"The Human Rights Act needs to go, to restore sanity to the immigration system"

Posted 5 Oct 2011 by Walaa Idris

Those were Theresa May’s words that electrified the Conference and Conservatives across the land – until Maya the cat became the story and took centre stage and changed the tone and mood of the conference from a mellow, eventless gathering to excitement!

What transpired after that was shocking to some but not to me. The whole catgate business was neither here nor there as far as I was concerned!

Especially as we, now, know there was a Bolivian student, his girlfriend, their cat ‘Maya’, his immigration status and a court case. And although, the court, did not technically cite Maya the cat as a reason for the student to be granted stay in the UK, it was used as prove of his long residency and settlement in the country – the cat was mentioned solely to prove the ‘family’ the couple had together existed!

For those who think that’s absurd. I argue; why mention the cat in the first place if it had no relevance to the court case? That’s why lawyers love reasonable doubt.

As I mentioned before, catgate with all its excitement, the possibility that the Home Secretary (who by the way recently also misplaced her personal appointments book) needs to maybe pay more attention – after all it is the Home Office, a very serious department, but also the Black hole of many great careers….., all of that did not shock me one bit but what Ken Clarke said did!

For the Justice Secretary to publicly question the Home Secretary’s claims and to go as far as daring her…., that was a surprise!

On the up side it gave the media and many others something to get excited about!

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How can women voters leave a man like Dave?

Posted 2 Oct 2011 by Walaa Idris

David Cameron Conservative Party Conference 2011

Putting to one side my personal feelings and political biases. I am puzzled at the news that fewer women are supporting David Cameron. Especially since he is the Tory leader who put women, their equality and welfare in the forefront of every decision he made since he became the Conservative Party Leader in 2005. He appointed more female party leaders than any leader before him, now has a female Home Secretary and is surrounded by a powerful female inner circle and Cabinet.

I always say, you can tell how a man really feels about women, by what he says about his mother and the type of woman that he choices to stand by his side, by the two main women in his life! Our Dave is married to a dynamic, single minded and formidable woman – and admires and looks up to his mother!

Let’s also not forget that Cameron is the man who introduced the Priority List of Preferred Candidates – we know it as the A ‘list – which had at least 50% women and saw the most number of women selected and elected to parliament in the history of our party. The A ‘list – loath it or love it – is the reason the Conservatives last year had the largest number of female MPs elected. Clearly the man fully supports and believes in women.

Then what is it? Surely, it’s not his two remarks on the floor of the House. He can’t possibly be vilified for his boisterous remarks – both women, Labour’s Angela Eagle and Conservative Nadine Dorries are no lightweight and I’m positive they took the comments on the chin. Besides, we all know it’s the House of Commons’ culture!

Compare that with the leader of the opposition, Ed Miliband, who fathered two children with a woman he never intended to marry and only reluctantly did under pressure after he became the leader of his party. The man who never even bothered to put his name on his child’s birth certificate!

As a woman and a mother I find Miliband’s behavior towards the mother of his children and therefore his regard to women not to mention his own child, liberal or not, appallingly shocking and disrespectful to women and family values.

However, more women run households, work in public sector jobs and do part time work than men – more women are single parents and have to cope alone. With the cuts and rising costs of living biting more women are under immense financial pressure and that stress will undoubtedly reflect on the popularity of the Coalition Government and its leader.

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