MY FIRST CHRISTMAS PRESENT

Some anonymous soul has arranged for me to rceive a free subscription to Evangelical Times http://www.evangelical-times.org/

Thank you for your kindness. Please don't be shy, if you let me know who you are I will return the compliment by subscribing you to my email bulletin if you do not get it already. Just email me at helen@maryhoneyball.net

I will now be taking a break from blogging until the New Year. I hope you have a good Christmas.

Best wishes

Mary

I SUPPORT SAME SEX MARRIAGE

I have not got the titled T-shirt but now the reaction of right-wing Christian evangelical groups means I could not buy it if I wanted to from over 100 shops. This is simply wrong.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/news/cuttingedge-clothes-chain-faces-a-boycott-and-all-because-of-one-little-progay-tshirt-1206392.html

ADVENT PODCASTS

I have been enjoying the New Humanist magazine's seasonal podcasts with Eddie Izzard, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Fry and more to come have a listen...

http://newhumanist.org.uk/1924

LEYLA ZANA

Today I co-signed a letter in support of my fellow female activist Leyla Zana. Leyla was the first Kurdish woman to win a seat in the Turkish Parliament but in 1994 she was imprisoned by the Turkish authorities for speaking Kurdish in the Parliament. The European Parliament recognised that Leyla was a prisoner of conscience and awarded her the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1995. She collected this prize after her release in 2004.

Given that Turkey is striving to make changes, to promote human rights and to ensure freedom of expression as it attempts to join the EU, it is with regret that I have found out that Leyla Zana has once again been imprisoned. Below is the text of the letter that European MPs have written to the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

On 4th of December a Turkish court sentenced the politician and Sakharov Prize Laureate Leyla Zana to ten years in prison for "violating" the Turkish penal code and the Turkish anti-terror law in nine different speeches. We as Members of the European Parliament strongly condemn this court decision which is a major set back for the democracy process in Turkey. We believe that freedom of expression is a fundamental human right which has to be ensured in a democracy. But unfortunately we witnessed in the past that freedom of expression and also freedom of the press are still not fully protected in Turkey. It is not acceptable that people in Turkey are prosecuted for expressing non-violent opinions. We fear that this court decision, which also revoked Ms Zana's right to vote and run for political office was a political decision as regional elections will be held in Turkey on 29th of March 2009.

Therefore we urge you to make sure that the judgement against Leyla Zana will be annuled and ensure that freedom of expression in Turkey is fully in line with the International Human Rights Standards.

WORKING TIME DIRECTIVE

I have just voted in favour of ending the UK opt-out from the Working Time Directive. Since the Working Time Directive improves the balance between work and home life, thereby helping women, as Labour's European Spokesperson on Women, I felt I really had to vote against the British opt out.

This opt-out allowed workers to agree to work longer, subject to certain limits. It specified no more than 60 hours a week on average when calculated over a period of three months or 65 hours where there is no collective agreement and "when the inactive period of on-call time is considered as working time."

The European Parliament decided by a small majority today that the opt out should go and that European workers should therefore be limited to a 48 hour week. However, as this may be calculated over a twelve month period, the net effect will not be as great as some feared. In addition, since the Directive will not come into force for some considerable while, there will be no immediate change, allowing time for new arrangements to be put in place.

There were two votes in the European Parliament on the opt out, both of which required a qualified majority of 393 votes. The first, on the opt out itself, was carried by 421 votes for to 273 against with 11 abstentions. The second vote was on the opt out plus calculating 48 hours a week over a period of 12 months (annualisation). The voting was 544 in favour, against 160 and 12 abstentions.

TASSOS PAPADOPOULOS

With Tassos and Cypriots in Brussels

It is with great sadness that I report the untimely death of Tassos Papadopoulos, the former President of the Republic of Cyprus. Tassos passed away on Friday 12th December, having been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Nicosia General Hospital on November 22nd, suffering from lung cancer.

Tassos served as the Fifth President of the Republic of Cyprus from February 2003 to February 2008. His greatest achievement was Cyprus's entry to the European Union on May 1st, 2004. In January 2008, during his presidency, Cyprus also adopted the Euro currency.

Tassos was President at the time of the Annan Plan and its rejection by the Greek Cypriots in a referendum in 2004.

Tassos Papadopoulos was born on January 7, 1934 in Nicosia. He is survived by his wife Fotini and their four children. Our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.

WOMEN MAKING PROGRESS IN ALBANIA

Recently I co-signed a letter with my colleagues in the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee to the Albanian Parliament. We congratulated the Parliament for passing a new Gender Equality Law which included gender quotas of 30% for women. We wrote at the request of women's organisations in Albania and asked the Parliament to maintain the gender quotas in the upcoming reform of the Albanian Electoral Code.

The Committee has recently heard back from one of the women's organisations. I have copied the letter below. It is great to hear that our work has helped the situation of women in the Balkans.

'I am writing to say a HUGE thank you for your support to women’s organisations in Albania. The letter you sent to the Albanian Parliament was distributed shortly before the vote took place on the revised Electoral Code and greatly contributed to the outcome. On 20th November, the Committee voted in favour of a 30% gender quota. This is truly a historical moment in Albanian history for women’s rights and gender equality.

Thank you so much for your support and for the great difference you have made.'

MORE PRESSURE ON THE ASAI

Following my complaint to the Irish Advertising Standards Authority, I have received a preliminary response from them. I find it rather shocking.

First they state that they are prepared to investigate complaints about commercial advertisements which have appeared in one of the advertising media that may be in breach of their Code. They then said that Ryanair's product is outside the Code.

I agree the calendar itself is outside the Code. It is up to us as campaigners to complain to Ryanair about this. But the marketing email Ryanair sent advertising the calendar is not exempt from the Code. It is this email that I complained about. This email featured all the same images of un-unionised female workers being 'pimped out' by Ryanair. I have written again to the ASAI to make sure that they realise this.

