Having commemorated the first day of the Battle of the Somme (1 July 1916), when 19,240 British soldiers died, soon there will be a celebration. This will be of women getting the parliamentary vote.
As a teenager I was troubled by this.
I didn't know that some women opposed the conflict.
For example, the novelist Mary Ward wrote in a Letter to "The Times" (23 May 1917) that Frenchwomen were suffering and contributing to the war effort but they were not agitating for a great constitutional change.
The Conservatives' 1979 election promise to end the concession whereby foreign men can live in the UK through marriage was vigorously opposed by, among others, Patricia Hewitt (Australian-born, like Mrs Ward, and Equality Minister in the Blair Government) who argued that just as the women's campaign to get the vote was successful so would their campaign succeed.
Unfortunately it is men who mainly fight wars. British soldiers who are killed are mainly men. Foreign husbands are men.
I am grateful to the women who have signed https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/129594
Monday, 4 July 2016
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