Reflections on moving into political, public life…..

Women for Independence /WFI/ published my blog, Sunday 12th June. I had no idea how women in public life, and specifically, politics would feature by the end of the week....

.............So particularly for Jo Cox but for  all women everywhere..........

 

Reflections on moving into political, public life…..

What a day, at our National Council meeting in the Inchgarth Community Centre

Aberdeen. A real honour for me to chair yesterday, but with all those #audacious women in the hall, the debates around the EU, information on the Bay of Nigg Campaign, TTIP and enthusing more women into public life, the day passed too quickly with the sure knowledge that the debates would continue long past our all leaving.

We heard from Gillian Martin, just one of the new intake MSPs, her experiences in campaigning and listening to the subsequent discussions,  

..............I  look forward to seeing other brave women make the move into public life. I no longer belong to any political party and have no desire to enter politics. But having listened to WFI discussion at local, EdinWFI, National Committee and National Council level, I have great admiration for those who have made that leap or plan to do so................

In Scotland, we introduced a system of proportional representation with single transferable voting (PR STV) in 2007. As part of the lead up to this ‘innovation’, various advocates for change argued this would renew local politics and at the same time provide new opportunities for women to be selected and elected. To be honest, I can’t find any great evidence of sustained programmes and initiatives and to bring this (‘new opportunities’) about.

By dint of (some) research I’ve found that the 2012 Scottish local authority elections saw 297 (24.3%) women elected as councillors. It would appear then that there is (still) a higher number of older, (aged 50+ ) councillors, and more men than women. I’ve also discovered that in Scottish local government the vast majority (93.75%) of council leaders are male according to COSLA, 2013. 

 

But to play devil’s advocate, does this lack of female politicians at this local level matter? (Yes!) Do we need role models? (Yes!) So, do we need more women standing in 2017? YES!  

And listening yesterday to the input, we had a frank discussion around some of the barriers that hold women back in their pursuit of that local political life.

Financial: That same 2007 change brought about the introduction of a councillors ‘wage’, in the region of £16,000.00. Most councillors would tell us it’s a full time job, so for some that’s a very good salary. But if you are in employment, would you be taking a ‘hit’? Might your new role bring about life/home changes that require you to expend more financially on home/family matters in the first instance.

Then, there’s ‘experience’.  Just what is ‘experience’? Do you have to be ‘experienced’ and do you have to be ‘political’ to be a politician? We’re all ‘political’ in our own way. Use public transport? That’s political. Many of us will have been through some or all of the educational system, or have children, grandchildren in the system. That’s political. Using your doctor’s surgery, the dentist, the hospital: it’s all political. So we will have some experience of using local services, and possibly contributing at various levels. Look at the volunteering work we do. But think of us, WFI women. All of our campaigns, the engagement, the leafletting, the door knocking, it’s all political and it’s all experience

Since I don’t belong to a political party, I don’t know about their structures: are they entrenched, male, pale and hierarchical? Or are there mechanisms designed to support, nurture and promote? Do parties have training programmes for women and men considering the move into public politics? Or is it sink or swim in the soup of meetings, with subtle nuances that ‘newbies’ find difficult to negotiate? And how long do you have to stay a ‘newbie’?  Sadly yesterday showed again that there are still current examples within parties of old style power bases, sexism and cliques.

.................We heard directly about the women hating, women baiting, women sniping we see when sisters put their head above the parapet in various forms of public life? Social media and the media in general has such a lot to answer for, How often do we sigh, cry, weep, and yes, fear, as the bad, the very bad, the threats, the criminal, outweighs the good?......................

In all of this maelstrom I believe there is a role for those of us on the side lines. When we know a sister needs support, no matter her party, her affiliations, let’s find ways of providing that support. Within all that which we know and see, it’s also good to remember it’s structures, systems, processes, sexism, conditioning (to name but some)  that needs challenged, called out, and changed. Our experiences, our talents, our strengths, our gifts are there, and outweigh the downsides.

But what might be practical support? Courses? In what, where? How ‘local’ would any ‘courses/sessions’ need to be? What length: a few hours, Longer, day time, evening, weekend? Or perhaps internet sessions: chat rooms, seminars, sharing experiences, coping mechanisms. What of shadowing, amd mentoring, and not just confined to the immediate political arena, but across various sectors? After all, all experiences should be used to best advantage, no matter the setting.  

..........At the beginning then, I used the words ‘brave’ and ‘admiration’ deliberately. I think you are brave and have nothing but admiration for you...............

You decide to make that leap, and let us make every effort to support you where and when we can, where and when you need us. It’s what we all need to do, if we truly want to do politics differently. 

  http://www.womenforindependence.org/

Gillian Martin MSP http://www.parliament.scot/

inchgarvie community centre 

 

edinburghwfi.org  

Scotland deserves better, so.....

