Violence against women shouldn’t be ‘rare’... it should be ‘never’

AUTUMN is well and truly upon us and the nights are drawing in, but that hasn’t stopped panic buying. This time it’s petrol, I wonder what the next run on a particular item might be?

Shortages were a fact of life during and following the world wars, which leads me on to just how fantastic the new Spitfire Gallery at the Potteries Museum is. If you have not seen it, please take a look.

We should remember just what an important role this plane and it’s designer played in keeping us and future generations free.

Many of you will have seen Kier Starmer talking to people in Stoke-on-trent recently, and some expressing safety concerns regarding when walking through the streets.

I am sure Stoke-on-trent is similar to many parts of England, but the fact that £550,000 is being used to install extra CCTV and lighting in public areas should help make it feel safer for females.

Education is also required along with campaigns to address other issues like male violence.

Feeling safe in our city is what we should reasonably expect, but in reality it is not the case, and recent dreadful events have meant that violence, intimidation and abuse need to be tackled.

Women go missing in the UK at an alarming rate, but the recent case of the tragic death of Sarah Everard was different.

She left whilst it was still light, she had on what would be deemed as practical clothes. She took a well lit route. Everything that is suggested.

No matter how hard you try, those with evil intentions will try to harm others. It is okay to say that it is rare for a woman to be abducted from our streets, but if you dig deeper, once every three days a woman is killed in a domestic incident. It is hard to believe when you look at those statistics that much, if any progress has been made.

Football is powerful and its influence goes beyond the pitch. It is still a majority male sport in participation and in spectators. So it was pleasing to see Lewis FC taking action against the male on female violence and sexism. They point out that it is time that men take responsibility and resolve the problem.

It will be interesting to see how much gets called out and just what is seen as an ill-judged comment.

More importantly, it can make a difference to women’s everyday lives. Hopefully, others will follow this example.

The reassurances that these cases are rare do not stop people, especially women in this city, feeling vulnerable. In 2021, rare should be replaced by never.

Perhaps education starting in schools, and even self-defence classes, may stop the increases in gender based violence. We need to transform the gender norms and employ common sense solutions, then the use of code words in pubs and pharmacies may become a thing of the past.

On to happier matters. The city council are to be applauded for the attempts to get the buzz back into towns and the centres.

I was in Hanley’s Cultural Quarter a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday night and the atmosphere was great – people out eating and drinking in the open air – though I doubt that we’ll be doing that much longer as the dark nights, cold and rain sets in.

The improvements and changes are making a difference and should help to persuade people to return to our town centres and to support our local stores.

However, we live in one of the most disadvantaged regions of the country and the talk of ‘levelling up’ that we hear will only bear fruit in this city if we improve school attendance and tackle the barrier to learning that exists beyond the school gates.

We are still a low aspiration area in terms of higher education. Local people are attempting to deliver solutions to tackle the problems that seem to be entrenched in our society.

We can all look back on family members who worked in the pottery industry, the steel industry or in the local mines, but those days are long gone.

There are thousands of young people in this city failing to reach their potential, through no fault of their own.

Changes which are sustainable need to be put in place so that we have more people from this city earning good salaries and being at the forefront of projects in the future.

This work does not just happen in schools. Our local football clubs are working with disadvantaged and vulnerable children who are at risk of falling out of education.

Thousands of meals have been delivered to those at school and community centres attending lessons and projects in sport, music and art.

Initiatives such as these must help in rebuilding our communities.

The Individual Opportunity Area Funding allocations for 21/22 has seen Stoke-on-trent awarded £1,390,300.

This should go a long way to making a difference to the lives of our city’s future by helping to drive improvement in schools and removing those barriers to success.

That is the type of levelling up this city and its inhabitants deserve.

Hopefully, not only will we ‘make a difference’ in the use of local shops and businesses, but we’ll see a real difference in the standards of pay and employment for the people of Stoke-on-trent and smash this stereotype of hard working, low paid, with low aspirations.

We are better than that, we just need to show the rest of the country.