House of Lords, 20th June 2016
I knew Jo because we both worked for the Kinnocks, we both worked for the Browns, we both worked for Labour Women's Network - which Jo Chaired - and we both had a habit of ending up in refugee camps.
In the run-up to Jo's election as an MP, she told me my diaries of Westminster nearly put her off. "Thing is", she said, "I know my constituency would never cause me as much grief as yours." This is the only thing Jo was wrong about.
THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES: WHY OUR FUTURE DEPENDS ON THEM
Written by Oona KingSpeech to Parliament as Shadow Broadcast Minister:
A generation ago, in 1998, the Labour Government defined the creative industries as comprising any business with the potential to generate,
“wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property”.
Empowering women means giving them the practical tools to escape poverty and prejudice. Around the world, including here in Britain, a baby girl’s life chances are disadvantaged in comparison to her brother’s at almost every turn, and once she becomes a woman the disadvantage becomes entrenched.
The online world is the real world for digital natives
Written by Oona KingSpeech to the House of Lords 20 Nov 2014 :
Baroness King of Bow (Lab): My Lords, the online world is the real world for digital natives. That is exactly what worries so many of us. However, we would be doing our children a huge disservice if we viewed their online interactions in only a negative light. In fact, for many young people, the internet is far more likely to be a place of opportunity. The internet will bring them opportunities that generations before them could only dream of.
UK: shameful decline in gender equality hurts us all
Written by Oona KingEconomists at the respected World Economic Forum (WEF) have kicked the UK out of the world's top 20 countries for gender equality. Their report in November 2014, The Global Gender Gap, measures something more intriguing than wealth: the gap between men and women's life chances. In other words, how much opportunity in a given country is governed by gender. You won't be surprised Saudi Arabia didn't make the top 20 either.
A Coach & Horses comes to Parliament... Mind the gender pay gap!
Written by Oona KingToday we will see a coach and horses arrive at Parliament. Not so unusual, but on this occasion it will ride through the spirit of change left by the last Labour government. The Equality Act 2010 was a landmark piece of legislation which simplified, strengthened and extended protection from discrimination. One of the most persistent areas of inequality – first addressed by Labour over 40 years ago – is the gender pay gap.
The Equal Pay Act of 1970 sought to remedy the fact that women were systematically paid less than men. Yet last year, instead of narrowing, the gap actually widened slightly by 0.1%. This figure might seem small but not only are we riding in entirely the wrong direction, we are also witnessing significant hidden regional and sectoral variations. In London for example, women are now paid 13% less than men. And across the UK, women in full-time employment in the private sector are paid a staggering 20% less than their male counterparts.
I was delighted to speak on behalf of the Labour front bench in the Lords covering an Education debate on “British Values”. Here’s my take on it:
Who forced Michael Gove into a massive u-turn? In 2007 he said “‘There is something rather unBritish about seeking to define Britishness’. Now he has decided not only to define Britishness, but to legally require every British school to define Britishness and “promote British values”.
Everyone agrees that British values around the rule of law, individual liberty, and tolerance, helped create of one of the world's oldest and most successful democracies. We're less agreed on the recent implication that a better understanding of, say, the Magna Carta, might sort out poor school governance in Birmingham. That's obviously a bit of a caricature, but the point is that shared British values should be instilled by example, not diktat. Moreover it feels like an Orwellian and distinctly un-British approach to do what the Government has done in the wake of the Trojan Horse affair, which is to tar an entire community with language taken from counter-terrorism strategies.
Speeches