William Hague announced a new initiative last night  –  a UK task force of experts is to be created to go into conflict zones to get the evidence to enable prosecutions against those who perpetrate sexual violence and rape as a weapon of war.

As Minister for tackling Violence against women and girls overseas I am proud of this commitment by us as a government to tackle this most horrendous of crimes. It is hugely important in substance, because experts will now collect evidence in conflict zones to enable prosecutions to be successfully brought to end the dreadful impunity that has protected war criminals from facing the consequences of their actions.

The Government will also use the UK presidency of the G8 next year to promote practical ways of tackling sexual violence in war zones.

Sexual violence and rape as a weapon of war are of such a scale as to be virtually unbelievable. United Nations statistics show that worldwide one in five women will become a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime.

Angelina Jolie’s film ‘In the land of blood and honey’ tells the story of the indiscriminate rape of Croats and Muslims during the Bosnia War in the most powerful way.  The film was screened at the Foreign Office with an invited audience of those who work in this field – and Angelina herself was there to introduce and talk about her work.

I was able to meet Ms Jolie together with the Foreign Secretary, the Defence Secretary, Alan Duncan and Jeremy Browne for a discussion on our new initiative and her work in tackling sexual violence.

She is an extremely intelligent and articulate woman – and has thankfully shone a brilliant light into a very very dark corner. I hope many many people go and see her hugely powerful film.

This is my latest column published in the Ham & High Thursday 24th May.

On 25 July the Olympic Torch will go right past my constituency office which is in the Three Compasses Pub in Hornsey High Street. Well it’s not actually in the pub. It is upstairs.

I know it’s still a long way away but I am definitely getting Olympic and Paralympic fever.

I had hoped that Andrew Thornton would be one of the torch bearers. Andrew owns Budgens Crouch End (and Belsize Park) and has done so much for Crouch End and the local community – and that’s in an area blessed with many, many community minded souls.

I had nominated Andrew to be a torch bearer around this time last year when there was an open call for nominations. In fact, I was reminded of this last Sunday morning when I went to Priory Park for the annual YMCA Fun Run and Festival to give out the awards to the winners. The YMCA do a brilliant job every year and yet again Budgens sponsored the event.

The aforesaid Andrew Thornton, it would be true to say, is always a winner of at least one of the categories that I present a prize to at the fun run. In fact it was having presented him with his medal last year that made me think of nominating him in the first place to be a torch bearer.

Having made the application, there were a number of hoops to jump through and stages to get through – which he did right down to the final selection – but he (we) fell at the last hurdle. No idea what criteria were used but I guess there would have been a mega number of nominations.

So the torch is being born by many worthy others and will wend its way around the United Kingdom over the coming weeks. As I say – it will be coming down Hornsey High Street on its way to Alexandra Palace on the 25th and going through various highways and byways in Camden the following day.

But Andrew was not at the YMCA fun run last Sunday. No – he had decided to go one further. He was running in the pitch dark in USA at exactly the same time as the race was being run here in Priory Park. That shows commitment!

This year the Event was one of a number of Community Games across the country, inspired by London 2012 bringing the spirit of the Games into the community. The YMCA event was chosen because it reflects the values of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games in being inclusive, cross-generational and inspirational to the local community.

As ever it was a great event with lots of adults and children taking part – and Michelle Collins running around with an Olympic Torch (a replica) to get us all into the Olympic spirit. The Olympic spirit was further enhanced by the prize winners this year getting an ‘Olympic’ medal which I presented by putting it over their heads to hang around their necks. I did catch several winners’ ears. Have to say I had never before considered the art of putting a medal over someone’s head – but it is clearly not as simple as it looks.

This is one of the largest community events in North London with literally thousands of adults and children taking part in the activities and over 150 volunteers making sure it happens well and safely – and all for charity.

So a huge salute to the YMCA, Budgens and all those who worked so hard to make this year’s event so successful.

What a really nice thing to happen! Ben and Jerry sent an ice cream tub to my constituency (in matching box with a personal message) with my photo on it – and the flavour named as ‘Lynne Honeycomb’. You can see it here. I hasten to add – no actual ice cream was in the tub – which as it came through the post is a very good thing.

The government consultation on equal marriage will close on June 14 – so do visit the Home Office website where you can access the consultation to make sure you get your view on the record.

In the aftermath of a tough set of election results for both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats – I couldn’t help but notice a few naysayers popping up in the media and uttering dire warnings about a government that needs to concentrate on core issues rather than same sex civil marriage.

For goodness sake – it’s not either / or.

The economy is clearly the No 1 priority – but the Coalition can multi-task!

There will be no u-turn on equal marriage – we are committed as a government to legislate by 2015

Clearly a tough set of results for the Liberal democrats – but not all gloom and doom. Here is Mark Pack’s post on LibDem Voice (before the London results came in)

Beyond the headlines, six points in particular strike me:

1. It looks as if the party will keep control of all the councils that had Lib Dem majorities before Thursday. Cambridge is a technical loss, but the party will keep control on the Mayor’s casting vote. Each of those Lib Dem council leaders and their teams deserve heavy praise for that impressive verdict on their council and political skills. (one lost post this post).

2. The results in seats with Liberal Democrat MPs, at least in England, have generally been good, not only in southern England but elsewhere too. In Hallam, for example, we won every seat and our vote was up on last year. That is a major saving grace: the local election base where it really matters for general election results has come out of the last two years in a much better state than elsewhere.

3. Outside MP seats, some areas where the party would hope to gain MPs in future elections, such as in Winchester, showed decent progress on last year and an ability to go head-to-head with the Tories and survive. Some, but by no means all. There is, however, a big enough local government place in the sorts of seats the party could fight seriously for the party to be able to be contesting seriously comfortably more seats than it has won in any previous general election. If the party has to fight on a smaller front that will be because of other political considerations, not because the local base is not there. That is particularly worth stating because some in the media are trying to push as “the party is doomed” line.

4. The smaller parties have generally done badly. UKIP may have piled up some votes, but it is not breaking through in winning seats. The Greens have continued their generally lacklustre performance of the past few years. Winning their first Parliamentary seat in 2010 is the major caveat to that, but even in the 2010 election results elsewhere were frequently poor and their local government base has not made a breakthrough. Thankfully the same too can be said of the BNP, who have been doing even worse – probably ending up losing all their seats up for election.

5. Labour’s progress is decent but not spectacular. Their results this year are (still) worse than other previous oppositions have achieved, even some which have gone on to defeat. Superficially that is bad news for Labour, showing how far their recovery still has to go, but it is also a warning for the government: this may not be Labour’s peak of mid-term popularity.

6. Unless there is a bizarre outbreak of reshuffle panic, any changes should wait until Jeremy Hunt’s fate is clearer, i.e. until after his appearance at the Leveson Inquiry. When a reshuffle does come, the Liberal Democrat changes will see David Laws return. Given the size of the task still facing the party, changes should also be made that reflect the relative media ability of Lib Dem ministers (see this league table). There is no room for those who are content to be low profile. Every minister needs to be making a full contribution to getting over the party’s message.