Full marks to Kevin Rudd, who’s brought the Australian Labour government out of the dark ages (and the shadow of George Bush), by removing the ban on foreign aid for abortions. “the historic shift was lauded by a wide array of aid agencies, women’s groups, family planning experts and many cross-party federal politicians, who said it would save the lives of thousands of women who would otherwise die in botched backyard operations.”
Indeed!
But British female politicians aren’t doing well in getting young women engaged, a study has found. (Or indeed nor are the men!)
“More than a quarter of girls are put off by a lack of information about how they should take part, while 17 per cent believe it cannot make a difference.”
(And of course, sadly, given the electoral system, for most of them, unless they live in a marginal Westminster seat, that’s broadly true.)
There’s an interesting idea in there: every party’s every shortlist should contain one person under 25. Not at all a bad idea…
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