Is it me or are the ASAI trying to avoid dealing with Ryanair again? They have agreed to discuss the matter but I think we need to put pressure on them not to overlook it.

I urge you to write to the ASAI. More complaints may encourage them to act. Their email address is: standards@asai.ie

The text of the original letter of complaint that I sent to the ASAI is still available on the campaign site:

http://www.facebook.com/inbox/readmessage.phpt=43648631921&mbox_pos=0#/group.php?gid=34407854790

PAY GAP STATISTICS

Recently I wrote an article in Tribune on the persistence of the gender pay gap. I worked with the Office of National Statistics to produce data on the gender pay gap in the London boroughs.

You can find this data here:

http://www.maryhoneyball.net/pay-gap-work-areas.xls
http://www.maryhoneyball.net/pay-gap-home-areas.xls

The first table shows the pay gap in a place of work, the second shows the pay gap in the place of residence.

I hope that this data will be useful in continuing the campaign for equal pay for women and men.

MY RESPONSE TO RYANAIR

OPENING UP FAITH BASED SCHOOLS

I am a member of Holborn and St.Pancras Constituency Labour Party. This motion for General Committee (GC) caught my eye and I give it my full support!

This GC notes that the Government has re-affirmed its commitment to the role of faith based schools within our education system.This GC believes that, in the first instance, education should be entirely secular.

However, this GC also recognises that over a third of schools within the maintained sector (and academies and city technology colleges) are faith schools, and that the vast majority of these are either Church of England or Roman Catholic. GC notes that faith schools are allowed, when over-subscribed, to offer a preference to pupils following their designated faith.

GC further notes the recent Government research, which discovered widespread non-compliance with the statutory admissions code. Most of the non-complying schools were faith schools. This GC believes that, especially in places like Camden with a highly diverse community and where schools are regularly over-subscribed, faith schools admission arrangements are damaging to community cohesion and social mobility. GC supports Frank Dobson MP's proposal that faith schools, which receive state subsidy, should accept at least 25% of their intake from
outside the faith to which the school subscribes.

We believe that faith schools could still offer education within a faith ethos without needing to discriminate via a form of covert selection.

Camden Town with Primrose Hill Branch Labour Parties.

GC to send this motion to Ed Balls MP, Frank Dobson MP and the Labour Party National Policy Forum

COMMISSION WEBSITES

This new website, developed and funded by the European Commission, came to my attention this week:

http://www.farmland-thegame.eu/home_en.html

The site aims to teach children about farming in the Europe. Sadly it completely ruins any good work it does by using an image of an unhealthily thin and provocatively dressed young girl to guide users through the site.

I find it both shocking and depressing that the Commission’s Department for Health and Consumer Protection finds it acceptable to promote their work by using this image. Not only is it a horrific gender stereotype but it is also an extremely unhealthy image to promote to children. In the recent gender stereotyping report passed by Parliament, my colleagues and I noted that children are particularly impressionable audiences and that promoting unhealthy and unrealistic body images can negatively affect young viewers’ self-perception.

The DG Health evidently was not listening.

I have written a priority question to the Commission asking them what they were thinking of when they made this site and how much it cost to develop. I am also currently rallying support in the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee to take further action.

SURPRISE RESHUFFLE

News broke yesterday that the European Commission President Barroso has announced a reshuffle of senior officials, without warning and apparently without consultation with his commissioners.

http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/barroso-springs-reshuffle-on-angry-commissioners/63279.aspx

Cathy Ashton and Margot Wallström were among those who objected to the move. And rightly so. As well as being an undemocratic move, this reshuffle does nothing to redress the appalling gender balance in the executive branch of the EU. The reshuffle means there will now be just four female heads of the 31 administrative departments. This will reduce to three when Claire Durand, the new head of the legal service, retires in July.

BUILDING EUROPE

Ever since the enlargement of the European Union in 2004, many of our meeting rooms in Brussels have become increasingly full. With Romania and Bulgaria joining the EU in 2007 and growing interest in our meetings from lobbyists, many rooms were simply over crowded. This extra space will allow for more interested citizens to attend our public meetings.

At the end of last week a new building opened in Brussels to provide us with more meeting rooms and more space for the public to follow what goes on here.

Today I finally found time to have a look around the new building. Here are a few photos of the building, which is named after József Antall.

You can see more of my photos on my Flickr account

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maryhoneyballmep/

ADVERTISING CODES

Yesterday I heard back from the British Advertising Standards Authority regarding the complaint I lodged against Ryanair's latest bout of sexist advertising. Because Ryanair's publicity emails were sent out from the company's headquarters, it is the Irish ASA that I need to contact with my complaint.

What is exciting is that the Irish ASA has a clause in its code of advertising standards stating:

'Marketing communications should respect the principle of the equality of men and women. They should avoid sex stereotyping and any exploitation or demeaning of men and women. '

The UK code does not have this, despite the calls earlier this year from the parliamentary Gender Equality committee for all European advertising monitors to address gender stereotyping. In fact, the British ASA contacted me in July to say that a clause on gender stereotyping would not be necessary. They argued the ASA code already provides sufficient regulation to ensure that advertising is not discriminatory or harmful to women.

Ryanair's recent advertising proves the British ASA wrong. Adverts containing harmful stereotypes persist. I have written to the Irish ASA to complain against the adverts. But I shall also find out whether Ryanair used the same publicity in Ireland as in the UK. I want to know why Irish women are protected from this advertising, but not British women.

If you would like to see the text of my letter to the ASAI, please join the facebook group below:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=602192398#/group.php?gid=34407854790&ref=mf