Here’s my latest Muswell Flyer article on high street parking charges. Please sign the petition for 30 mins free parking here.

One of the best things about my constituency is the large number of independent retailers that line the high streets. We have unique bookshops, bakeries and antique shops, to name but a few. It sets us apart from other high streets, which have become dominated by chain stores.

In these tough times, however, many of these valued independent retailers have been struggling and need a little extra help. In September last year, a local business owner contacted me, reporting that independent businesses in Muswell Hill had suffered months of poor trade after the parking prices were increased from £1.40 to £3.

In my view, we should be doing as much as possible to encourage people to use these shops. That’s why I wrote to Labour-run Haringey Council, telling them how frustrated I was with their parking charges, which are having a detrimental effect on many shops and businesses. I asked them to reconsider the charges asap.

These charges will naturally put people off, and I expect many people feel forced to go to a big shopping centre or supermarket to shop, where they can park for free, or at a cheaper rate.

Disappointingly, in their response to my concerns, the Council confirmed that a decision had been made to make no further changes to the charge of £3 per hour.

This response did not, however, deter the local business owners and campaigners. Traders in Muswell Hill put together a petition for lower parking charges, which attracted a whopping 5,200 signatures. My Haringey Liberal Democrat colleagues also started a campaign for up to 30 minutes free parking on our high streets – so people aren’t put off from popping in to these unique stores.

Due to the overwhelming support for these campaigns, the traders were able to bring their petition to a full meeting of Haringey Council in November. In response the Labour administration sanctioned two days of free parking at Christmas.

Whilst this was welcome – I do not believe it goes far enough. These shops and retailers need help all year round – not just for two days over the Christmas period. Parking charges need to be lowered permanently, and 30 minutes free parking would also be a most welcome encouragement for people to drop in to local retailers.

I believe the Council are being really short sighted here – if these shops struggle and have to close, not only will the community lose a local service, but the Council will also lose a substantial amount of money in business rents and rates. But I’m afraid this is typical of the Labour administration – who are simply more interested in a quick buck on parking fares than preserving our community assets.

The President of the British Council of Shopping Centres (BCSC) has said he supports the Liberal Democrat campaign. The BCSC has worked closely with Mary Portas, contributed to her report for Government and has identified lower parking charges as a critical issue in the future for town centres and their fight for survival.

I am glad, therefore, that the campaigns for cheaper and free parking still have momentum, and I will be lending my full support to them!

Please sign the petition for 30 mins free parking here.

A short blog to say have just come back from a quick visit to France where I met with members of the French Government and civil society about the forthcoming G8 summit, the 57th UN Commision on the Status of Women (CSW) and the post 2015 Millennium Development Goals. To see a quick take on some of these issues see this, watch the records.

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/w6Eno_3O_Y4?rel=0

Yesterday and today I have been in Paris discussing issues on development and violence against women and girls – in my capacity as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development and UK ministerial champion for tackling violence against women and girls overseas.

I  met with counterparts in the French Government and civil society colleagues to discuss international development priorities, the British Presidency of the G8 and how the UK and France can continue to work closely on tackling poverty in 2013.

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/w6Eno_3O_Y4?rel=0

Yesterday and today Britain’s development budget and programmes came under heavy attack from the Daily Mail and the Spectator. No surprise there.

The breathless diatribes espoused by journalist Jonathan Foreman include the wild accusation that the only beneficiaries of British aid are the coffers of ‘African dictators’ and the consciences of the Western middle class.

What Foreman fails to point out are the undeniable, verifiable life-changing results of Britain’s development programmes.

British aid vaccinates a baby against killer diseases every two seconds and saves a mother’s life every two hours. It is providing food, medicine and blankets for families in Syria and fed 3.5m starving people during the Horn of Africa food crisis. Over the last two years British aid has supported more than five million children to go to primary school.

It’s hard to make statistics resonate as they should. So please read the last paragraph again and think of yourself and your own family.

How many women do you know who had absolutely no medical care during and after their pregnancy? How many young children do you know who simply do not go to school either because there isn’t one to attend or because their families can’t afford to send them? Could you live on less than £1 a day?

Yes, we have serious troubles here at home. Working families are under strain. Today’s graduates face an incredibly hard time getting jobs. The Coalition has had to cut budgets.

But one of my proudest moments in government was to hear the Prime Minister say we will not balance the books on the backs of the world’s poorest.

The Coalition is sticking to its promises to the world’s poorest people because we believe development is both the right thing and the smart thing to do, creating a safer, more prosperous world for everyone. Because aid is no longer ‘giving to the poor’ but about supporting the capacity of the recipient country to stand on its own two feet – a win-win outcome for them and for us.

Far from shovelling money out the door, we scrutinise every pound we spend on aid to make sure it is effective. The Coalition set up an independent watchdog to monitor and review our programmes, and my colleague the DFID Secretary has further tightened rules on departmental spending, announced the end of financial aid to India and acted swiftly on misuse of British money in Uganda. She and I have made clear to the EU and other agencies that they must focus support on the poorest countries.

