“It’s time to put Pickles back in his jar”, was the message from the women’s conference in Brighton today, as delegates spoke out against secretary for communities and local government Eric Pickles’s call for councils to tear up equality questionnaires.
“Eric Pickles is the epitome of what this government represents”, said Natasha Nicholson of the Northern region, “in the first session of this government there were 27 different policy changes which affected women more harshly” and she noted that yet again the government was “trying to put us in our place where they believe we belong, at the bottom rung of the ladder, relying on support of men, well, as you and I know, we will not allow this to happen.”
At Newcastle city council she explained, they had an agreement that they would not move forward on consultation over services until a full equality impact assessment had been carried out.
This had helped to minimise job cuts, and minimise the impact on residents in the city, “residents who are us, our mothers, our grandmothers and our children.”
Delegates agreed to campaign for continued equality monitoring, and as Bev Miller from the national Black members’ committee said “now is the time to integrate race and gender equality in the fight to defend our public services.”
Conference also heard from Holly Dustin of the End Violence Against Women coalition. “The consequences of public sector cuts for women’s safety and domestic violence really are bleak”, she said.
“Abuse is all too common in many women’s lives”, she continued, and public service cuts risked making these issues much worse.