Would Jeremy Clarkson take ending violence against women seriously?

How is it that the petition with the third most signatures on the Downing Street e-petitions site is to Make Jeremy Clarkson Prime Minister? And with over 45,000 signatures, no less! By comparison a petition aimed at ending violence against women has just over 1,000.

Now I’m not a huge fan of Jeremy Clarkson’s carbon emissions policies and he’s not exactly known as a campaigner for gender equality, but if he ever announced his intention to put forward a strategy to give women their basic human rights by ending violence against women then I may just vote for him in the next elections.

The Government’s aim to end child poverty by 2020 may go some way to help prevent some instances of violence against women, after all child poverty is linked to women’s poverty, but it will take a fully fledged strategy with targets and allocated funding for prevention and survivors services to see the eradication of violence against women. And why shouldn’t we strive for that ultimate goal?

I ask all readers to please sign the End Violence Against Women coalition’s e-petition calling on the Government to take a more strategic approach to ending all forms of violence against women, including a commitment to long-term funding of specialised violence against women services thus ending the postcode lottery for such support services.

Sorry Jeremy but I think this issue deserves more attention than the bid to make you Prime Minister.

Noelle Virtue