A Marriage of Convenience

Yesterday two quite normal things happened. Barack Obama gave a television interview and the Queen made a speech. Except they weren't that normal; Obama gave a hastily arranged interview to ABC News where he finally - after years of frankly just pissing about - endorsed same sex marriage and Her Majesty read her speech whilst sitting on a golden throne wearing an ermine and velvet cape and a massive crown (it might be normal for her but let's be honest it's not normal for most people!).

Obama has long claimed to oppose same sex marriage, favouring instead civil unions, but since 2010 he has often claimed his position was 'evolving'. I'm afraid 'evolving' was never good enough for me, it's one of the main reasons I've always disliked him. Its no secret that I'm a massive fan of Hillary Clinton but she herself opposes SSM and favours civil unions but unlike Obama she has always said this. 


In 1996 Illinois state Senate candidate Barack Obama was very much in favour of SSM and in response to a question from a newspaper stated "I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages." 


How times change. 


So to everyone who exploded with joy upon hearing the now President say "At a certain point, I've just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married" just remember a few things

• He already supported this
• He 'changed his mind' between running for the state Senate and the national Senate
• It's taken him four years of 'evolving' to get to this point
• It's an election year. This position clearly sets him apart from Mitt Romney

One of those getting far too fawning over the President finally arriving at the end of his evolutionary journey was Stonewall Chief Executive Ben Summerskill, who tweeted his joy whilst also expressing his disappointment that SSM wasn't included in the Queen's Speech. 

Except it was never going to be. 

The government consultation is still running so obviously a bill couldn't have been included when the results of the consultation are not yet known. You'd think the Chief Executive of Europe's largest gay rights charity would know that.

The omission that wasn't an omission has led to many criticising David Cameron for 'backing down' on his commitment to SSM but I'd argue that Cameron deserves more praise for backing SSM than Obama. Obama comes from the party that outlawed segregation, allowed homosexuals to serve openly in the army and wants to extend affordable healthcare to all. Cameron comes from the party who championed Section 28. The fact that DC is able and willing to stand up for the right to marry, regardless of sexuality should be applauded. Obama should be ashamed.

Sorry to disagree with you tweeps but yesterday you were applauding the wrong man.

Ladies First...?

I wasn't originally going to write a post about the Chris Huhne resignation for a few reasons, one being that it triggers in me an excess of anger towards an ex-wife who is clearly only interesting on inflicting pain on a man who left her (however justified that pain may be), another being yet more anger at certain newspapers' reporting of the incident which always seems to make reference to Huhne's new partners' sexuality as if it were a contributing factor to their infidelity. As it happens Carina Trimingham has decided to sue the publisher responsible and I fully congratulate her in doing so (the spelling mistake in that article's headline isn't The Independent's greatest moment!). The third reason is that the press and social media chatter, both before and after Kier Starmer's announcement that charges were to be brought, seemed to focus on what would happen if he was guilty whilst ignoring the fact that Huhne is innocent until proven guilty. I didn't think that the gender of his replacement would be the thing that made me change my mind about writing a post.


Well it isn't so much the fact that Ed Davey is male but the fact that this seems to anger some people. I must admit I have very little knowledge of Ed's work but as far as I can tell he has done a great job in his previous role and I can only hope he does the same in his new one but the criticisms of Nick Clegg for his "failure" to promote a woman to the Cabinet, such as those from Stonewall Chief Executive Ben Summerskill, are ridiculous. Worryingly some of the most vocal criticisms come from party supporters, liberalism is equal opportunity for all regardless of arbitrary distinction therefore jobs should be awarded on merit. If a deficit develops it is due to a lack of education and opportunity for that group or discrimination against it and these things need to be tackled at the root, not glossed over when it's too late. That is not to say that Jo Swinson and Lynne Featherstone, the women most mooted for the job, are not fantastic MPs and fantastic ministers because of course they are, Lynne is pretty much single-handedly pushing for gay marriage as I can't imagine Theresa May is a fan (but the less said about her opinions on Page 3 the better), but I don't believe they should be promoted just because they're women.