......On polling day…….May 2016

…what chance Labour voters will hold their noses and vote Tory, just to give SNP and independence a bloody nose and to luxuriate in the ‘morning after headlines? Imagine that! ’SNP fail at the polls. Proof independence is off the agenda’. 

But various comments and murmurings indicate this might happen in an effort to lessen the SNP hold. Would a Tory ‘bounce’ then enable Labour to ditch a failed leader with a view to regrouping in time for next year’s local elections and beyond? 

Ok Labour has more than ‘lost its way’. What does it stand for? Is it sufficiently left wing? What does printing its manifesto so late in the day say about its organisational, strategical capabilities and its view of the voters? Who truly knows, since the Labour Party doesn’t! 

But that shouldn’t make the Tory Party worth of a vote, not even a protest vote. 

And Lib Demmers? They too know their credibility is so far gone, thanks in no small part to firstly Cleg, but most definitely due to Carmichael. Maybe LibDemmers could switch votes to Tory; they’ve done it in the past. So take a moment Labour LibDem voters and weigh it up. 

Post war 1945, would a Tory Govt have enabled, struggled for and set up an NHS? No way! They would have knocked down any suggestions as being..’too expensive, post war’. There are many on the right who would argue and still do that Attlee’s government were wrong to bring many of our largest industries under state control: coal mining and the railways. But they were left-wing, manifesto pledges that Labour made and kept. And Bevin as Foreign Secretary helped start de colonisation:  India, Pakistan, Burma, Ceylon and Jordan, whilst Churchill (and the Tories) hummed and hawed with him asserting he had not come to oversee the dismantling of the British Empire.

So how can you possibly vote Tory and (further) abandon your commitments to socialism, equality, solidarity?

But  if post war is too far back, too historical, what of now? Take 2014 and just one pledge: for ship building on the Clyde: allegedly ‘secure’ within the Union. Where are we now with that? That’s what the Tories do to you, to me, to Scotland; say one thing, do another. How could you possibly vote for them, even with a ‘tactical’ tag attached to your votes? There may have been food rationing long after the end of WW2, but it’s only with Tory, propped up by Lib Dems,  that we saw the need for food banks, now a very visible sign of the failure of Tory policies.

And if that doesn’t stick in the craw, think of the young, vulnerable refugee children, abandoned by the Tory party last week. How does that sit with the Attlee government’s commitment to the UN? Take that into consideration along with various, current Tory positioning : T May, Home Secretary; her recent speech on ‘human rights, workers’ rights; the Government’s  relationship with junior doctors.  

But wait, a smarmy speech yesterday, Wed 4^th May from Cameron and an apparent change in Tory policy towards child refugees? Watch for the details, as they play the numbers/age/country of origins game.

Tories don’t change their ways, but they want Labour Lib Dem voters to. So, weight it up, please.

Endorsing Tory party dictate as passed from Westminster via one solitary MP, then on to Davidson, won’t benefit Scotland.  

A vote for the Tories will only prolong austerity, and weaken the next Scottish Government’s ability to challenge and mitigate Tory policies. Policies that include furthering neo liberalism and the continuing transfer of monies, resources to the private sector away from the public sector.

Scotland deserves better. 

And with this vote and emerging inde parties, such as RISE, and hike in popularity of the Greens, there could be a real ‘bounce’ in our Parliament, headed up by a strong Government, that takes us even closer to independence.

Selma Rahman

Really Mr Hamilton!

Dear Mr Alex Cole Hamilton, Lib Dem Candidate,

You recently sent me a personalised leaflet, seeking my vote later this week. 

Now call me an old cynic, but photos of yourself and the sitting Councillor, Robert Aldridge, didn’t exactly scream empathy or understanding with myself as an older woman. 

Couldn’t you think of portraying at least one older woman on…. Wait a minute. You did and that was exposed as a ‘untruth’. Remember that older, voting woman leaflet? Discredited? Discarded? Gone to the big shredder in the sky?

Alright, let’s move on. With austerity continuing to decimate people’s lives and well-being you chose to highlight ‘5 points to combat pollution’. 

Mmmmm, I’m not convinced you’re seeing the bigger picture here: perhaps some policies to ensure improving education, from nursery upwards;  routes into employment; apprenticeships? 

OK, the SNP seems to have stolen a march in certain areas, so how about detailing how you could build alliances with your MP, and MSPs, working for a better Scotland? 

Hang on. You didn’t even include a picture of your Scottish leader, your Scottish MP and your national leader. Could that be something to do with their toxicity and each one, Rennie, Carmichael and Fallon having received in excess of £35k from the JRR Trust? 

Receiving money from a Trust is one thing, but the process whereby LibDems appear to have managed a coup on the Board ensuring a pro Lib Dem bias is another. The JRRT continues to claim its primary activity is ‘fighting for civil liberties, human rights and justice’. Could your leaflet show us anything the LibDems have done in those areas? Justice and Carmichael just don't seem to go hand in hand, do they?

