There is mounting concern about the impact of government policies on women – and furious debate over the language used Labour MPs are attempting to set up a powerful parliamentary committee to vet government policy for discriminatory effects on women, claiming that the coalition has a “blind spot” when it comes to equal opportunities. Yvette Cooper, shadow home secretary, said the justice secretary Kenneth Clarke’s controversial comments on rape this week betrayed a lack of understanding of gender issues across the government, and that there needed to be a democratic institution to act as a safeguard for women’s rights. Cooper and Fiona Mactaggart, the shadow minister for women and equalities, will meet voluntary organisations to unveil the plans. The idea is attracting support from both sides of the house. It comes amid mounting concern about the impact of government policies on women, and a furious debate over some of the language used by senior Conservatives in recent weeks, not least the prime minister’s now infamous “Calm down dear” comment. The Home Office, which includes the government equalities unit, said that the government was achieving progress for women, citing a £10m fund for rape crisis centres announced in January as an example. Theresa May, the home secretary and minister for women and equalities, is known to have been annoyed by Clarke’s comments on rape this week, describing them privately as unhelpful. Clarke’s remarks came in the week that government statisticians put the number of women claiming unemployment benefits at a 15-year high, as public sector job cuts accelerate. Research published on Thursday by Coventry Universitysuggested that cuts to other benefits will cost women £30m, compared with just under £12m for men. Cooper said that the coalition had a blind spot on women. “This is not just about revealing remarks – be it from the justice secretary or the prime minister. Women are losing out every time from government policies,” she said. “There is a toxic mix of paternalistic Toryism and laissez-faire liberalism at the heart of the government which hits women hard. Some still subscribe to the traditional Tory view of women and family life, and there is a deep and widespread hostility to state or public sector action – from tax credits to childcare – which help women get on. The result is that for the first time in generations, the clock is being turned back on women’s equality.” The idea of a women and equality audit committee has already been aired in the house this year, when some coalition MPs spoke out in favour. Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire, said such a committee would ensure women’s issues were high on the agenda. Claire Perry, the Tory MP for Devizes, said it sounded “extremely sensible”. The MPs behind the plans are confident that if put it to a vote it would pass with a majority. But first they must convince the Commons authorities of the necessity for another select committee, particularly when budgets are stretched. In a statement, May insisted the deficit was being reduced even-handedly. “Decisions to increase spending on health and child tax credits, as well introducing flexible parental leave and extending the right to request flexible working, will all benefit women. We are also taking 880,000 of the lowest-paid workers out of income tax all together, the majority of whom are women,” she said. “There is absolutely nothing fair about running huge budget deficits and burdening future generations with the debts we cannot afford to pay.” Women Women in politics Feminism Gender Equality Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk
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Impromptu walkabout in Cork wins new friends, as Sinn Féin is ridiculed for censuring member who shook hand The Queen has concluded her highly successful first official visit to Ireland with an impromptu walkabout in Cork, greeting hundreds of cheering children and shopworkers. Earlier, during a visit to the medieval castle and cathedral at the Rock of Cashel, one of the country’s most historic sites, she even found a Sinn Féin representative willing to meet her and shake her hand: the mayor, Michael Browne. He breached party conventions that members should not meet the monarch and earned criticism for doing so. He claimed it was his civic duty to do it. “I just shook hands with her … I just said ‘Welcome to Cashel your majesty and I hope you enjoy your stay’. No more, no less.” The party has been much criticised for refusing to meet the Queen and ridiculed for its stance, with suggestions that it would never be satisfied, whatever happened. Her popularity appears to have disconcerted it. Muiris O Súilleabháin, Sinn Féin’s South Tipperary spokesman, said: “Party members in Tipperary were surprised by Michael Browne’s action, especially as he recently signed a statement against the English queen’s visit to the Rock of Cashel. “The visit of the English queen to Ireland is premature and we are opposed to it. Elected members should not attend any of the events related to it.” Despite that, the Queen met plenty of Irish people who were prepared to cheer her. In Cork several thousand turned