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E-news

Edition 123– July 2024

Dear members,

This month I have delayed writing this piece for the Newsletter. Few could
have predicted this change, that the General Election would bring such a great move
towards the levelling of female Members of Parliament in quite this way.

I have been a part of the #SheVotes24 campaign, indeed BPW UK signed the
joint letter which we published in the Newsletter last month. This has enabled us to
share materials and ideas for spreading the word to ensure that we get more young
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people to register to vote, and to use it on 4 July 2024. Indeed, we were in great
company, as leading the group of female NGOs was Helen Pankhurst CBE, grand-
daughter of Sylvia and Emmeline Pankhurst, leaders in the Suffragette movement.

We have been analysing the data through bleary eyes, as many in the group
stayed up all through the night to see these results. The What’sApp group that Helen
set up for us was buzzing through the night. We were all very pleased to see that
the promised Cabinet was indeed better represented with 11/24 women Ministers.
The data tells us that this figure has almost doubled in the last 14 years. Indeed, we
have the first female Chancellor of the Exchequer since records began in 1212, Ra-
chel Reeves MP.

One of our speakers in the debate at our Conference 2024 has been elected
locally in Bristol. Claire Hazelgrove MP spoke in our debate about Misogyny, should it
be considered a hate crime? Now that she has been elected, VP Advocacy Chris and I
will be writing to Claire to ask for another meeting, to discuss this now that she is a
member of the government. We are hoping that many of you sent the letters to the
local candidates, and we would love you to share any replies with us, please. This
will help assist the Advocacy Working group update the data we have, and help us to
continue the lobbying we do, as an apolitical NGO.

The next step: we have a letter prepared for you to send to the successful
candidate, male or female please! Let us be a name they recognise, a name they see
in the inbox or mail bag. We have a proud history of lobbying our political class.
Come on ladies, let us channel our inner Pankhurst….

Finally, a note on Conference 2025. A few weeks ago, I went to Newcastle to
view two hotels, as we have been invited by the SYNE area to host us all in April
2025. PNP Hillarie Tucknott and VP Chris Nendick looked at two hotels with me, and
at The Station hotel we were joined by VP Margo Davidson-Wood. We were very dis-
appointed with all aspects of the Station Hotel, apart from the easy access from the
train station.