OK, I see you would have a problem even if you were to go back just a few years to propping up the Tories. 

No, come to think of it, it was worse than ‘propping up’. You gave them the route into government via the coalition that saw the beginning of attacks on the poorest in society, the most vulnerable, but then hey ho. ‘They’ don’t normally vote Tory and they’re not going to vote Lib Dem again, are they? 

So what about a policy then? What about that  penny for education? No mention of that in my leaflet. Do you think that perhaps your record on being untruthful, and follow- through specifically in regards promises and education is so tattered that we just can’t believe LibDems. 

But throughout that leaflet, you make great play of the 2015 results in this ward: SNP 39%, Lib Dems 33%, Con 12%, Labour12% ; the inference and assumption being that Tories and Labour voters will vote for you, even if just to keep the SNP out. A kind of 'hold your nose' job.

You do voters a great diservice with that assumption. 

You’re assuming that we’ve fallen out of love with Independence, and that we deny the need for pro Independence parties to pursue policies that fight for Scotland. 

Policies such as land and justice sector reform coupled to strong negotiating skills that secure the very best from Westminster, a government of one person, one vote, that  has no mandate here. 

You are assuming that the 2015 turn out here was a fluke; that the 24% of  Labour Tory unionists have closed minds, and are not able to see broken promises and vows. 

You need to believe that they have not watched with despair the rise in food banks, the continuing assault on the less well off. 

You need to hope that voters can’t and don’t change their minds. 

You are mistaken. 

One of the most dynamic outcomes of  2014 has been the politicisation of voters, Voters who are engaged, thinking and challenging, no longer content with old parties, old ways. 

My vote will not go to the Lib Dems or any unionist party. 

It will go to ensuring Independence becomes a reality, through the democratic process, will of the people, whilst our elected representatives from across the Independence spectrum focus  on priorities that relate to Scotland and the Scottish population.

Yours, Selma Rahman 

 PS....I resist the temptation to provide links to you and other Unionists named in this article.

s rahman edinburgh: Tax, tax and more tax.

s rahman edinburgh: Tax, tax and more tax.: Tax, Tax and more Tax. I think I’m turning into my mother! I’m shouting at the TV and responding out loud to newspaper articles, an...

Tax, tax and more tax.

Tax, Tax and more Tax.

I think I’m turning into my mother! I’m shouting at the TV and responding out loud to newspaper articles, and I hear myself/herself  say…’tax, tax and more tax?’

We hear that the Danish government is now set to confiscate valuables from migrants to pay for their upkeep in Denmark. Presumably ‘start up costs’ of a sort. Or perhaps the Danish government will call it something like…’an entry tax’.

But then, last week our PM was talking about a ‘bunch of migrants’. Bunch? Bananas? Monkeys?  Oh, you could make capital with that one. So from the rhetoric of racism to actions reminiscent of fascism, where will this end?   

Economic migrants have left (there) due to a lack of economic prospects, therefore they expect to work, earn, and contribute (here). What ‘wealth’ will they be bringing? Those fleeing war, oppression and violence tend to leave in both desperation and in a hurry. Do the Danes expect to find riches sewn up in clothes, or in shoes? Or swallowed perhaps? 

Could the thinking be that migrants and refugees have so much left over after paying the people smuggles, that there will be something available for the Danes?

Where  one goes, another follows. Think Switzerland.

And yesterday, 2^nd Feb. Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale announced that Labour ‘s vote winning, new policy in time for the May election is going to be…..a penny tax, complete with a so called progressive element. The more you earn, the more you pay. Possibly a good principle, but we have that principle and that tax already, remember.

So it is mighty strange for Labour to believe that you counter the current austerity by introducing a new tax. A cumbersome tax too, since they want the lowest earners to go through a process of' not paying' by ‘reclaiming’. 

What a ruse, since we all know just how many ‘benefits’ go unclaimed already! 

A stealth tax then on the lowest earners since they’ve got other ‘things’ to worry about and don’t ‘reclaim’.

What other things?  Well, food banks haven’t gone away. School clothes banks are now well established on the landscape. 

The UK government will challenge the recent decision by the Court of Appeal which found the bedroom tax was discriminatory against disabled people and victims of domestic violence.  So the relief felt by certain sections, disabled and survivors of abuse, is now watered down as they wait for the results of the appeal, and the continuation of the actual tax. 

Oh yes, we’ve got to use every ‘tax’ possible to raise revenues, even to the degree we invent more. 

So step up people, and pay your taxes.  We all do…

………unless your name is ‘Google’

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/......................a bunch of migrants.

Kezia Dugdale (born 28 August 1981)^[1] is a Scottish Labour Party politician and has been the Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland since 15 August 2015.
She was previously the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 2014 to 2015 and has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Lothian Region since 2011.^[1][2]