Be Cheered by Our Victory!
For those of you outside of the United Kingdom, last Thursday was an exciting and momentous day for us here. We elected a new Labour government-exciting enough in itself. They were elected with a huge majority, a landslide victory-even more exciting. But what was most exciting for me was the number of new women Members of Parliament (MPs) that we now have.
From the very first Labour gain (a woman who won a traditional Conservative seat), I was on the edge of my chair. My excitement rose and rose as seat after seat was won, many new seats by women. The commentators didn't seem to notice until about 5:00 a.m. (the first result was in at about 11:45 p.m.) that as well as having a new political party in government, we also had a record number of women-about 119 out of about 650, twice as many as ever before. Many of the women were young, the youngest being twenty-four years old. Many of them were not considered 'MP material.' Nobody expected them to get in. The new cabinet (highest level of ministers) has five women in it out of twenty-four.
Our first-ever Muslim MP was elected. Scotland and Wales now have no Conservative MPs. An openly Gay man (Labour) won a 'safe' Tory (Conservative) seat. An Asian woman won. A wheelchair user won. A journalist stood as an independent against 'sleaze' (unprincipled behaviour by politicians) and won the fifth safest Tory seat in Britain by a huge majority (the Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates had stood down to allow him to stand). It goes on and on.
Whether or not you have any faith in the 'New Labour' and Tony Blair (who is being treated like royalty), this government is going to be different and will certainly be worth watching.
Heather Parker
Coventry,
England