out, drowning a protest by hundreds of opponents, who were kept out of earshot across the river that divides the town. She and the Duke of Edinburgh toured the English market, a historic covered area of food shops, joking with the shopkeepers. Fishmonger Pat O’Connell said: “She was absolutely superb. She is easy to talk to, and has got a great sense of humour. “She got a huge welcome here. I am very proud to be a market trader, and very proud to be a Cork man.” Outside the market, the Queen unexpectedly plunged towards the waiting crowd opposite, smiling and chatting to individuals. Rosemary Williams of Clonakilty said: “It says a lot for Cork that the threat was perceived to be less here. She is purely wonderful.” Jim Daly, principal of St Oliver’s School in Cork, who brought dozens of children to see the royal visitor, said: “The Queen came and said hello to the children and we were absolutely thrilled. “It’s a day they will remember all the days of their lives, and will tell their children and grandchildren about. “From the very moment the Queen stepped out of the plane on Tuesday wearing the colours of our country, and going to the Garden of Remembrance, she disarmed us completely. “All of us, on both sides of the divide, it has helped us reappraise our history and our culture. Her visit will go a long, long way to healing the wounds of past years.” Royal officials and Irish ministers have been thrilled at the outcome of the visit. Protests have been very muted and there has been much favourable comment about the 85-year-old’s feistiness and the obvious sincerity of her acknowledgement of past wrongs and the respects she paid at the country’s remembrance garden. Its success follows close behind that of the royal wedding three weeks ago and just in advance of Barack Obama’s arrival at Buckingham Palace for a state visit on Tuesday. The Queen Monarchy Ireland Europe Sinn Féin Stephen Bates guardian.co.uk
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Former IMF chief released from jail but unable to move into $14,000-a-month flat as building’s residents objected Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been released from jail and sent to an unspecified temporary home in Lower Manhattan where he will be detained under armed guard. An initial location for Strauss-Kahn to be detained had fallen through as although he may have been granted bail he was finding it difficult to find a new home in New York. The former head of the International Monetary Fund was hoping to move into a $14,000 (£8,600) a month apartment in the luxurious Bristol Plaza building in the upper east side of Manhattan after a judge bailed him on Thursday while he fights charges of attempted rape of a hotel chambermaid. Strauss-Kahn’s $1m bail stipulates that he must be kept under house arrest, wear an electronic tag to monitor his movements and hire a $200,000-a-month gun-toting security team authorised to use force if he should attempt to flee. “I expect you will be here when we need you,” Judge Michael Obus said on granting bail. “If there is the slightest problem, we can withdraw conditions.” Strauss-Kahn’s wife, Anne Sinclair, a former journalist, had hired the apartment. But news of this abode attracted a media scrum outside the building and objections from residents. Police had to put up barricades to hold back the TV crews and cameramen. Speaking anonymously, one resident said the media commotion outside was the first news he had heard of Strauss-Kahn’s arrival. “It’s outrageous. You think someone would have told us. I am going to object to this,” he said. Strauss-Kahn, 62, has been in jail since he was seized on an Air France plane at John F Kennedy airport last Sunday just moments before takeoff. Other locals and workers near the Bristol were more circumspect about the prospect of a new neighbour. Oxanna Fitzsimmons, a caretaker at the building, said she would have no problem cleaning Strauss-Kahn’s room. “I am not afraid. Is he crazy? He’s not crazy, he’s a normal person,” she said, adding that she did not believe he was guilty. “A man like that with a housekeeper? It’s unbelievable.” New York University student Alex Salamunouvich said: “I’m kind of indifferent to it. We have film crews here all the time, it’s not such a big deal. There are way more scary things to be concerned about in this city than that guy.” She said the work on the second avenue subway was far more disruptive. The Bristol is in the same street and just a few blocks east of the apartment where convicted financier Bernard Madoff was held under house arrest. “There must be something about this street,” said Ron Anta, who has lived in the neighbourhood for 23 years. “This is the same-sized crowd [of media] that Madoff got but I don’t think they’ll stay here for as long. I don’t think people around here really notice this kind of stuff. We are used to it. This is New York.” Strauss-Kahn will formally answer charges on 6 June. The 32-year-old hotel maid who has accused the former IMF chief of attempted rape is in hiding. She appeared before a grand jury this week and told police she entered his hotel room to clean it, thinking it was empty. He then allegedly jumped from a bathroom naked and attacked her. He denies all charges. Dominique Strauss-Kahn New York United States Renting property Property France Europe Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
