The first wedding of the day is Subodh and Niranjan – who have been together forever – at the registry office in Wood Green. The second is at Alexandra Palace – Benjamin and Nathan. I am even wearing a frock! And I wish both couples and everyone else who is getting married today all the happiness in the world.
This really is an historic day!
I am going to two weddings tomorrow – same sex weddings of course!
And whilst those who marry on this first day will be part of history – the real point is that from this day forward – people of the same sex can get married any day – and live happily ever after!
This will be such a landmark day for me too.
It’s been a long journey since I marched into my office at the Home Office and said to my civil servants ‘I am going to deliver same sex marriage – and I know it’s not in the Coalition agreement – but it needs doing’,
And the rest is history – literally.
If you use the find mechanism on my blog – and find ‘gay marriage’, ‘same sex marriage’ or ‘equal marriage’ you will see some of how this came to be. One day – when I am no longer a minister – I will be able to tell the whole story.
But all I really want to do here and now – is wish everyone who marries someone of the same sex exactly what I would wish couples of the opposite sex – all the joy and happiness that being married can bring to two human beings who love each other.
Lynne Featherstone MP has written to Haringey Council to demand action on the ongoing problems associated with the Ringslade Road rat-run in Wood Green.
Along with local Wood Green Lib Dem campaigners, the MP visited the site last Friday to listen to residents’ concerns.
In the letter, the MP for Hornsey and Wood Green outlines her support for an immediate, enforced ban on HGVs using the rat-run, and for a longer term temporary road closure plan.
A public meeting on the issue will be held tonight – giving local residents a further chance to have their say to Council officers. The Liberal Democrat MP suggested that the Council come to the meeting with a plan to tell the residents.
Lynne Featherstone MP said:
“I can completely understand why residents are so frustrated. There are over 2000 vehicles a day coming down their small road – it is noisy, annoying, and unsafe.
“Promises by Labour-run Haringey Council to find a solution have not been fulfilled. This has gone on far too long now, and a solution must be found urgently.
“I am fully behind the local residents’ suggestion of a trial road closure, as a first step towards eradicating the problem in this area.”
Wood Green Lib Dem campaigner Roxy Squire commented:
“We are working with residents on Ringslade Road and the surrounding area to try and find the best solution for all. The situation on Ringslade is unsustainable and urgent action is needed.
“It is important we don’t shift the problem on to other roads, though. That’s why we are supporting an initial ban on HGVs for safety reasons, followed by trial measures, which we can monitor and use to find the best solution.”
Here’s my latest Ham and High column on my work at home and abroad to protect women and girls from violence. Also available here.
Last week, I represented the UK at the UN Commission on the Status of Women. I have always been committed to tackling violence against women and girls – and since taking on a ministerial role in the Department for International Development, I have been able to make it a UK government priority.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have led to remarkable achievements in alleviating poverty over the last 15 years. But for all their good, the MDGs omitted a crucial element – a target for ending gender-based violence.
I’m proud that the coalition government is committed to the principle that every woman and girl has the right to live free from violence or the threat of violence. And that every woman and girl should be empowered to take control over her own life.
So in the post-2015 international development framework discussions at the UN Commission, we were focused on pushing for a stand-alone goal to empower girls and women and achieve gender equality. Within this, we are pushing for a target on eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls.
Over the last year, I have spearheaded a new multi-million pound programme to tackle one of the most extreme manifestations of gender-based violence – female genital mutilation (FGM). And because of this solid foundation of work and momentum, this July the prime minister will host a major summit to tackle FGM as well as early and forced marriage – both domestically and internationally.
Our aim is to get political and popular support to end early and forced marriage and FGM within a generation. An ambitious goal, but women’s rights campaigners have always been ambitious! And I believe this goal is achievable – but only if we work together and ramp up our efforts to support this African-led movement.