It is right to help the poorest and most vulnerable when we can and I am proud that our party, with our strong tradition of internationalism, gets this. We will never apologise for striving to improve the lives of those less fortunate – at home and abroad.

When I came into post in the Home Office – Theresa May called me into her office and said that David Cameron wanted to appoint me as Minister for tackling Violence Against Women Overseas and policy coherence across Whitehall for this agenda – which I was very pleased to accept.

Right now there is a lot of publicity, quite rightly and thank goodness, on the dreadful multiple rape of a young medical student in Delhi – who has sadly now died. Six of her attackers have been charged with murder. Let us hope that the high profile nature of this case brings change: change in laws yes – but even more importantly change in attitude and change in action taken

I paste below part of a speech I made to Liberal Democrat conference when I returned from India.

On my first visit as Ministerial Champion, I visited India.

Now in India, women occupy four of the most senior political positions – Head of State, President of the Congressional Coalition, Head of the Opposition party and Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

But from my visit it became clear that despite this political representation, India, like many other countries across the globe can still be a very unsafe place for women.

On one of the days, I went to the village of Patna, in the northern state of Bihar – where reported incidents of domestic violence are highest in all of India.

In this region, two thirds of all women have suffered violence at the hands of their husbands.

And some of the stories I heard – of rape, of beatings, of kidnap and imprisonment – were truly harrowing.

Now I met with Ministers and civil groups trying to change this, and I commend both their efforts and their intentions.

But India proves that women in power doesn’t always mean empowered women.

And legislation alone will not solve these problems.

For women to feel truly safe when they walk home from work late at night, what has to change is attitudes.

There must be social change, cultural change.

And this must be achieved through the education of men and boys, as well as through new laws that move away from the dangerously outdated notions of a woman’s “modesty” and “virtue”and towards a judicial system that says sexual crime, domestic violence, and the abuse of women in all its forms is nothing less than an affront to their human rights.

But I do not preach to these countries blind to our own failures, conference.

Because we in Britain must admit that we have not solved the issue of violence against women.

And that we have our own outdated cultural norms to overcome.

Our country still has unacceptable levels of domestic violence, terrible conviction rates for rape, and a serious problem with human trafficking.

It is simply not acceptable that in a modern democracy like ours, an average of two women a week are murdered by their partners or ex-partners.

But neither is it acceptable for our law-makers, no matter how-well intentioned, to talk about rape in a way that seems both casual and callous.

As a nation, and as a Government, we must be clear that we understand that rape and sexual violence is about power, not about sex.

That what a woman wears, or does, or says, will never be justification for violence against her.

And that abuse in the home, by someone you know, is no less traumatising than abuse by a stranger.

The Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols and The Rt Rev Mark Davies of Shrewsbury are both quoted in The Independent today as using part of their Christmas messages to oppose the government’s proposals on equal marriage.

I profoundly believe and fight for freedom of speech and I defend their right to say what they have said. So I pen this not in anger – but in sorrow.

Of course you can disagree with equal marriage. You can believe that it can only be between a man and a woman. You can ultimately resist getting married to someone of the same sex if you don’t want to when this becomes law. What you surely cannot do is simply rail against the fact that not everyone subscribes to your point of view and then try to stop others living life in a different way than your religion dictates.

And it is quite shameful to argue against equal marriage on the grounds that religions will be forced to conduct such marriages. The Government’s intention to make it possible for those religions that wish to conduct such services to have the freedom to so do –  and the Government is bending over backwards (some would say too far) to ensure any fears of religions being forced to conduct such marriages are unwarranted.

It is even more shameful when that argument is lost to simply shift to the next argument as being the most important – that there is no mandate (The Rt Rev Mark Davies’ Christmas message). Good grief! Not only did all three leaders at the time of the election and since make clear that they all supported equal marriage; not only is it in the Conservative Equality commitment document; not only is it Liberal Democrat Party policy; not only do all polls show the majority in favour of equal marriage; not only did the largest response to a consultation by government in all history also show a majority in favour – but since when did any government do only that which was in a manifesto? A manifesto is a prospectus of what a government will do – not a prospectus of all it will do. The Coalition agreement is a compromise of the two manifestos. That does not preclude – and never has – the bringing forward of further proposals which are then democratically decided by a vote in the Houses of Parliament.

The other argument brought forth and paraded is that of ‘redefining’ marriage. Well – that depends on your definition. Mine is exactly what the Archbishop of Westminster decries in his statement – that where there is love and commitment between two people that is all you need for marriage. He also argues that these matters have not been given much thought. Oh please! This issue has probably had more thought and discussion than any other issue of the day!

It is very disappointing that religious leaders who object so forcefully to equal marriage seem to have so little faith in their own beliefs. If their religious beliefs are that marriage can only be between a man and a woman – they should have the confidence in their flocks to believe that too. And if it is their own flocks’ potential for disagreeing with them that is their real fear – then that is a matter for religious leaders and their congregations to sort out.

This is all about love actually!