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Ed Miliband has admitted that the Labour party lost the 2010 general election because it offered a message of ‘fear, not hope’ Ed Miliband breaks with his mentor Gordon Brown tomorrow when he will declare Labour lost the general election last year because it offered a message of “fear, not hope”. In a Guardian article, Miliband challenges his party to accept that Labour will never return to power unless its acknowledges that the last government – and not the electorate – made mistakes. Miliband’s article comes ahead of a speech to the annual conference of the Blairite Progress group. It is designed to answer critics who have suggested that he has failed to appreciate the scale of the challenge facing Labour. He will be speaking just over two weeks after Labour’s disastrous performance in the Scottish parliamentary elections and a weak performance in the English local elections. Miliband, who wrote the Labour manifesto for the general election, uses his Guardian article to make clear he understands that Labour lost touch with the electorate. “We lost not just because we made mistakes – on individual issues such as immigration, welfare, banking or even Iraq – but for a much deeper reason,” he writes. “We stopped providing answers to these big concerns.” Miliband writes that Brown and the Labour party were guilty of running a negative campaign. “Our message was far too weighted to fear, not hope. “It was never enough to inspire victory, or to give people a sufficiently clear and positive vision of this country. By the end of our time in government, we had lost the ability to chart the future.” Miliband believes it is important to acknowledge the failings of the last government, of which he was a prominent member, to allow him to deliver his main message – that Labour wins only when it embraces a positive vision of the future. Miliband writes: “At the next general election, we must be the optimists, the party with a positive, patriotic mission for our country. When we have won great victories – in 1945, 1964, 1997 – it has been by defining a new national mission. That is what we can, must and will do again.” Miliband will say this mission will revolve around three key priorities: championing the squeezed middle; tackling growing inequality; and ensuring future generations do not slip behind their parents as Labour works hard to maintain “generational progress”. Ed Miliband Labour General election 2010 Local elections Scottish politics Gordon Brown Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Ed Miliband has admitted that the Labour party lost the 2010 general election because it offered a message of ‘fear, not hope’ Ed Miliband breaks with his mentor Gordon Brown tomorrow when he will declare Labour lost the general election last year because it offered a message of “fear, not hope”. In a Guardian article, Miliband challenges his party to accept that Labour will never return to power unless its acknowledges that the last government – and not the electorate – made mistakes. Miliband’s article comes ahead of a speech to the annual conference of the Blairite Progress group. It is designed to answer critics who have suggested that he has failed to appreciate the scale of the challenge facing Labour. He will be speaking just over two weeks after Labour’s disastrous performance in the Scottish parliamentary elections and a weak performance in the English local elections. Miliband, who wrote the Labour manifesto for the general election, uses his Guardian article to make clear he understands that Labour lost touch with the electorate. “We lost not just because we made mistakes – on individual issues such as immigration, welfare, banking or even Iraq – but for a much deeper reason,” he writes. “We stopped providing answers to these big concerns.” Miliband writes that Brown and the Labour party were guilty of running a negative campaign. “Our message was far too weighted to fear, not hope. “It was never enough to inspire victory, or to give people a sufficiently clear and positive vision of this country. By the end of our time in government, we had lost the ability to chart the future.” Miliband believes it is important to acknowledge the failings of the last government, of which he was a prominent member, to allow him to deliver his main message – that Labour wins only when it embraces a positive vision of the future. Miliband writes: “At the next general election, we must be the optimists, the party with a positive, patriotic mission for our country. When we have won great victories – in 1945, 1964, 1997 – it has been by defining a new national mission. That is what we can, must and will do again.” Miliband will say this mission will revolve around three key priorities: championing the squeezed middle; tackling growing inequality; and ensuring future generations do not slip behind their parents as Labour works hard to maintain “generational progress”. Ed Miliband Labour General election 2010 Local elections Scottish