There is work to do in the UK, too. Young girls who live in the UK are sent abroad to be “cut”. It has been estimated more than 20,000 girls under the age of 15 are at risk of FGM in the UK each year, and that 66,000 women in the UK are living with the consequences of FGM.
As the local MP in Haringey, I have called a roundtable – with officials from the local council, health services and police – in order to discuss an integrated strategy to protect girls in our borough.
Ending gender-based violence has been and will continue to be a long-fought struggle. This includes addressing the entrenched social norms and gender inequalities that drive violence against women and girls.
It will take time, and we’ve got a long road ahead. But I believe if we all, men and women, work hard enough together we really can create a world where women and girls no longer live in fear of violence.
Last week it was revealed that Labour-run Haringey Council spent over £3 million of taxpayers’ money repairing the High Road West area of Tottenham in 2011 – only to decide to demolish the properties two years later.
That’s right – In 2013, the Labour council decided they would demolish every one of these properties so Tottenham Hotspur can build ‘Wembley Way.’
This is, sadly, what people have come to expect of the Labour-run council. Noel Park Estate has been in desperate need of repairs for many years now, and yet the council has refused to invest in the area. Instead, the council spends our Council Tax on vanity projects like the Haringey People magazine, and on repairs for houses they want to demolish.
People in my Hornsey and Wood Green constituency, which covers Noel Park, deserve decent homes. So do people in Tottenham, and this appalling waste of money by the council is a slap in the face for everyone who has waited years for the council to repair their home.
I receive many hundreds of contacts from constituents who are in dire need of improvements to their council homes. The scale of the problem is huge – and it is not just an isolated problem in the east of Haringey; it covers the whole Borough from Highgate to Northumberland Park.
It’s another case of high council tax and poor services in Haringey. I will keep up the pressure on the council to provide the services that residents pay for and deserve. But after forty years in power, it is clear the Labour leadership has no effective strategy in providing quality housing to residents.
I gave an exclusive interview to Marie Woolf of the Sunday Times about an announcement I would be making about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) at the 57th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in March 2013.
However, I wouldn’t give her the figure.
I kept that for the moment when I actually announced the UK new anti FGM funding from the platform at the UN to a hall full of hundreds of people. Campaigners and leaders from around the world on the issue of FGM had gathered to discuss this most extreme form of violence against women and this, I decided, was the right time and right place.
It’s over a year now since I made that announcement and launched a £35million fund to support the anti FGM African-led movement.
Twenty-five countries in Africa have now made it illegal. The African Union took a resolution to the UN just before December 2012 – and the UN resolution passed banning it world wide.
It had the desired effect. I remember well waking up the morning after I had made the announcement to a text from the Evening Standard saying could I do an interview on FGM. So I phoned them, did the interview and they did the rest. It is the publicity that has been our major partner in raising this issue.
I am very optimistic now that we are on our way now – joining hands with all the countries of the world – including in the UK – to end this harmful practise.
With the announcement from the Crown Prosecution Service this week that two men have been charged with FGM and with the Prime Minister’s announcement that FGM and EFM (early and forced marriage) will be the subject of a huge world summit – The Girl Summit in July – all the tireless work of the campaigners who have worked away at this for years is now bearing fruit.
And these women – Nimko Ali and Efua Dorkeeno just two among them – have worked for years to bring us to this point. I remember Nimko coming to see me at the Home Office where I was before I moved to DFID. She was full of anger at the lack of prosecutions and the lack of action on this extreme form of violence against women – mutilation of women’s external sexual parts. I often now say (as there is absolutely no equivalence with male circumcision) that if this had been little boys having all or part of their penis cut off the practise wouldn’t have lasted four minutes let alone four thousand years!
And that meeting left its mark.
David Cameron appointed me as Ministerial Champion for tackling Violence Against Women and Girls overseas when I went to the Home Office in 2010 and I took this title with me when I moved to DFID (Department for International Development). I said almost the minute I arrived at DFID – we are going to tackle FGM. It is my priority. It was always my view – with 20,000 girls at risk in the UK – that with the mother countries and our UK diaspora intrinsically linked – we would have to end it in Africa in order to end it here.
