State Pension: Women born in the 1950s

Joan Ryan Excerpts

Thursday 22nd November 2018 Westminster Hall

[Joan Ryan (in the Chair)]

Can I give the hon. Member some advice?

[Mhairi Black]

Yes.

[Joan Ryan (in the Chair)]

You could say that an hon. Member or a Minister is incorrect but you cannot say that it is an untruth. I hope that is helpful.

[Mhairi Black]

Even if it is untrue?

[Joan Ryan (in the Chair)]

I have given you my advice.

[Mhairi Black]

Okay. Of course, out of respect for this place that is absolutely fine.

[Joan Ryan (in the Chair)]

I think you know the rules about implying that an hon. Member has told a lie.

[Mhairi Black]

Forgive me. I am just explaining things as they are in front of me. Of course, I will take that back now.

[Joan Ryan (in the Chair)]

Thank you.

[Mhairi Black]

I will happily accept that the Ministers and several Conservatives might just be very confused and they may have got their facts wrong, which in itself is quite worrying. I would suggest that they do not make statements making demands of other Governments until they have read the Act themselves.

My last point is that this is all about equality—that is the one thing that pretty much everyone in the Chamber can agree on, and we will no doubt hear the Minister say that this is all about equality. Yesterday I took part in a panel at the Fawcett Society. As hon. Members will be aware, we have had 100 years of women in Parliament—we have had many events. Last night, we had a big photograph on the Terrace with all the male and female MPs and it was all great, with everyone celebrating how far we have come, but these things mean something only if the Government’s actions back them up.

Equality is defined as

“the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities.”

We have to accept that this generation of women have not had equality throughout their lives. They have suffered so much. To be honest, we are still only at the tip of the iceberg in understanding just the effect on them. I am not talking just about the money in their purses; I am talking about anxiety, depression and other different things, the repercussions of which we are still trying to work out fully. Yet here we are battling the Government again at the last hurdle. It cannot be justified in any sense.

The events in Parliament should be solidifying and celebrating how far women have come, to prove how much we have learned from feminism, to show a true understanding of the double burden that has been placed on women for generation after generation, and to show a true understanding of why the female experience of life has been so different. But here we are. These women are still being patronised, misled and ignored. They are constantly treated as less and by repeating something for long enough the Minister is hoping it will just become true. That is not the case.

Let me be clear: equality is not about treating everyone exactly the same. It is about treating everyone fairly. It is acknowledging who they are, what they have been through, what their experience of life has been, what their experience of Government and policy structures have been and what it has done to affect them. The job of Government now is to make sure that our policies help to mould a society that satisfies and respects all its citizens and their needs—

“the state of being equal especially in status, rights and opportunities.”

If the Minister truly believes that the Government has delivered on that then I am afraid he has not listened. If he, like me, cannot argue that the Government is furthering these women’s rights or opportunities, that should be his starting point. I can only hope that his conscience takes him there.