights as women. One 16 year old girl said she now felt more confident to say no to unwanted approaches from boys. Another said the girls now

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged dfid, international development and Zambia | 2 Comments

LibLink: Lynne Featherstone on ending violence against women and girls in Zambia

By NewsHound | Tue 27th November 2012 - 10:49 pm

International Development minister Lynne Featherstone is currently visiting Zambia and blogging her trip for the Huffington Post. In her first post she writes:

My first visit since arriving in Zambia was to a UK aid adolescent girls empowerment programme in one of the poorest neighbourhoods of the capital, Lusaka. This initiative is supporting more than 1,500 of the most vulnerable girls, providing safe spaces and mentoring to help build their confidence and life skills.

The girls I met told

…

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Posted in LibLink and Op-eds | Also tagged africa, international development and Zambia | 1 Comment

Lord Avebury writes… World Toilet Day and sanitation: an unspoken problem

By Eric Avebury | Mon 19th November 2012 - 7:33 am

Today is World Toilet Day and it is important to remember that 2.5 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation. One in three women across the world risks shame, disease, harassment and even attack because they do not have a safe place to go to the toilet. This is unthinkable in the UK, but a reality in the developing world and the impact is devastating. Absence of clean toilets and inadequate sanitation facilities are key causes of diarrhoeal disease, the second largest killer of children worldwide, causing around 760,000 child deaths every year. Diarrhoeal disease is also a contributing factor to malnutrition, which in turn can lead to stunted growth and impede cognitive development.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged dfid, featured, PATH, tearfund, water aid and world toilet day | Leave a comment

A longer watch for the weekend: Mothers of Liberty

By Mark Pack | Sat 3rd November 2012 - 10:50 am

I blogged last month about the new pamphlet from the Liberal Democrat History Group, Mothers of Liberty: Women who built British Liberalism, a series of biographies of famous women liberals, which details the contribution of women to Liberal politics from the eighteenth century to the present day.

That was launched at a conference fringe meeting, chaired by Lynne Featherstone and featuring three excellent speakers:

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Posted in YouTube | Also tagged Helen McCabe, history, Jane Bonham Carter, Jo Swinson and Violet Bonham Carter | Leave a comment

Mothers of Liberty: Women who built British Liberalism

By Mark Pack | Tue 23rd October 2012 - 10:50 am

For an organisation that looks to the past and to party politics, it is almost inevitable that the Liberal Democrat History Group’s publications are rather dominated with accounts of men. Even now, well into the 21st century, we only just have the first female Liberal Democrat ministers, whilst female Liberal Democrat Cabinet members or party leaders are still something for the future.

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Posted in Books | Also tagged Catherine Gladstone, featured, history, Lady Palmerston, Lady Waldegrave, Margaret Lloyd George, margaret wintringham, Mary Gladstone, Mary Wollstonecraft, nancy seear and patsy calton | 3 Comments

Lynne Featherstone MP wins Attitude magazine’s Politician of the Year Award

By Helen Duffett | Thu 18th October 2012 - 1:40 pm

At the inaugural Attitude Awards, former Liberal Democrat Equalities Minister and current Minister for International Development, Lynne Featherstone received the Politician of the Year Award for her work to secure equal marriage for same-sex couples.

From the Attitude website:

As much of the debate over the issue has descended into hysterical farce, we salute Lynne Featherstone for her clear and concise defence of the reforms. The minister has refused to be sidetracked, stating in March: ‘The

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Posted in News | Also tagged attitude, equal marriage and stephen gilbert | 18 Comments

Opinion: Clegg’s cock-up over Page 3 – he should sign the “No More Page Three” petition now

By Daisy Cooper | Tue 16th October 2012 - 2:22 pm

In a BBC Radio 5 Live interview last week, Nick Clegg declined to back “the campaign to ban page 3 girls from the Sun,” on the grounds that the state should not dictate the content of newspapers. But the campaign in question- entitled Take the Bare Boobs Out of The Sun but better known by its twitter handle “@NoMorePage3” – ISN’T calling on the government to ban page 3. It is appealing directly to The Sun’s editor Dominic Mohan to stop printing it, on the basis that it simply isn’t appropriate to “show the naked breasts of young women in a widely read ‘family’ newspaper” for the purpose of the reader’s gratification.

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Posted in News | Also tagged Jo Swinson, nick clegg and page 3 | 67 Comments