A huge amount is now going on in the UK as well as our international program. The Home Office with my colleague Liberal Democrat Norman Baker, is doing a prevalence study and has also won funding for our own community groups to apply for. The Department of Health, with Conservative Minister Jane Ellison has now announced that FGM will be coded. It didn’t exist in data previously. And that information will be collated at the Department. We have a number of FGM clinics. The Secretary of State for Education is writing to all schools and will also be issuing statutory guidelines on safeguarding and giving schools the tools and information they need. The Ministry of Justice is looking to see if we need any new legislation. And the Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders, was saying that they were near to a prosecution – and now one is happening. And Norman Baker and I have met with faith leaders and David Laws (Schools Minister) and I have met with the teaching unions.
If I have learned anything over my time campaigning on FGM – it is that it takes everyone working together to address this.
But I want to pay tribute particularly to the media and encourage their continued support on this issue. Without them – we wouldn’t be at this point. So – huge thanks go to the Evening Standard for their massive campaign almost on a daily basis that has raised everyone’s in London’s awareness and then some; to the Sunday Times who carried the first and exclusive interview on what I was going to do in New York; to the Times who sent a reporter and photographer with me to Senegal, to Chanel 4, to the Guardian and most recently to congratulate BBC Radio London who spent a whole day practically on FGM.
I did an interview with them in the breakfast slot – but was then listening to the Vanessa Feltz program on my way to work where women (survivors) were phoning in with their own most personal and harrowing tales. I was crying. I suspect Vanessa was crying. Such brave women to tell their stories so that we might learn intimately of the abuse they have suffered.
There is an NSPCC FGM helpline if you know anybody who might be at risk or who has been affected and needs support. You can telephone 0800 028 3550 or email fgmhelp@nspcc.org.uk.
An £800 income tax cut for people in Hornsey and Wood Green is the real budget boost, Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone said today.
The budget revealed plans to increase the personal allowance from April 2015 and put an extra £100 back in taxpayers’ pockets.
Lib Dems have already delivered on a £700 tax cut for low to middle earners, but today’s news goes even further for hardworking people.
The number of people who could benefit from a cut to the personal allowance in Hornsey and Wood Green is expected to be around 45,090
Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, Lynne Featherstone said:
“This tax cut is the real budget boost for working people and would not have happened without Lib Dems in Government creating a stronger economy and a fairer society. This was on the front page of our manifesto!
“The Tories are desperate to claim credit, but in reality their focus is on changes such as an inheritance tax cut for millionaires which we blocked, while Labour simply cannot be trusted with the economy.
“We are also helping people with a freeze on fuel duty and new tax-free childcare to help parents.”
Lynne Featherstone and the Wood Green Liberal Democrats last week launched a survey, to find out local residents’ views on the opening of yet another betting shop on Lordship Lane.
A number of residents have contacted the Liberal Democrats expressing concern about the number of betting shops on the road, and the impact on local crime and antisocial behaviour.
The local Liberal Democrats are now trying to persuade the Labour-run council that another betting shop is wrong for this community. The application could be rejected if it can be proven that local betting shops are a cause of crime.
The Wood Green Liberal Democrat team will be writing to Haringey Council in response to the planning application shortly, to fully represent the views of over 100 residents who have filled in their survey.
Lynne Featherstone MP said:
“Over the years, many residents have contacted me with concerns about anti social behaviour in the Wood Green area. The Haringey Lib Dems and I are committed to helping fight crime in our local area.
“I am fully behind the Wood Green Lib Dems. Together we will make sure the Labour-run Council is aware of residents’ views on this matter.”
Wood Green campaigner Roxy Squire commented:
“As a local Wood Green resident, I am aware that anti-social behaviour is a problem in the area. My colleagues and I are concerned that some of that behaviour is a consequence of the large number of betting shops.