Here’s my most recent column for the Muswell Flyer and Highgate Handbook. Note that since writing – the Lib Dems in government increased the personal tax allowance even more – meaning ordinary workers will now get a £600 tax cut! You can read all previous Muswell Flyer articles here: http://beckybeach.net/?s=lynne+featherstone

The cold weather has set in and Christmas is just round the corner. It’s the end of the year – and what a year 2012 has been. We had the jubilee celebrations followed by the spectacle of the London Olympics and Paralympics – and I’ve been busy too, in Hornsey and Wood Green, Government and Parliament.

This year two long standing constituency campaigns have produced successful results. For five years, I fought for fairer funding for Haringey’s schools, which were getting a raw deal having to pay inner London costs with outer London funding. In April, as a result of the campaign, Haringey’s schools have received an extra £7.3 million. And, after a four year campaign, a safer W7 bus stop has finally been installed in Muswell Hill.

But as those campaigns draw to a close, others have been started. The Haringey Lib Dems and I are currently fighting hard to protect local rail services and to save our local sorting offices and mail collection services. We’ve also launched a campaign for fairer health funding for Haringey’s health services.

We are still fighting against proposals for a huge waste facility in Pinkham Way and for Labour Haringey to rectify bin collections. Most urgently we are campaigning for Labour Haringey to help our local shops by suspending parking charges in our high streets for the Christmas period. This comes on top of day to day MP duties – including my hard working office staff dealing with around 17,500 pieces of casework this year!

My ‘other job’ in Government changed in September, when I moved from the Home Office to the Department of International Development. I really enjoyed my time working on equalities and criminal information – launching the equal marriage consultation early this year and seeing private wheel clamping banned are particular highlights. But the move to DFID has fulfilled a lifelong ambition, and I’ve already been on inspirational trips to places like South Sudan to launch textbooks funded by UK Aid.

My party – the Liberal Democrats – have been pushing our agenda in Government at home, and have also been able to implement many of our policies this year. In April, we raised the tax threshold to £9,000 – meaning two million low earners have been lifted out of paying tax, and twenty one million have received a tax cut of over £500. We’ve balanced this by ensuring the rich pay their fair share.

Throughout the year, Lib Dem’s pupil premium policy has rolled out, giving schools extra money to help the most disadvantaged pupils – Haringey got an extra £8.8 million (that’s on top of the £7.3 million mentioned earlier)! The Coalition Government also funded a Council Tax freeze – which Haringey Labour tried to take the credit for.

And that reminds me – unfortunately some things haven’t changed for the better this year. As there have been no local elections, Labour are still running Haringey Council. This year, we’ve been treated to botched bin collections, housing scandals and had our Council Tax money wasted – again.

But this has only strengthened my resolve! Next year I will be campaigning harder than ever in the run up to the 2014 elections, where I hope to see the Haringey Lib Dems take control of the Council and make some positive changes to Haringey.

All in all, it has been an emotional, tiring, fun and wonderful year. All that remains is for me to wish everyone a happy festive holiday, and all the best for 2013!

Here’s a copy of the email I sent out to all Liberal Democrat Members today…

It’s been an amazing day for equality today as the Coalition Government announced it will introduce legislation to open marriage up to same-sex couples.

I am so proud of our Party because – don’t let anyone fool you – it’s because of Liberal Democrats that this is happening.

It all started two years ago when LGBT+ Lib Dems and Conference broke new ground. In September 2010, Liberal Democrat members voted to support equal marriage and end the separation between same-sex and opposite-sex couples. I took that vote to heart, saw an opportunity, telephoned Nick to say that I was going to go for equal marriage in my role as Equalities Minister at the Home Office. Nick gave me his support and his blessing – and quite frankly – at sticky moments during its passage his full-on powerful interventions when and as needed.

We’re two years on and it has been a hard battle. As Equalities Minister I was in charge of putting together the consultation on equal marriage. I met with LGBT groups, campaigners, lawyers, faith groups and many others. As we all know, marriage is an ancient institution, often tinkered with, but I had no idea how confusing the patchwork of legislation that governs it was. At one point the naysayers were making ominous noises about how it would lead to disestablishment of the Church if I pushed ahead with this!

Now you all know me better than these people did. It just made me more determined to show we could achieve this without the world as we know it ending. When we launched the consultation the Government was deluged by so many anti-equality voices trying to stop me (and recently Jo Swinson who took over from me in the reshuffle) pushing for this in government.

These voices were heard not least on the backbenches of our Coalition partners by those who still get somewhat hot under the collar when you talk about a modern, diverse and open Britain! Still – with Liberal Democrats firmly behind this policy, David Cameron has the votes necessary to defy them.

It became clear during the consultation that many same sex couples wanted to get married and wanted to do so in a full religious ceremony. And there were many religious organisations who wanted the freedom to conduct same-sex marriages. With Nick’s help we delivered this victory for religious freedom, at the same time protecting the rights of those religions who do not want to conduct such services.

It’s been a proud day for me and you should feel proud too. Without us – this would never have happened!