It's a bus! It's pink! That's not the issue!

It's not often I bring politics to the blog, but frankly what's the point of having an online voice if you can't share your thoughts on things that affect you, and politics affects us all.

Unless you live under a rock (or outside of the UK) you can't have failed to notice that we are in the midst of that period of heated debate, media mania and political campaigning known as pre-general election. That's right, this May we will be going to the polls to decide who's in charge of this green and pleasant land.

This week the media has been apoplectic at the Labour campaign that's aimed specifically at women, and most notably the pink bus that the female MPs are using to travel up and down the country in. The coverage has made me so angry? Why? Maybe I think the pink bus is patronising? Well no, not nearly as patronising as that time our right honourable Prime Minister told one of his right honourable female colleagues to "calm down dear". 

I am a feminist (there I said the f-word), And guess what, I quite like pink, I love shoes and if I want to make cupcakes with pretty glittery icing then, who's going to stop me? As a feminist, and an independently minded woman, I also want to be assured that the politicians representing me are going to pursue policies that make my life better. That they are going to ensure that I'm paid the same as my male counterparts, and that other women are supported as carers and mothers. You see, I understand the importance of the female MPs trying to engage with women, especially given 9.1 million of them didn't vote in the last general election. That's 9.1 million women without a voice. I appreciate the fact that Labour are bothered to get out there and find out what issues really affect us ladies, frankly they could do it in Del Boy's yellow Robin reliant for all I care, it's the message and the effort that matters, not the vehicle of its delivery.

The big issue for me, the one that's made me angry is the media coverage of it. They've done it in such a way as to make the colour of the bus a bigger issue than Labour trying to engage with female constituents, and frankly, I'm a little bit fed up with male broadcasters telling me that I should feel patronised by it! I don't! 

I'm not going to dare to tell you what to think, but I do ask one thing of you, monitor the campaign efforts closely, take an interest in politics because it does effect you every single day, and whatever you do, don't forget or neglect to vote, it's a benefit that so many women (and men) across the globe are not afforded.