“Local residents don’t want or need yet another betting shop on Lordship Lane. We want to persuade the Labour-run council that another betting shop is wrong for this community – but we need residents’ support.
“That’s why we’ve launched our survey, and I hope as many residents as possible respond.”
Ex CEO of Stonewall, Ben Summerskill, is in the news for calling Liberal Democrats ‘cynical’ in our initiation and championing of same sex marriage. He says it was all because this was to put clear water between ourselves and the Conservatives.
As the instigator and architect of same sex marriage – I can say that Summerskill could not be more wrong.
In fact – the opposite is true. One of the key factors in making me think I could get same sex marriage on the statute books was the very fact that the Conservatives were desperate to leave their poor track record on matters homosexual behind. I thought they would be keen to prove this. I was right – both Theresa May and David Cameron were staunch in their support. What I had not predicted (and I suspect David Cameron had not predicted) was the huge rift within the Conservative ranks which ensued.
Mr Summerskill’s comments almost certainly have more to do with his misery at this most recent step coming from the Liberal Democrats than anything else. It has now been well-documented by Peter Tatchell and many others – that Stonewall under Ben’s stewardship was against same sex marriage.
However, when I had Ben in to see me when I started on my mission, to ask for his support. He did in the end change Stonewall’s position . I am extremely glad he did change his position – but reading all the recent comments it would seem that was because he had no alternative.
I met with all the key stakeholders, campaigners and activists in the early days to ask for support. Everyone put their egos aside and we all worked together to deliver what now is the law.
Stonewall does a huge amount of excellent work – and it is a great pity that Summerskill has damaged the brand by his comments. The acting CEO Ruth Hunt is great – and I have no doubt will take Stonewall forward in a much better way than before.
In terms of same sex marriage I lay the credit at the doors of those who suffered and those who fought this battle over the years. Moreover, without civil partnerships and all the campaigners who have fought over the years for equality and came together in the same sex marriage campaign – this most recent and significant step forward could not have taken place.
But equality is part of the Liberal Democrat DNA – and we have our rightful place among these campaigners. And for me it is probably one of the best things I will ever do as a politician.
Currently I am a Minister in DFID with Africa in my patch. As you can imagine – in terms of LGBT issues – there is so much work to be done. See my recent blog on this here. And there is still much to do on our own streets and in our own schools. Same sex marriage is certainly a great step forward – but quite frankly – this is no time to let up.
Lynne Featherstone MP has called a roundtable of key figures in Haringey, to discuss fighting and preventing Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the borough.
Representatives from Haringey Council, Police, and health services have been called on by the local MP to discuss an integrated strategy to protect local girls from FGM.
The practice is prevalent in countries like Somalia and Egypt, but also affects girls in the UK. Most commonly, young girls are sent abroad to be ‘cut.’ It has been estimated that over 20,000 girls under the age of 15 are at risk of FGM in the UK each year, and that 66,000 women in the UK are living with the consequences of FGM.
It is illegal to arrange for a child to be taken abroad for FGM. If caught, offenders face a prison sentence of up to 14 years.
The Liberal Democrat MP is also a minister in the Department for International Development, and the ministerial champion for tackling violence against women and girls overseas. Ending FGM within a generation is one of her top priorities.
Lynne Featherstone MP commented
“Over the last few months I have met with Haringey Council, the Borough Commander and local health representatives. All have shown a great willingness to fight FGM in Haringey. Now, I want to bring everyone together to discuss a truly integrated strategy. That’s why I have called this roundtable meeting.
“Late April to July is usually the time when girls are sent abroad to be cut – so there really is no time to lose. FGM is a crime and it is child abuse – and everyone needs to work together to tackle the problem.
“As minister for International Development, I have made ending this awful practice within a generation one of my top priorities. We will not see an end to FGM in the UK unless the practice is eliminated worldwide – but we need to tackle it on the ground here, too.”
Lynne Featherstone 