Talking of extending the range of sport on offer to young people – which is part of the Body Confidence project – last night I attended the launch dinner of the Women’s World Rugby Cup. This worldwide tournament is taking place from mid-August to mid September in Surrey – and our team is in with a real chance. You can find out more about the World Cup here.
What a committed group of both women and men (the sport is well integrated) completely dedicated to promoting and expanding participation in this game – on which I had a crash course during the dinner.
From even four years ago the women’s game has mushroomed. Amongst the guests were the real pioneers of the sport – those women who had pushed and pushed for the success they now have. From the time where there were so few women interested that to get a team together you had to gather girls from whole regions – nay – the whole of the north of England – now the numbers are growing.
Having the World Cup here – and it being televised by Sky (full marks to Sky for televising women’s sport – something other broadcasters might like to follow suit in) will undoubtedly spawn a whole new avalanche of interest.
Good luck to the team and look forward to watching you.
Lynne Featherstone 
Liberal Democrats in coalition for just over 10 weeks!
MORI poll:
True Cons- 40%
Collaborators – 16%
Party just chucked out of govt and without a leader – 38%
Barmy policy giving anonymity for alleged rapists, supported as a policy by junior equalities minister, quietly abandoned. Blog posts on topic of late by junior equalities minister- nil.
Mad privatisation of NHS with no planning, no accountability and no governance. Comments by junior equalities minister- nil.
Child molesters to volunteer to assist in schools, convicts to volunteer to do policing. Blogs by junior equalities minister- nil.
Arbitrary immigration cap on non-EU members (mostly therefore black people). Comments by junior equalities minister- nil.
Rubbish performance in world cup- blogs by junior equalities minister- one.
Chances of PR being introduced- nil
Blogs about how great junior equalities minister is- lots.
I’d hardly describe trying to protect men from false rape allegations as “barmy”. People lose their careers, families and even their lives as result of false allegations and something needs to be done to protect innocent men.
However, I would agree that the lack of posts on these issues is deeply troubling, regardless of one’s views on the subject. Even more sickening was Lynne’s refusal to attend the debate on the issue. She did blog on the issue a while back, but there was very little understanding or concern for vicitms of false rape allegations in the piece and little enthusiasm for helping them.
Sounds good to me I am all for women (and men) getting recognition and rewards for their efforts and it seems the only way to do this is by exposure in the media which is a shame if you dont get the opportunity to get this – keep up the good work
This is such a pointless blog, why don’t you address real concerns, Lynne?
You appear to be totally out of touch with your insensitivity oozing out of every pore.
Why don’t you try and win some voters back or are you now one of the MPs for life (part of the deal with Cameron was for the right wing LibDems to go unopposed by the Tories)?
No she isn’t embarrassed, she’s a Tory.
Absolutely hilarious to see Simon Hughes release about Labour and AV that says they are staggering hypocrites and naked opportunists. It’s so refreshing to see an MP even from the duffers party that has such a fantastic sense of humour and inward looking irony.
Lynne, having done a little bit of research, it seems evident that Nick Clegg lied to us about cutting early.
Could you please blog to confirm whether you were party to his lies? Everyone’s going to see him on Nick Robinson’s program tonight (and Mervyn King clarified his position yesterday).
The fact that he told us such bare faced lies is sickening…. this wasn’t about him dodging the question or being a little misleading, he lied to us and is now admitting it.
What an absolute disgrace, are you MPs meant to be trying to win back the confidence of voters? It just makes me think that all LibDems are liars.
Name and Shame politicians here who do not reply on this new blog site set up to gather persons who are fed up of not being listened to by MPs, MEPs, Councillors, and Ministers. Now is your chance to get back and complain
you will need to type in the h t t p : // shamepoliticians.wordpress.com/
Not sure what happened to comment I posted yesterday in response to ‘demands’ that I reply to all the comments. I do read them – and that is the basic exchange of this blog. I post and people comment and let me know (in no uncertain terms) what they think of what I have posted. Occasionally I comment back – but I can’t respond to blog comments the way I do to any constituent who emails, phones or writes to me – as a right – which is what you seem to expect.
Blog comments come from all over the country and the world – and I have no way of knowing which are constituents to whom I have an absolute commitment to respond.
The blog is entirely done by me – and therefore obviously with work commitments all day every day – time constraints make it impossible to engage the way you would all obviously like me to.
If you are a constituent – and you want me to answer you directly – please email me at featherstonel@parliament.uk or write to me at the House of Commons and I will be happy to answer.
Many of your constituents have helpfully suggested a way in which you can communicate with us en masse – via a public meeting in your constituency. Now I know you have probably already hauled the Louis Vuittons out of your walk-in wardrobe ready for the long hols but how about pencilling in a date in September in your Smythson diary?
And here’s today’s top tip – don’t make such a meal out of working hard. Lots of people do – and thanks to you embracing the ‘Big Society’ (the DIY Society) some of us will soon be expected to add in running the library, staffing the town hall and helping out the local police to our schedules.
Helen, you’re barking up the wrong tree. Have a look at Lynne’s Twitter page – in response to a fellow Lib Dem asking why she doesn’t tell her critics to “get a life”, she has described people who post on here as “political opponents whose purpose in life is to post comments on my blog”.
Perhaps she should issue a retraction if she is to retain any credibility. I have criticised Lynne and the Coalition on here, and I am not a “political opponent”, but I am a constituent, and one who voted for Lynne at the last election.
Well, I personally think she has lost all credibility in as far as I am concerned. Why not visit my blog and tell us what you think of your MPs. I set up for ordinary people just like you and I so that we can make the public aware of who is a good MP and who isn’t. Who knows if we get enough people blogging on the site we may even be able to reward the best politician and the worst politician with honours!
shamepoliticians.wordpress.com/
You will need to type in the http bit ahead of the url
I am also looking for site moderators to help me manage the site as its set up not for profit and with no political affiliations what so ever