Tag Archives: equalities

Mark Pack

Vince Cable on equalities

By Mark Pack | Mon 20th June 2011 - 1:54 pm

As part of the Social Liberal Forum conference last weekend, I took part in a blogger interview with Vince Cable and took the chance to ask him about his attitude towards equalities issues. My reason for asking is that I’ve always viewed Vince as a firm liberal on such matters (perhaps in part because of his own personal history) but there have been plenty of murmurings that his department are rather keen on abolishing regulations in this field.

His answer was very …

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 10 Comments
Sal Brinton

Baroness Brinton writes: Towards a more diverse Parliamentary Party

By Sal Brinton | Wed 15th June 2011 - 12:21 pm

Last year, Ros Scott, Nick Clegg and the Federal Executive (FE) asked me to conduct a review of issues relating to the role of Parliamentary candidates. Key to this review was how the Party will increase the diversity of its candidates standing in the 2015 General Election, and getting them elected.

The first point to make is that we made some real steps forward in selecting more women and BAME candidates in the last electoral cycle despite the disappointing results – the number of our seats went backwards, so making any progress in terms of representation was very difficult. The intense work by many in the party over the last few years has meant that there was significant progress in the lead up to the 2010 election: 50% of new candidates in held seats were women, and only just slightly lower in priority seats. Some excellent BAME candidates were selected (the highest number over the three main parties), but again, without electoral success. Although the fact that there no ‘safe’ seats in the Liberal Democrats (unlike Labour and the Conservatives) means that we cannot use some of the mechanisms used by the other Parties, we should absolutely not be complacent – we will have to work even harder, and invest more time, energy and resources than we have in recent years to make sure that our parliamentary parties reflect Britain in the future.

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , , and | Leave a comment
Mark Valladares

You! Yes, you! Ever thought about being a Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate?

By Mark Valladares | Sun 29th May 2011 - 1:57 pm

At March’s Federal Conference, a motion was passed setting up the new Candidate Leadership Programme, designed specifically to identify and develop candidates from currently under-represented groups (i.e. everyone other than white men).

Candidates will be given structured support, development and training all the way through to the General Election, and it is particularly aimed at those wanting to take part in competitive seat selections. Further information and application packs will be available from late June.

So, what’s the hurry, I hear you ask? The catch is, you’ve got to be an approved candidate to get a place, and if you aren’t …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters and Selection news | Also tagged | 26 Comments
Dinti Batstone

Dinti Batstone writes… If not now, when?

By Dinti Batstone | Tue 17th May 2011 - 5:27 pm

Notice anything about this 5-minute BBC report on House of Lords reform? While it talks of ‘revolution in the air’, every interviewee is a white middle aged man.

Yet House of Lords reform could – if the Coalition chooses to make it so – prove a game-changing opportunity to promote the cause of gender balance at Westminster.

Our Commons party consists of just 12% women and the Commons as a whole barely 22%. The reasons for this are complex and different in each party, but electoral volatility and a leaky pipeline of female candidates are two major factors for the Liberal …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , and | 13 Comments
Helen Duffett

Video: Lynne Featherstone on International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia

By Helen Duffett | Tue 17th May 2011 - 1:21 pm

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Posted in YouTube | Also tagged , and | 6 Comments
Mark Pack

It’s not only in Parliament where diversity is hotly debated

By Mark Pack | Tue 15th March 2011 - 8:55 am

Understandably the question of diversity amongst Parliamentarians gets a lot of attention in political parties, with it being the subject of another conference debate at Sheffield, but it’s by no means the only the area subject to such debate.

Diversity in Britain’s boardrooms may not have moved very far up the political agenda yet, but it is the subject of regular debate in business circles – with the Financial Times and Evening Standard in particular both regularly running pieces from contributors concerned about the topic.

It’s a subject the Evening Standard columnist Chris Blackhurst turned to this week. Here’s what …

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Helen Duffett

Lynne Featherstone launches Government campaign to tackle homophobia in sport

By Helen Duffett | Mon 14th March 2011 - 6:05 pm

Lynne Featherstone, Minister for Equalities, has launched Charter for Action – a set of principles to help stamp out homophobia and transphobia in sport and make sport a welcoming environment for LGBT people.

The Pink Paper reports:

A groundbreaking gay sports charter which will invite national governing bodies of sports to commit to tackling homophobia was launched yesterday.

The announcement was made by Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone as she attended the Sheffield Eagles rugby league game – a match against Widnes Vikings which saw players take a stand against homophobia by wearing specially made kits bearing the slogan ‘Homophobia: Tackle

…

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Alex Foster

PODCAST: Diversity debate in full

By Alex Foster | Sun 13th March 2011 - 2:51 pm

Following overwhelming demand from our twitter colleagues, we are now publishing in full the debate we had yesterday on diversifying our elected representatives.