I have never believed in positive discrimination: it's an oxymoron for a start, putting the word 'positive' in front of a negative concept does not automatically make it a good thing, and also because in the 60 years of affirmative action in America there has been no fundamental change in ethnic minority representation at the highest levels (the reasons Barack Obama doesn't count are too numerous to list here). Anyway, surely all discrimination is positive? If one group is being discriminated against, surely that means there is discrimination in favour of another? I'm a white woman who grew up in a middle class family but whose parents are now divorced: I don't want to live in a country which values my gender above my ability but counts my skin colour against me. Are my childhood holidays in Africa counted against me because they clearly indicate a financially-stable family even though I get bursaries from my university because my dad left and took with him a large chunk of the family income? I'm a politics student who doesn't want to become an MP but if I did, I would want to fight to be selected by the party and elected by the people on the basis of my ability and my beliefs not existence of two X chromosomes and a comprehensive school education. The use of all-women shortlists by Labour implies that women are unable to be selected on merit and have to be given a helping hand and this implication spreads to all women, even those who weren't selected in this way.


There is no denying that there is a problem of representation for women, BME people, non-heterosexual people etc in places such as the House of Commons but artificially boosting their representation does not help tackle the fundamental social circumstances which create this deficit. Incidentally I'm not entirely sure that the House of Commons needs to be a direct microcosm of society, without sounding flippant I don't feel that my MP being male makes him unable to represent me (his position as a Labour Whip on the other hand does). Interestingly, men are under-represented in teaching at lower levels, by lower I mean nursery and junior schools, but no-one is advocating giving male applicants these jobs over women simply because they're men, the effort focuses on making young men more aware that teaching is an option available to them and encouraging them to train and apply. Why doesn't this same thinking apply to under-represented groups in politics or business? Why is positive discrimination called for?


The Liberal Democrat leadership programme is well intended, of our 57 MPs only four are openly gay, only 7 are women and probably most shamingly none are BME, but it is fundamentally pointless. We should be tackling the problem at the root, pushing for change to an education system which nudges boys into 'hard sciences' but girls towards English and away from engineering, in order to ensure change which not only creates a more equal society for the next generation but for all the generations that follow, not aiming to provide change which is purely cosmetic.


Change is needed but condemning and repressing straight, white men is not the way to do it. 

Thank you for waiting

Apologies for the utter failure I've suffered in updating this blog in the last week! Tonight is the first night in over a week where I haven't had a union parliament meeting, Labour meeting, late lecture, work shift etc and I'm torn between my determination to be nothing and my absolute need to do work! I've compromised to the point where I'm just sitting and watching endless episodes of Friends :/

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I'm really enjoying work, even if it does mean I'm missing Jacqui Smith come to Leicester next week. Most of the people I'm working with are a good laugh and because the shifts are quite short I can fit them in pretty much every day. Plus with De Montfort Hall hosting so many different types of shows it's always a different type of crowd so it's not boring :) I've also got quite used to walking home through the park in the dark, not something by parents are overly pleased about but it's fun.

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Had my first Union Parliament this week which was interesting but had dull moments. Two of the proposals I disagree with quite a lot, one just in principle but the other in the wordings which is just unreasonable and leaves no wiggle room. I'm totally behind gay rights but I don't think it's necessary to have a specific LGBT officer when the Equalities Officer we have does a perfectly reasonable job. I also don't think putting a rainbow flag in the middle of the students union will do any good either, it sets a precedent for every cause, society and group to demand their flag/banner/poster should be displayed as well. Unfortunately I can't attend the forum where these policies will be debated as I'm at work and it's proving difficult to find someone to go in my stead. One housemate hates the guy who is proposing these motions and the others have plans for that night plus one of my mates off my course has had a monumental falling out with the proposer over a walk out during a lecture given by Ann Widdecombe. Some members of the LGBTQA and their friends attended this lecture with the express intent of walking out in protest against Ms Widdecombe's opinions on gay rights. I can't say I disagree with their opinion but I'm a Lib Dem, I'll fight til the end to guarantee someone their right to express their views even, indeed especially, if it in contrast to my own opinion. As it transpired Ms Widdecombe didn't mention gay rights at any point during her speech or the lengthy Q&A which followed it so the group had to choose a random point to walk out. During this they made no indication as to why they were walking out so no-one in the room knew why! It was so pointless!

