Women desert Blair as polling day looms

Apr 28 2005 By Hannah Davies, The Journal

The female vote could prove conclusive in the General Election, with polls suggesting women have turned against Tony Blair. Hannah Davies speaks to eight women to see what issues will influence their vote on May 5.

Since the days of the `Blair Babes', women have been seen as central to the Prime Minister - and Labour's - positive image.

Around 80pc of women intend to vote in next week's General Election. But with a poll this month suggesting less than one in 10 women want Tony Blair to serve a full third term as Premier, if he is re-elected on May 5, the indications are his relationship with Britain's female voters may have soured.

This is despite Blair's government being credited with bringing many more women into politics through the introduction of all-female shortlists for MPs.

According to an ICM poll out this month, almost a third of voters - 29pc - say Blair should quit now.

And a poll of 600 readers carried out by Cosmopolitan magazine, showed over a third of young women planning to vote at the General Election are undecided which party to opt for.

Another poll of 4,000 women by website iVillage.co.uk, found that nearly a third of females do not believe any of the three main political parties is in tune with the issues which are important to them.

Opposition to the war in Iraq, doubts over crime, worry about the state of the NHS and anger at university tuition fees are election issues which continue to crop up among the key policies influencing their vote.

The iVillage poll also found women voters are either abandoning the Labour Party or planning to stay at home on polling day.

Charles Kennedy is by far the most popular party leader with women, out-ranking Blair and Michael Howard by more than 20pc, scoring 30pc of the vote on sincerity and 35pc of females believe consistency is his main attribute.

Tracey Williams, iVillage.co.uk's editor-in-chief, says: "We found a huge number of women disillusioned and confused and simply lacking the time to wade through the political material with which they are presented."

Blair recently compared his relationship with the electorate to a stormy marriage where crockery had been smashed.

To find out if the pieces can be stuck back together The Journal spoke to eight women at Washington's Bridge project. Now in its 20th year, the group helps around 2,500 women a week, from teenagers to pensioners, to access education, training and employment.

Name: Pat Partington.

Age: 73.

Position: Sits on the Bridge board of directors and runs the open learning service.

Lives: Washington, Tyne and Wear.

Family: Has three adult children - two sons and a daughter.

Votes: Undecided, has voted Conservative and Labour in the past.

Name: Ingrid Chidley.

Age: 58.

Position: An assistant director and Bridge director.

Lives: Springwell Village, Washington, Tyne and Wear.

Family: She is divorced with two children and four grandchildren.

Votes: Labour.

Name: Tanya Hall.

Age: 18.

Position: A member of the Bridge project and a volunteer.

Lives: Albany, Washington, Tyne and Wear.

Family: She has a partner and a one-year-old son.

Votes: Has not voted yet, but will vote Labour.

Name: Louise Chisholm.

Age: 17.

Position: A member of the Bridge Project.

Lives: Pennywell, Sunderland.

Family: Two-month-old son.

Votes: Too young to vote, and unsure as to how she would.

Name: Sarah Robson.

Age: 22.

Position: Training to be a tutor at Bridge. She is a divorcee.

Lives: Lambton, Washington. Tyne and Wear.

Family: Divorced with a two-year-old son.

Votes: Labour.

Name: Mandy Talbot.

Age: 41.

Position: Bridge volunteer and on the board of directors.

Lives: Lambton, Washington, Tyne and Wear.

Family: Mandy has two boys aged two and 18. The 18- year-old is at university.

Votes: Labour.

Name: Sheila Davidson.

Age: 58.

Position: Chief executive of the Bridge Project.

Lives: Washington, Tyne and Wear.

Family: She is married with one child.

Votes: Labour.

Name: Pat Short.

Age: 68.

Position: A part-time trainer and a volunteer at Bridge.

Lives: Barmston, Washington, Tyne and Wear.

Family: Married with one son.

Votes: Labour generally.

Burning issues of the campaign

What are the financial points you will be looking out for?

Pat Short: "I don't believe what the parties say they are going to do about pensions. I'm very worried about the shortfall in cash for them and I believe a lot of people are going to suffer.