You can find my written review of the debate here.

Posted in Conference and Podcasts | Also tagged and | Leave a comment
Alex Foster

Diversity motion passes

By Alex Foster | Sat 12th March 2011 - 6:37 pm

Welcome news from the conference floor this afternoon as the party finally votes for a diversity motion without referring it back or dithering further.

There were only a handful of people opposing the motion, led by Sophie Bridger, a candidate in the general election for Glasgow. She said what was proposed was against key Lib Dem values. It would entrench unfair advantage and tokenism. It would undermine the status quo where everyone gets a fair shot. It would even, she said, make a mockery of the selection process.

It sounded familiar to me – and Alistair Carmichael put his finger on …

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged and | 11 Comments
Dinti Batstone

Dinti Batstone writes: diversity opportunity at #ldconf

By Dinti Batstone | Thu 10th March 2011 - 6:30 pm

This weekend in Sheffield, Liberal Democrats will be debating important internal steps to ensure that by 2015 our parliamentary party in the House of Commons better reflects the diversity of modern Britain.

In the coming months, with the Draft Bill on House of Lords reform, Liberal Democrats will also have a key external opportunity to kickstart culture change at Westminster.

Here’s why we need to grasp that opportunity:

§ Diversity is part of the solution to our broken politics. Diversity is good not just for under-represented groups and parties who want their …

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged and | 9 Comments
Martin Shapland

Opinion: Its time for a well informed response on Diversity

By Martin Shapland | Wed 9th March 2011 - 11:41 am

Conference is almost upon us once again, and glancing my eye over the agenda I am pleased to see a motion based on Baroness Sal Brinton’s report on party diversity.

You may remember this came up at the last conference. The speech I made at Liverpool was my maiden at a federal conference; the amendment I co-sponsored helped pave the way for the motion on improving diversity we will debate this coming Saturday.

It was also one of the most depressing experiences I’ve witnessed as a party member. Friends who supported the amendment were treated appallingly by supporters of the motion. I …

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 13 Comments
Mark Pack

‘Last chance’ to promote women to top jobs in the UK

By Mark Pack | Sun 27th February 2011 - 8:55 am

The Financial Times reports,

Britain’s boardrooms are “in crisis” over their failure to increase the number of women in their ranks and will face quotas if they do not embrace new voluntary targets to double the female representation on boards within four years.

Lord Davies, who has been leading a government inquiry on the issue of women in the boardroom, has recommended that FTSE 100 companies aim for at least a quarter of their boards to be made up of women by 2015, while FTSE 350 companies should clearly outline the percentage of women they expect to see on their boards

…

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Stephen Gilbert MP

Stephen Gilbert MP writes: True LGBT equality finally on the horizon

By Stephen Gilbert MP | Thu 17th February 2011 - 4:31 pm

Today’s announcement, that religious settings are able to hold civil partnerships, is a huge step toward achieving the Liberal Democrat policy of full equal civil marriage and partnerships for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the UK.

I’ve always believed that equality is a black and white issue. You’re either equal or you are not, there’s no grey area and no room for ambiguity. And, despite the real achievements over the last decade, the LGBT community is still not fully equal in the eyes of the law.

This wouldn’t be considered acceptable if we were talking about ethnic …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 13 Comments
Helen Duffett

New fund to help disabled people become MPs

By Helen Duffett | Wed 16th February 2011 - 6:53 pm

Disabled people who want to become MPs, councillors or other elected officials will have access to a fund to help them overcome the barriers they face, under Government proposals published today.

A £1 million package, including training and mentoring programmes are planned, following the recommendations made by the cross-party Speaker’s Conference in January 2010 on how to improve the representation of women, disabled people and minority ethnic people in the House of Commons.

Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone said,

We are committed to cleaning up politics and restoring the trust of the people in Parliament. A key tool in doing this is

…

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Mark Pack

Gender pay audits: government to try voluntary route first, option for mandatory audits remains

By Mark Pack | Thu 2nd December 2010 - 1:06 pm

In news this morning Home Office minister and Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone said that the government would be looking to get voluntary agreement from industry for gender pay audits, which would reveal cases of unreasonably disparity in pay between men and women. An attempt to introduce voluntary agreement previously fell apart under the Labour government.

There is also unimplemented legislation on the statue book to allow for mandatory pay audits. The legislation was introduced by Labour, but not brought into force (nor were they any immediate plans from Labour to do so).

