One of Labour's big guns has again condemned Prime Minister David Cameron over his notorious "Calm own dear" comments to a woman MP.
Yvette Cooper MP, Shadow Home Secretary made her attack in a speech to Labour's Women's Conference alongside the party's annual conference in Liverpol.
Ms Coooper, who is also shaddow minister for Women and Equalities referrd to a "not-so-secret Number 10 memo" that said 'There are a range of policies we have pursued as a Government which are seen as having hit women, or their interests disproportionately.'
Ms Cooper told delegates "Too right! They are SEEN as hitting women disproportionately because they DO hit women disproportionately."
She listed the headline issues as:
• Women paying twice as much as men in tax and benefit changes
• Women’s jobs cut and unemployment rising to over 1 million
• Over half a million women in their fifties losing on average over £5,000 from their pensions
• 32,000 women stopping work because they can’t afford childcare as costs go up and support is cut.
• Cuts to refuges
• Blocking action on equal pay
Sd Ms Cooper "Little wonder that women are so concerned.
"Indeed the only thing surprising in the Downing Street memo is that Downing Street are so surprised about it.
"Listen to what they say:
“Women are significantly more negative about the Government than men. We don't at present have a finer grained analysis than this - the group of Cabinet office and number 10 women we assembled felt strongly that the general tone and messages of the governments communications were an issue, clearly all this needs a heavy caveat that it is annecdotal - but nevertheless we found the insights useful.”
"You just have a vision of Tory special advisors, scurrying along the corridors of the cabinet office and number ten trying to find some women to explain it to them.
"It’s like men are from Mars and women are from Venus, and the Tories are stuck on Planet Cameron, light years away from what’s really going on.
"They clearly don't have enough women in the cabinet, the government or the party, spelling it out.
"And what is David Cameron's only response to the women who do warn him about the damage he is doing? To Harriet Harman, Angela Eagle, Caroline Flint and women across the country?
"Not 'Sorry', but 'Calm down dear!'
"I'm afraid David Cameron needs to understand.
"Women across Britain aren't going to calm down, they're going to get more and more angry about the damage this government is doing to their lives.
"Ed Miliband has talked about the quiet crisis happening behind front doors across Britain. Hard working families that face rising costs while their wages and salaries are being squeezed.
"More than anyone that quiet crisis is hitting women.
"But it isn't staying quiet, it is getting louder and louder as more and more women speak out.
"Because what women know is that this is not just about a few pounds in your pocket at the end of the month. The decisions Tory Ministers have made - to cut so far and so fast, to hit jobs, to roll back services and to leave it to the Big Society - smash straight into the deeply personal, complex and often precarious frameworks they have built to juggle the different pressures on their lives.
"Women in their fifties who've made retirement plans so they can move nearer their grandchildren, and now find they have to work longer because they are losing £10,000. That's not just about cash its about precious family relationships.
"Mums forced to give up jobs they enjoyed because they can’t afford child care. For them this is not just about cash it is about their financial independence, their control over their lives.
"Mums forced to go back to work long before they want to because the baby tax credit has been abolished. For them this isn’t just about cash, it is about their relationship with their new baby, their family, their sense of identity.
2David Cameron and Nick Clegg have a blind spot on women’s lives.
"But it’s worse than that. It is ideological.
"Small state Tories and libertarian Liberals believe the public sector shouldn’t support the family because it makes people dependent. So they are cutting tax credit and child benefit.
"Yet the truth is that for women, things like tax credits or effective public sector support is what creates independence, freedom, opportunities and choice.
"At the same time traditional Tories believe only traditional families should get support.
"Their manifesto commitment to increase help only for married couples where the mother stays at home. Or the universal credit which would penalise women who work more than a small number of hours and lock families into poverty.
"Liberal Tories think the state shouldn’t support families. Traditional Tories think it should only support traditional families. Either way women lose out.
"So Labour needs to stand up for women across the country, stand up against these devastating changes to women’s lives.
"We don’t want the clock turned back. We want to go further.
"From generation to generation we want to see greater opportunities, greater chances in life, glass ceilings smashing, prejudices crashing.
"On equal pay, on flexible work, on social care, on child care. We know there is more to do..
"And more to do to support women’s safety and security too.
"I think we should be campaigning straight away for more action on violence against women.
"Almost one in five women in their lifetime experiences persistent harassment and threats. Intimidating, threatening, persecuting. Stalking.
"Yet stalking itself is not defined as a criminal offence.
"Women like Sam Taylor, stalked and tormented by an ex-partner who attacked her with a knife, are clear the law just isn’t strong enough or clear enough, and that’s made it much harder for her to get the criminal justice system to take seriously the threat she faces.
"She told me how he haunted her days and nights, waiting in the allotment at the end of the garden when she got home, following her to a children’s party when she took the children out.
"We strengthened the law. But it doesn’t go far enough and it still isn’t strong enough. So we should campaign to change it now to make stalking a criminal offence and help protect women’s lives.
"Because for Labour we believe we can never rest in the campaign to help women and families across the country.
"Whether we are campaigning to go further, or to stop the clock being turned back, we know it can be done.
"We’ve done it before and we will do it again. Campaigning by Caroline Flint and others has forced the government to do a u-turn on plans to make rape defendants anonymous.
"Campaigning by Rachel Reeves, the trade unions and others has left the government hinting heavily it will u-turn on women’s pension age.
"Campaigning by Diane Abbott and others has forced Health Ministers to back down on plans to support Nadine Dorries amendment on abortion.
"And campaigning now to get a Labour government re-elected.
"Because in the end only a progressive majority in Parliament can stop the clock being turned back and deliver greater progress on women’s equality.
"Campaigning against the damage they are doing to women’s pensions, to child care, to women’s jobs, and women’s safety.
"Standing side by side with hardworking women across the country who will not lie down and be walked all over by a Tory and Liberal Democrat government.
"Standing together because we know that is good not just for women, but for men and for families, for our communities and for the economy. That is 21st century feminism.
"That is the commitment of the Labour party. We will make women’s voices heard.
"We’ve done it before. We will do it again now."
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