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I went to a Movement for Change training event on the Living Wage campaign last night. It was a really good training thing - not that I've been to any other training events I could compare it to! - that helps us work out a great strategy for getting the Living Wage implemented across the uni. Afterwards we went to the pub, ending campaigning events in true politico style ;)

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Hopefully I'll be back to regular updates soon, just in case the lack of info about my boring life is troubling anyone!

What have you done today, to make you feel proud (AKA the day my face was on BBC One)

An exciting, if terrifying, day 3 at conference.
I submitted a question to Nick Clegg's Q&A on a whim this morning and didn't expect them to call me in a million years. It's my first conference and I've never spoken before so I wasn't prepared but I think somewhere in my mind I knew I had a good question, I sat deliberately at the end of the row in case I needed to get to the intervention mike for example. But nothing quite prepared me for Andrew Wiseman reading my name out in front of a conference hall full of people then promptly introducing Nick Clegg and leaving me quick terrified in front of a mike-less intervention mike (quickly remedied luckily but it didn't help my nerves!). I'm sure I was blushing and speaking in a ridiculously shakey voice but hopefully, with the first public speech out the way, I'll get better!

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When I did A-level politics we looked at US party conferences and it was said they performed very little practical function but served to bolster the commitment of the masses. With the level of democracy Liberal Democrats exercise our conferences are never going to be merely decorative but I never expected to feel so inspired by the debates, speeches and fringes! For someone who lives in a Labour town and moved to a Labour city, someone whose only work on a political campaign ended with a loss followed by a candidate defection, someone who as a student had to face off against so much anger over tuition fees being surrounded by people who share your ideas and beliefs is incredibly uplifting :D

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I have yet to develop a cool and calm attitude when faced for politicians and news personalities I see around the ICC. Today I've seen Chris Huhne, Nick Clegg, Vince Cable, Jeremy Paxman, Nick Robinson, James Landale, Andrew Neil, Lynne Featherstone, Paddy Ashdown, Tim Farron, Ming Campbell, Brian Paddick (more about him below) and many more and I still can't keep casual about it. Actually I hope I'm never casual about it! The utter geeky pleasure I get from seeing these people reassures me I'm involved in a party I love and studying a subject I adore and I don't ever want that to go away!

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One event I particularly enjoyed was the Stonewall and LGBTLD fringe this evening which focused on increasing LGBT representation in politics, media and sport. The panel included Ben Summerskill, Simon Hughes (even if he was terribly late!), Stephen Williams, Belinda Brooks-Gordon and 2012 Mayoral candidate Brian Paddick. And I must admit it does appear that the latter was almost certainly the most popular with the audience there and on a personal note I do love the man. There's just something about him that is so distinctly un-politician like about him that I just think suits London and suits an elected mayor, I'm committed to giving up as much time as I can and travelling to London and campaigning for him because he's brilliant. The event was very inspiring and my determination to further gay rights I spoke of over the weekend is strengthened yet again :)

Tomorrow, MSM blood ban unfairness!

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Quick P.S. I've just watched Newsnight from the conference and I am fantastically proud of every Lib Dem in the audience because they took no shit from Paxman, even when goaded, they defended the coalition and our role within it and they showed Britain we are not Tory lapdogs and we CAN make a difference to this country!

P.P.S My face was just on BBC One, listening while Nick answered my question. I wish it hadn't been! Luckily they didn't show me asking the question, probably owing to the amount of shaking I was doing at the time :|