Whilst the government is not moving straight away to …

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 8 Comments
Sophie Bridger

Opinion: Gentlemen! A little less bitching, please

By Sophie Bridger | Wed 10th November 2010 - 11:57 am

For a party that prides itself on its stance on gender equality, we still have a lot of work to do. Sure, we campaign for greater and more flexible parental leave, and an end to unacknowledged airbrushing. We rightly refuse to acknowledge patronising all women shortlists, both in the party as a whole, and within Liberal Youth. We’ve certainly got a lot better at representation – a third of our target seat candidates in the last election were women. But women make up more than 50% of our population, and around 45% of our membership. A third is simply not …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 18 Comments
Mark Pack

Is there still inequality in the workplace?

By Mark Pack | Wed 6th October 2010 - 12:25 pm

Do you think women in Britain have equal job opportunities with men, or not?

Men: Yes 51%, No 43% – net +8%
Women: Yes 25%, No 63% – net -38%

Net scores by political preference:

Conservative: 0%
Lib Dem: -22%
Labour: -25%

Source: YouGov, fieldwork 30 Septemeber – 1 October

Posted in Polls | Also tagged | 8 Comments
Ramis Cizer

Opinion: Why the Diversity Motion caused a stir at Conference

By Ramis Cizer | Thu 30th September 2010 - 12:23 pm

I not a massive fan of the term “Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME)” and in an ideal political world it probably wouldn’t exist. But we don’t live in an ideal world and the term is required to designate certain segments of population in order to address inequalities – an uncontroversial statement in my opinion – so why does it cause such heated discussion? Too complex to answer here so I will leave it to someone else but I have some ideas on why the Diversity Motion caused a stir at the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference.

Liberalism to me is a …

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Also tagged and | 6 Comments
Andrew Reeves

Opinion: What does Stonewall want if it isn’t gay marriage?

By Andrew Reeves | Tue 28th September 2010 - 7:16 pm

I resigned from Stonewall many years ago when I realised that they don’t speak for me or much of the UK’s LGBT community and is too blinkered and led by its own politics, rather than campaigning for what their members want.

Ben Summerskill and Angela Mason before him only appear to do what Labour wanted, when Labour wanted it.

In recent weeks we have seen Stonewall attacked for their silence on the issue of gay marriage, but I want to throw in an extra attack on them before I get onto gay marriage.

If you visit the main Stonewall website …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , and | 10 Comments
Joe Jordan

Opinion: a way forward on Lib Dem diversity

By Joe Jordan | Mon 27th September 2010 - 3:23 pm

The Liberal Democrats have an image problem. We are predominantly a party of middle class members, which I know because I’ve met a lot of members and they nearly all talk like me.

Because of the depressingly predictable socio-economic data, this also means that, since our members are better off, they are more likely to be male, white, and able bodied than your average Briton. The only conventional diversity stream that is not underrepresented purely by means of the economic correlations is LBGT, and this group is well represented in the party which hopefully also has something to do with Liberal …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 28 Comments
Meral Ece

Opinion: The last chance saloon on diversity?

By Meral Ece | Fri 24th September 2010 - 3:24 pm

I went to conference expecting something entirely different, perhaps influenced by the daily articles and news reports, that this conference was going to be like no other. That there was much unrest, and even anger amongst the Party’s ranks. Instead I found myself amongst many Lib Dem party members and friends who were upbeat and positive.

I didn’t speak to anyone – nor as far as I can gather did the media – who was vehemently opposed to the Coalition Government. Yes, this conference was like no other. It was the largest conference we’ve ever had, and our Leader is …

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , , , , and | 21 Comments
Davina Kirwan

Opinion: Liberal Youth amendments ripped the heart out of the diversity motion

By Davina Kirwan | Thu 23rd September 2010 - 5:21 pm

The Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats’ (EMLD) motion containing positive action measures to practically address the diversity of Lib Dem elected representatives was ripped to not much more than a review by amendments mostly from Liberal Youth, with the requirement to have at least one BME candidate on shortlists where a Lib Dem MP has resigned, or within a by-election, being lost.

Goodness me. I think the Liberal Democrats are the new Conservatives. Deciding not to act because doing so would be hypocritical? Is this not the worse kind of irony that has seen the ill-representative nature of the party prevail? WAKE-UP! …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 162 Comments
The Voice

Lib Dems pass motions on Trident and diversity

By The Voice | Wed 22nd September 2010 - 3:27 pm

News of two motions passed by Lib Dem conference today…

Diversity: Hughes to propose “radical changes” to promote candidate diversity

Simon Hughes, the party’s deputy leader, commented:

“I am glad that Conference agreed today that there will be a full set of proposals for candidate diversity and that we will have the chance to take decisions to change the face and mix of the Liberal Democrats.