Sheila: "I have suffered through pension legislation. My pension is not going to be worth as much as I though it would be and it is something which concerns me greatly."

Pat Partington: "It is amazing by how much the council tax is going up - there should be some form of cap on it."

Do you think we were right to go to war in Iraq?

Pat Short: "My son is in Iraq - he thinks we were right to go in. I think it should have been finished off with the first Gulf War and I don't agree with going in just because of America."

Pat Partington: "Personally I don't think we should have gone in just because America asked us to. I think we are there now to finish the job that we never finished for America."

Ingrid: "I think we should have finished the job the first time. We were right to go in but it has all happened the wrong way and generally been a terrible mess."

Sheila: "I don't believe in war, but I do think the war issue has overshadowed the many good jobs the Labour party has done in government."

How has childcare fared under the Labour government?

Sheila: "This government has done a lot to help with childcare. When we started out it was a real struggle to get any funding - we had to fight all the way but that situation has changed.

"With the introduction of Sure Start, childcare is a lot better and women have to opportunity to get out to work."

Ingrid: "You have to look at what Labour has done ever since they got into power. It has opened the door for more money to go into childcare."

Sarah: "If it hadn't been for Bridge I would not be able to train to work because there would be no-one to care for my children. It is vitally important to give proper childcare to women."

How can the parties get more women to vote?

Tania: "I have no clue how to vote - young women don't know how to vote and they should be shown how to vote. It is not something that you learn unless your mum and dad vote.

"I watch political party broadcasts and I know I would vote Labour."

Louise: "I don't know how to vote and I don't know enough about it to know who to vote for."

Sheila: "Part of what we do at Bridge is to build up young women's confidence so they can find out how to do things and understand how to take part in the political process."

Mandy: "If you look at things like the equal pay and sex discrimination acts, you see how important it is for women to vote and women are still fighting for equality in some areas."

Is crime an important election issue for you?

Pat Short: "Absolutely, I think it is getting worse and it is something which affects everyone directly or indirectly."

Sheila: "I think the Conservative party is taking a harder line on crime. But I think people see that as punishment which is something which can be very detrimental, especially to women with young children, in the long run.

"More work should be done on the prevention of crime."

Pat Partington: "Crime is one of the most important issues and something which is definitely one of my top issues. I have been a victim of violent crime and it is terrifying."

Ingrid: "There is not enough being done to make the link between drugs and crime. Drug crime is a huge problem in this society and steps need to be taken to deal with it adequately."

What do you think of children's Trust Funds?

Tanya: "I've started saving for my son already so I've just added my savings to it. I do think it is a good idea."

Mandy: "My two-year-old missed it by two weeks which was a shame."

Pat Partington: "It would be better if you just knew their education would be paid for - instead of having top-up fees."

Which education issues concern you?

Pat Partington: "I think it is disgraceful tuition fees have been introduced. Education should be free for everyone. Getting into debt is an appalling option for many people, but it is not a choice often these days."

Sheila: "I am worried about how Labour see adult education. A lot of our courses, like the crafts ones, are being stopped and more emphasis is being placed on work-based education.

"Yet it is through these courses we get women to build up their confidence and I feel that's been taken away from us by this government."

Sarah: "Education just seems to cost so much now. I have got to think about how I can support my son if he wants to go to university."

Mandy: "My 18-year-old son is at university at the moment in St Andrews and he has to work as well as doing his course. We can't pay everything for him, but we do help out.

"But if my other son wants to go as well we will be very hard-up. That's a situation which wouldn't have happened without the tuition fees."

Ingrid: "I've promised my kids my house if they need to pay for university fees! But that shouldn't have to be the case."

What the parties promise

* Refurbish every secondary school in the country by 2020.

* Provide more teachers and enforce zero tolerance of all bad behaviour.

* Prioritise access to higher education with a target of 50pc of all 18-year-olds going to university.

* Give heads more powers to expel disruptive pupils.

* Stop the closure of special schools.