politics Gordon Brown Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Ed Miliband has admitted that the Labour party lost the 2010 general election because it offered a message of ‘fear, not hope’ Ed Miliband breaks with his mentor Gordon Brown tomorrow when he will declare Labour lost the general election last year because it offered a message of “fear, not hope”. In a Guardian article, Miliband challenges his party to accept that Labour will never return to power unless its acknowledges that the last government – and not the electorate – made mistakes. Miliband’s article comes ahead of a speech to the annual conference of the Blairite Progress group. It is designed to answer critics who have suggested that he has failed to appreciate the scale of the challenge facing Labour. He will be speaking just over two weeks after Labour’s disastrous performance in the Scottish parliamentary elections and a weak performance in the English local elections. Miliband, who wrote the Labour manifesto for the general election, uses his Guardian article to make clear he understands that Labour lost touch with the electorate. “We lost not just because we made mistakes – on individual issues such as immigration, welfare, banking or even Iraq – but for a much deeper reason,” he writes. “We stopped providing answers to these big concerns.” Miliband writes that Brown and the Labour party were guilty of running a negative campaign. “Our message was far too weighted to fear, not hope. “It was never enough to inspire victory, or to give people a sufficiently clear and positive vision of this country. By the end of our time in government, we had lost the ability to chart the future.” Miliband believes it is important to acknowledge the failings of the last government, of which he was a prominent member, to allow him to deliver his main message – that Labour wins only when it embraces a positive vision of the future. Miliband writes: “At the next general election, we must be the optimists, the party with a positive, patriotic mission for our country. When we have won great victories – in 1945, 1964, 1997 – it has been by defining a new national mission. That is what we can, must and will do again.” Miliband will say this mission will revolve around three key priorities: championing the squeezed middle; tackling growing inequality; and ensuring future generations do not slip behind their parents as Labour works hard to maintain “generational progress”. Ed Miliband Labour General election 2010 Local elections Scottish politics Gordon Brown Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk
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True extent of investigator Glenn Mulcaire’s activities only now becoming apparent as Operation Wheeting continues The Metropolitan police holds evidence that could prove hundreds of people had their phones hacked by the News of the World, Scotland Yard told the high court, a far greater number than had previously been believed. Barristers for the Metropolitan police said notes seized from Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator on the paper’s books, showed he made a note of 149 mobile phone pin numbers and around 400 unique voicemail numbers. Both are used to access messages left on mobile
Continue reading …True extent of investigator Glenn Mulcaire’s activities only now becoming apparent as Operation Wheeting continues The Metropolitan police holds evidence that could prove hundreds of people had their phones hacked by the News of the World, Scotland Yard told the high court, a far greater number than had previously been believed. Barristers for the Metropolitan police said notes seized from Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator on the paper’s books, showed he made a note of 149 mobile phone pin numbers and around 400 unique voicemail numbers. Both are used to access messages left on mobile
Continue reading …True extent of investigator Glenn Mulcaire’s activities only now becoming apparent as Operation Wheeting continues The Metropolitan police holds evidence that could prove hundreds of people had their phones hacked by the News of the World, Scotland Yard told the high court, a far greater number than had previously been believed. Barristers for the Metropolitan police said notes seized from Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator on the paper’s books, showed he made a note of 149 mobile phone pin numbers and around 400 unique voicemail numbers. Both are used to access messages left on mobile
Continue reading …True extent of investigator Glenn Mulcaire’s activities only now becoming apparent as Operation Wheeting continues The Metropolitan police holds evidence that could prove hundreds of people had their phones hacked by the News of the World, Scotland Yard told the high court, a far greater number than had previously been believed. Barristers for the Metropolitan police said notes seized from Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator on the paper’s books, showed he made a note of 149 mobile phone pin numbers and around 400 unique voicemail numbers. Both are used to access messages left on mobile
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