by Emma Louise Harris. Last week was vile for women. Bookended by what should be two celebratory days; International Women’s day on Monday and Mother’s Day on Sunday, yet filled with horror. On Monday, Labour MP Jess Phillips read out a list of the 118 names of women who...
Features
Experience: life as a single parent during covid
by Sarah Groszewski I became a single mother in August 2019, when I moved nearly 100 miles away from the life I’d built in London over the past 12 years, to start again in Southampton, when my marriage ended. The main thing that struck me was how much easier...
Campaign launched for single parent equality after research shows lockdown discriminatory
As children return to school this week, Ministers are facing calls to make being a single parent a protected characteristic under the Equality Act after a survey shows the pandemic restrictions heightened single parents’ experience of discrimination. In the UK today, a quarter of families are headed by a...
On being a mother to my trans daughter – how poems helped say what needed to be said
by Claire Dyer. There’s a poem in Yield called ‘Trans’. It imagines travellers from another planet who, on reaching Earth, see for themselves some of our ideas around gender stereotypes. There are two types of mother in this poem: and there are those they call mother who sometimes...
Celebrating 40 years of music in Southampton with Stick it Where?
by Geoff Wall. January 2021 sees Southampton’s very own STICK IT IN YOUR EAR! musical enterprise celebrate its 40th anniversary with the publication of STICK IT WHERE? – the illustrated history of Stick It In Your Ear! ….and other true stories – a 500+ page CD-rom e-book that’s directly...
New Forest children’s Christmas trail
by Sally Churchward. This self guided Christmas trail was written for use in the New Forest, but should be suitable for most woodland areas. Cut and paste it onto your own document, making sure that the answers are on a separate sheet! It indicates that a prize is on...
The sometimes surprisingly radical history of the humble tea towel
by Martin Brisland. In life you often start in one direction and end up going in another. I was researching the history of radicalism in our region (Southampton) with a view to writing an article for In Common. I started off looking into the Independent Labour Party and ended...
Southampton Top 10 The songs that come from the SO
by Howard Bowden. When The Beatles released their 1969 single The Ballad of John and Yoko – opening line: ‘Standing in the dock at Southampton’ – it would become the first of THREE number ones in just 32 months to reference events in the SO postcode area. Two years...
First union for disabled people launches, renewing fight for equality
The Disability Union has launched, in order to build power and a national voice for disabled people powerful enough to influence policy; whilst also helping people with their day-to-day disability struggles. The date of this launch is significant as last month marked the 25th anniversary the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995. The...
Southampton – City of Culture?
by Charlie Hislop. City of Culture? Southampton? Really? Too right! The announcement that we are competing to be UK City of Culture 2025 is the best news for the city in a long time. Strange right now with COVID lockdowns, theatres closed, and empty streets – but what an...