* Abolish university tuition fees and set up a new loan system, independently administered. Graduates would start to repay their loans when they are earning £15,000 or more and outstanding debts would be written off after 25 years.

Liberal Democrats

* Split schooling into three main stages: formative in which children learn through play and experimentation; development in which youngsters learn `core skills' and there is focus on each child's interests and abilities; and specialist during which children have a say in what and how they learn.

* Scrap national SATs at seven, 11 and 14, along with national targets, and reduce class sizes.

* Abolish university top-up and tuition fees.

* Give surgical patients the choice of five or six hospitals for treatment by the end of the year.

* Provide more local care through 21 new NHS walk-in centres and 18 NHS treatment centres.

* Ban smoking in all enclosed places by 2008.

* Offer virtually unlimited choice of hospital.

* Cut bureaucracy, scrapping central targets for hospitals and the hospital `star' system.

* Clean up dirty hospitals, pledging £52m to combat the crisis.

Liberal Democrats

* Abolish targets along with Strategic Health Authorities and most other bodies that spy on the NHS.

* Spend `savings' on such things as free personal care for the elderly, free eye and dental checks for all and `targeted MOTs' to catch potential health problems early.

* Tackle `hidden waits', promising quicker diagnosis.

* Provide 20,000 more Community Support Officers to free up regular police.

* Invest more heavily in supervising young offenders and double funds for drug rehabilitation.

* Target the nation's 5,000 worst offenders and have more bobbies on the beat.

* Get tough, promising an extra 5,000 police recruits each year.

* Build extra prisons to house 20,000 more convicts and scrap early release schemes for prisoners.

* Introduce measures whereby all local police authorities will be elected by the public to give them more say over policing matters.

Liberal Democrats

* Make prisons more about rehabilitation than punishment and link training and qualifications for inmates to early release schemes.

* Work with social/youth/drug workers to tackle the causes of crime. Community Justice Panels made up of victims and volunteers would deal with minor offenders.

* Provide 10,000 more police.

* Give mothers nine months' maternity leave by April 2007 to be extended to 12 months by the end of the next Parliament.

* Ensure that by 2010 every child aged three to 14 should have a childcare place between 8am and 6pm every workday and by 2008, 2,500 Children's Centres will offer comprehensive services to families.

* Introduce proposals under which families on incomes of up to £59,000 will be eligible for Working Tax Credit support for childcare in their own homes.

* Give grandparents the chance to qualify as childminders.

* Pay the childcare element of the Working Tax Credit in cash to parents who then decide how it is spent.

* Consider childcare being off-set against tax, increasing maternity pay in the first six months and allowing schools to be more flexible with their hours.

Liberal Democrats

* Plan a professional childcare workforce, with training and national qualifications for all.

* Back proposals for a national internet database of approved childminders.

* Provide `wraparound' childcare in schools, more early years support and nursery school places.

* Limit greenhouse gases (under the Kyoto agreement) and by 2010 aims to have moved towards a 20pc reduction in CO2 emissions below the 1990 level.

* Have the capacity to recycle 25pc of all household waste by 2006.

* Eliminate fuel poverty in vulnerable households in England by 2010.

* Slash car tax on low carbon-emitting vehicles.

* Ban commercial planting of GM crops and ensure that all food served in public institutions meets proper quality standards.

* Take action against illegal traveller camps.

Liberal Democrats

* Cut VAT on energy-saving materials in building projects.

* Create local trusts to co-ordinate recycling, renewable energy sources and protect green spaces.

* Encourage schools to become involved in environmental projects.

Women in parliament

The North-East has three women seeking re-election to their seats.

They are Hilary Armstrong, Durham North-West; Vera Baird, Redcar and Dari Taylor, Stockton South.

Joyce Quin in Gateshead East and Washington West has retired, but there is a woman Labour candidate contesting her seat. And in Durham City, where Gerry Steinberg has retired, Labour and the Liberal Democrats have selected a women to fight the seat.

The highest number of women in parliament was reached in 1997 with the introduction of the so-called `Blair Babes,' and the all-women shortlist when females topped 120 out of 659 MPs.