“I will be presenting a paper to the Party’s Federal Executive next month which will propose radical changes in the way we select our candidates.

“This proposal will include the aim that half our candidates will be women …

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Lynne Featherstone

Lynne Featherstone’s speech to conference

By Lynne Featherstone | Wed 22nd September 2010 - 11:56 am

Liberal Democrats.

I look around and I see the faces of so many friends, colleagues, Cabinet Members. Yes – I did just say that – Liberal Democrat members of the Cabinet.

Now conference, I was pretty clear at the time as to just what I thought of having an all male all pale team sent to negotiate on our behalves in May. Often for some of us women we get frustrated when we see mediocrity promoted above us.

But in this case, they weren’t mediocre – our negotiating team did one hell of a job and I thank them all …

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Dinti Batstone

Opinion: a brief history of MP job-shares… and why we need them

By Dinti Batstone | Sun 12th September 2010 - 6:28 pm

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So when I heard Caroline Lucas trumpet MP job-shares on Friday morning, part of me was delighted. But the suggestion that political job-shares are a radical new idea from the Greens had me spluttering into my Lady Grey.

For the record, here’s a brief history of Liberal Democrats advocating MP job-shares:

Nick Clegg on Mumsnet in January

Baronesses Ros Scott and Kate Parminter in a Lords debate on 21 July

…and yours truly in a speech to party Conference 2009, on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour in February, on Lib …

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Posted in Op-eds | 27 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Stephen Gilbert – Why we must be fighting for full same sex marriage equality now

By NewsHound | Thu 9th September 2010 - 6:13 pm

Over at Pink News, Lib Dem MP for St Austell & Newquay Stephen Gilbert writes in support of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) marriage equality and explains why LGBT rights organisations should be fighting for marriage equality now. Here’s an excerpt:

As a society we have set a standard for people who want to show they are in a committed relationship, for people who want to show that they have found love and wish to remain together until death do them part. We call it marriage. Why should we deny that institution to people who wish to show that commitment

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged and | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib Dem conference to be asked to approve gay marriage proposal

By Stephen Tall | Sun 8th August 2010 - 11:00 am

Today’s Independent reports:

The Liberal Democrats are to use their first party conference in government to adopt a radical new policy calling for gay marriage.

The paper points out the tensions such a policy could spark with the socially conservative right-wing among the Tories. However, I’m intrigued by the paper’s suggestions that it also “risks causing deep divisions with … the traditional Methodist wing of the Lib Dems”. As a nonconformist myself (albeit not Methodist), I’d never realised that defined me as being part of a clique within the Lib Dems. Nor that my religious views would prevent me from supporting …

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 34 Comments
Stephen Tall

Swinson: We need to make girls feel confident about their own body

By Stephen Tall | Wed 4th August 2010 - 3:35 pm

Almost exactly a year ago, Lib Dem MPs Jo Swinson and Lynne Featherstone were among those in the party’s Real Women group leading the campaign to “Ban airbrushing in children’s adverts”, a view later endorsed by an independent Home Office report.

They’ve been joined in their campaign now by Girlguiding UK, which is today launching a petition to introduce compulsory labelling on airbrushed images.

Jo comments:
 

I am delighted that Girlguiding UK is taking up this issue. I co-founded the Campaign for Body Confidence out of concern that people of all ages are feeling so much pressure

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 19 Comments
Mark Valladares

Some final reflections on the Second Chamber

By Mark Valladares | Thu 22nd July 2010 - 11:27 pm

I hope that readers of Liberal Democrat Voice have enjoyed today’s series of pieces on the House of Lords – I know that I’ve had a lot of fun writing, editing and commissioning the various postings. However, I’d like to finish with a few serious points.

Firstly, I am of the view that we need to value our Peers more and, whilst that may seem like special pleading, I’m convinced that, by doing so, everyone gets to benefit. For instance, there are parts of the country, my own county of Suffolk for example, where we don’t have an MP, but do …

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Kathryn Parminter

Baroness Kate Parminter’s maiden speech

By Kathryn Parminter | Thu 22nd July 2010 - 7:40 pm

In recent weeks, LDV has been bringing its readers copies of our new MPs’ first words in the House of Commons, so that we can read what is being said and respond. You can find all of the speeches in this category with this link. Today’s guest editor Mark Valladares feels that it was only right that the same honour should be offered to new Peers, and today we bring you the words of Baroness Parminter of Godalming.

Baroness Parminter: I add my thanks to the noble Baroness, Lady Verma, for initiating this debate today. As a new girl, …

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