Closed. The boat sank, the sharks won.

The almost equal gender balance of AMs in the Welsh assembly has transformed how politics in Wales is conducted, according to a new report.

The study showed there were more female voices at the assembly than at Westminster and in many Welsh councils.

Political debates were more consensual than adversarial as a result and had ‘non-traditional’ topics on the agenda such as domestic violence.

Political debates are LESS ADVERSARIAL! Perhaps Westminster could learn from this? 

From here

More than 100 local councils across the UK are being threatened with legal action for failing to provide specialist support for victims of sexual violence but the Equality and Human Rights Commission, who are bringing the action, have been called "irresponsible" by the LGA (Local Government Association)

Chair of the Equality Commission, Trevor Phillips says,

"In many parts of the country services for women who have experienced violence are chronically under-funded or simply do not exist.

"Women shouldn’t be subjected to this postcode lottery… for those councils who continue to ignore the dire need to shore up services and plug the gaps we have a stark reminder: the commission is ready and willing to use its enforcement powers."

Every year in Britain, three million women will become victims of rape or another form of sexual violence and the support for them has to be specialist and immediately available for those women to stand any chance of recovery. But the funding for and provision of suitable support services, such as Rape Crisis centres, is woefully inadequate and shockingly patchy. 

Research indicates that the best levels of provision per head is to be found in Bradford, while the lowest level is across the south east of England. Glasgow has the best provision found in the whole if Britain, and that is attributed to the fact that Glasgow officials have made Women’s safety a top priority. 

Where do you live?

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the communists
and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me -
and by then there was no one left to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller

It begins when those in power single out a minority group and authorise the use of extreme measures. First it’s an outsider group, a hated or vilified minority - the Nazi’s chose the Jews and then gays, Roma, then anyone who spoke out. The Bush administration started on terrorists and Muslims. The next stage is to turn that fear and torture onto the country’s own average citizen.

It was a slippery slope being trod and I hope that it’s now being reversed, that the lessons of history are being heeded and that we will not repeat the Holocaust.

Interesting parallels being drawn over at Women’s Space.  Guantanamo Bay may be closing but where will those currently incarcerated be taken next? I don’t see any plans to simply release anyone, nor any mention of allowing fair trials within the normal US judicial system.

So, today, we remember the Nazi Holocaust of the 1930’s and 40’s and we can hope that it is forever remembered and never repeated.

I’m pro-choice, in pretty much everything - the only proviso I put on personal choice is a pagan/wicca one "If it harm none, then do as you will." If it harms no-one else, then I struggle to see a problem. It’s when choice is pressured or removed that I get shouty and angry.

So This news from the USA, and This too - is all good as far as I am concerned. 

US President Barack Obama has lifted a ban on federal funding for foreign family planning agencies that promote or give information about abortion.

Predictably the pro-lifers are shouting about it, pleading the old arguments. But as I see it there is no other way. A woman’s body is her own and she has the choice of what to do or not to do with it, and that includes pregnancy and termination of any pregnancy. Women should own their own fertility. 

Guantanamo prison "will be closed no later than one year from now."

Wow. I mean, wow. Although I will admit to being slightly concerned over what they intend to do with those incarcerated at Guantanamo. But the process, the interrogations, the torture and the trials are all halted while it all gets investigated. We can but hope for some fair justice for those people in there.

I look round the rest of the BBC news site and at the rest of the world and I despair at the human race’s capacity for harm. I feel like such a small voice screaming into the wind. Other Sunday shouts have been lists of harm, of pain and of loss, it’s depressing. 

But for a change, I can look across the Atlantic and smile at the changes happening. Barack Obama will be remembered as the first non-white US President, no matter what he does. So far he’s off to a great start. These two stories are the ones that caught my eye, and as someone who is not a US citizen, has never been to America, I don’t get a lot of what goes on over there. I have enough to get angry about here in England!

I’ve heard/read that Iraq is to be "returned to its people."; that US troops are to be brought home; that the administration is to be more open and that:

Not since the first days of President Jimmy Carter in 1977 has any president concentrated so clearly on cleaning up government and restoring the transparency of its processes to the American people.

It’s big stuff. More over at Women’s Space.